194 THE IRRIGA TION A GE. 



they are the only safeguard of irrigators on streams in which the 

 natural flow has been overappropriated. 



In his introduction Mr. Ulrich says: 



"The differences between agriculture under irrigation and that in 

 regions of abundant rainfall are as marked as those between the appear- 

 ance of a landscape in Arizona and one in Illinois. The home seeker 

 from a humid region finds that his past experience as a farmer is of little 

 service in choosing a location upon the arid lands of the West. The 

 soil and climate are different and the conditions which farmers discuss 

 are strange. As a result he usually follows the advice of those who 

 settled before him, and the final result of his efforts depends in large 

 measure on the kind of company he falls in with at the outset. 



If he is a practical farmer he has been accustomed to consider 

 the fertility of the soil, its drainage, the proximity to market, and the 

 social advantages of a community the leading factors in making a 

 location desirable; but when he casts his lot in an irrigated district 

 he finds that all the unirrigated land looks alike and all apparently 

 worthless. He frequently finds that lands conveniently located, close 

 to market, and with a contour and slope suited to irrigation, are yet 

 unoccupied and for sale at small price. If he seeks for the cause from 

 a disinterested source he will probably learn that it is lack of a water 

 right that other lands absorbed the streanls before ditches to water 

 the land in question were built, and that when streams run low no 

 water is left for its use. If he is not so informed at the outset, he 

 may learn of this through unhappy experience. 



The significance of a water right, and the importance of having 

 both an adequate supply and adequate provision for its just distribu- 

 tion, are matters which the home seeker is most apt to overlook, 

 as they were the last things to be properly appreciated by the early 

 settlers. 



Nor are the beginners the only ones who make mistakes in loca- 

 tions or feel themselves perplexed by the problems growing out of 

 the distribution of the water of rivers among those dependent thereon. 

 Old and capable irrigators find it hard to discriminate between the 

 merits of widely differing ditch contracts for the supplying of water 

 or to understand what rights farmers have in streams under the con- 

 flicting court decisions growing out of the litigation over water rights. 

 They are earning that farming under irrigation requires a study of 

 other things besides the application of water, and are today studying 

 the broader questions with an earnestness and alertness which must 

 in time result in important changes in present laws. 



Two causes explain the rapid extension of irrigation in the arid 

 West. One is the inability to raise crops without it; the other is the 

 ease and cheapness with which the first ditches were built. To the 

 New England hill farmers the distribution of a layer of water over 



