160 THE IRRIGA Tl ON A GE. 



right quantities; (3) the power to give some one crop water and to 

 withhold it from another; (4) the power to obtain in any year diversified 

 crops in one locality. These requirements are evidences that if the 

 water is to be utilized so as to satisfy the demand of irrigators, scien- 

 tific methods must be pursued. In short, agriculture and horticulture 

 by irrigation exhibit the same tendency to specialization characteristic 

 of the recent development of all trades and industries. This special- 

 ization puts a premium on brains. 



c. By encouraging the production of special crops. This follows 

 as a natural corollary from the introduction of the small farm unit. 

 Reclamation of arid lands means not so much a competition with the 

 farmers of other sections as it does the creation of special crops of an 

 important commercial character; accompanied by the formation of 

 home markets, by the necessary development of mines, by the ex- 

 ploitation of salt, onyx and other deposits, by the building of towns 

 and factories, by the construction of railroads, and by the increased 

 importance of the West pastoral and timber industries. 



d. By abolishing the autocratic control of water. An important 

 result of irrigation, as practiced in the United States, has been a re- 

 adjustment of opinions as to the limit of ownership in what may be 

 termed "natural" wealth. The historical law of aridity is beyond 

 question. It is that in every country subject thereto in such a degree 

 as to require the construction of works, the storage of water therein, 

 and the artificial distribution and application of the same to the soil 

 before cultivation can be made a success, the natural wealth thus 

 created in water must remain public in character, subject to the con- 

 trol of the users and beneficiaries thereof, and be at all times under 

 the administration of law and local authorities. 



A denial of the quality of personal property in water is a more or 

 less distinctive feature of the jurisprudence of the arid regions. 

 Water not being capable of identification, nor found in place, has none 

 of the elements which legally distinguish property. In ancient times 

 the central or sovereign authority was the autocratic source control- 

 ling water supplies for irrigation purposes; tout in the United States 

 the tendency is toward direct State supervision with municipal con- 

 trol and regulation. The immediate result of this socialism, as op- 

 posed to autocracy, in the use of water has been to prevent conflicts 

 arising between the supplier and applier of water, for in the former 

 case the applier takes as much water as he wants and pays for what 

 he uses. 



Second, irrigation through the introduction of improvements in 

 the method of agriculture promotes commerce and stimulates business. 



a. By largely increasing the product of the land, so reducing the 

 actual labor required to raise a given quality of the produce. This 

 would be true even if made on the supposition that conservative 



