228 IRE IRRIGATION AGE. 



placed Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming; in the other, Idaho, Montana, and Utah. 

 In the former three States the distribution of water from the natural streams to r the 

 various parties entitled to its use is vested by law in water commissioners appointed 

 by the governor and acting under direction of the state engineer, who is the head of 

 the irrigation Department in each of those States. The methods of adjudicating the 

 various rights to water (as a basis for its proper distribution by the water commis- 

 sioners) are, however, essentially different in Nebraska and Wyoming from those 

 prevailing in Colorado. 



"In the first-mentioned states, rights to the use of water are determined by a 

 board of control, constituted by law for that purpose. Under the provisions of the 

 law, the adjudication of the rights to the waters of any stream may be inaugurated 

 by this board at its discretion. It is usually done upon petition of some of the 

 water users. All claimants to the water of the stream are properly notified of the 

 intended adjudication of their rights, and must present their respective claims and 

 evidence to the board at the time and place fixed by it for the taking of such 

 evidence, which place is selected with reference to the convenience of the claimants. 

 After considering all the facts, the board makes a decree fixing the priority and 

 value of each right of the waters of the stream under consideration. These decrees 

 are based upon the records and testimony introduced by the claimants, and upon 

 a very careful examination and survey, under the directions of the state engineer, 

 of the stream, of all ditches diverting water therefrom, and of the areas of land 

 upon which the water is used. The results of this survey are tabulated and 

 mapped for the use of the board in its consideration of the case and determine the 

 volume of water decreed to each claimant. The maps and evidence in each case are 

 made public before the decree is finally entered, and a reasonable time is allowed 

 for contesting any of the facts therein contained. These decrees always specify the 

 land upon which the decreed water is to be used. It is forever inseparable from it, 

 and the water right must always go with the title to the land. The actual beni- 

 ficial use is made the basis for the decree in all cases. These decrees may be 

 appealed from to the proper court within a certain time after being rendered, but so 

 careful is the board in its examination and determination, and so complete the data 

 submitted by the state engineer, that such right of appeal is rarely taken advantage 

 of and the determination of the board is very seldom reserved. 



"In Colorado, on the other hand, these decrees of water rights are rendered only 

 by the district courts after trials under the ordinary rules of evidence as to the facts 

 in each particular case. No special regulations exist governing the character, accur- 

 acy, and completeness of the evidence which must be submitted, and no provision is. 

 made for any examination or survey under authority of the State to obtain the exact 

 facts as a basis for the determination of the volume of each acquired right. The 

 whole matter is settled in a suit between the various claimants and upon whatever 

 evidence may be introduced by them, while the interests of the state, the real owner 

 of the water, are not represented in the case at all. Frequently there is no real con- 

 test in the suit, each claimant getting a decree for the full amount claimed by him. 

 The lack of accurate, as well as the presence of inaccurate and untrue testimony, 

 renders the issuance of a fair and just decree in such cases impossible. The neces- 

 sity for a painstaking survey of the streams, ditche*, and land is very apparent, both 

 for the protection of the interests of the state in the water and those of the 

 appropriators. 



"An investigation of the results of these two systems of water- right adjudication 

 leaves no room for argument as to which is best suited to the accomplishment of the 



