IRRIGATION IN CALIFORNIA. 



INSTRUCTIONS TO SPECIAL AGENTS AND 



EXPERTS OF THE UNITED STATES 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



IN THE INVESTIGATIONS 



RELATING THERETO. 



; (An Address Delivered by PROF. EL WOOD MEAD,- Expert in Charge.) '- - 



GENTLEMEN : 



The study of the irrigation laws, customs and conditions of 

 California, in which your services have been secured, is the most 

 comprehensive inquiry into these questions yet undertaken in this 

 <x>untry. This and the importance of the interest with which your 

 inquiry will deal, gives to the facts you are to gather and the reports 

 and conclusions based thereon an exceptional interest. 



The experience of your members, the wide range of conditions to 

 be dealt with, and the fact that the sole^purpose of this investigation 

 is to promote the conservation and use^ of. .wasted waters, and the 

 more profitable reclamation of lands now arid, by lessening contro- 

 versy and litigation over water [rights, protecting investment in 

 canals and reservoirs, and giving added security and value to 

 irrigated farms, will cause the results^of your labors to be studied 

 with as much interest and advantage in other arid states as in 

 California. 



What you will do in California, is however, being also done in 

 other states, and for the purpose of comparing results it is desirable 

 that, so far as may be, all these investigations shall pursue the same 

 general plan, discuss the same general problems and follow the same 

 order in their treatment. Because of this and because each of you in 

 this state will act indepently in the collection of data and formulating 

 jrour conclusions, it is important that there be a preliminary under- 

 standing regarding both the nature of the subjects to be dealt with, 

 and the general form of your reports thereon. As an aid to such 

 understanding and concert of action, thejfollowing suggestions are 

 submitted. 



Preliminary thereto, a brief statement of the steps already taken, 

 and the relation the the work you are to do bears to the work being 

 done elsewhere, seems proper. 



The appropriation made by the last Congress for the investi- 



