122 THE IRRIGA TION A GE. 



gration of irrigation problems by the United States Department of 

 Agriculture is being largely expended along two lines: 



First. Investigations of the duty of water in irrigation, includ- 

 ing in such studies methods of distribution, conservation and use. 



Second. Collection of facts showing character and efficiency 

 of the different state irrigation laws, and of the legal and financial 

 questions growing out of the distribution and use of streams. 



Two bulletins dealing with the second class of problems have 

 been published, and in co-operation with the State Engineer and 

 State Agricultural College of Utah, the work of preparing a third, 

 which will deal with the irrigation system of Utah is well advanced. 



In July last a petition was presented to Dr. A. C. True, Director 

 of the Office of Experiment Stations, of which office the irrigation 

 investigations form a part, signed by many representative citizens of 

 California, asking that their state be made, for the present, the 

 leading field for the second branch of this investigation, urging as a 

 reason therefor the importance of the interests involved and the 

 nature of the problems to be dealt with. The following abstract from 

 this petition states what these problems are believed to be. 



"We respectfully submit that nowhere in America are there 

 irrigation problems more important, more intricate or more pressing 

 than California. Neither are there any whose study would be more 

 greatly instructive. We can offer, we presume, examples of every 

 form of evil which can be found in Anglo Saxon dealings with water 

 in arid and semi-arid districts. Great sums have been lost in irri- 

 gation enterprises. Still greater sums are endangered. Water titles 

 are uncertain. The litigation is appalling. 



Among the things necessary to be known before we can hope for 

 well considered legislation upon the conservation and distribution of 

 our waters are the following: 



First. The amount of water in the stream. 



Second. The duty of water in the different irrigation basins. 



Third. The claims upon the water, collected by streams and not 

 by counties as now. 



Fourth. The nature of water- right titles. 



Fifth. The adjudicated claims upon the waters. 



Sixth. The lands now irrigated and susceptible of irrigation. 



Seventh. The possible increase of water for beneficial use by 

 storage in each system. 



Eighth. The extent to which the irrigable area can be increased 

 by better methods of distribution and use." 



The work you are undertaking complies substantially with that 

 request, but we have been enabled, through the aid and co-operation 

 of the State Forest & Water Association, to broaden its scope beyond 

 what the funds of the Department alone would have permitted. The 

 work you are to do has, therefore, both a National and State sanction. 



