DIVISION AND CONTROL OF 

 WATER. 



BY PROF. GEORGE L. SWENDSEN, AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



Read at State Farmers' Institut3. Brigham City. Utah, February 25, 1899. 



In all of the agricultural districts of Utah, a common complaint is, 

 that the supply of water for irrigation purposes, is less than the needs 

 of the irrigable lands, making a division of the available supply im- 

 perative in almost every case, a division, not according to the needs 

 of the land, but usually according to the vested rights of the parties 

 concerned. In the majoritj' of cases such division is necessary in the 

 natural stream supplying the canals. For instance, more than a doz- 

 en canals are taken out of Bear river in Rich county, each claiming a 

 certain part of che stream or a certain volume of the water. The ir 

 rigation districts of Beaver county have more than twenty canals sup- 

 plied from Beaver river. Numerous canals are supplied by the Jor- 

 dan, claiming various portions of the water, some dating their claims 

 as far back as 1850. Here in Brigham City you have to divide the 

 wpter bptweeu the city and the farms. Many other similar cases 

 might be mentioned, in all of which, at some time or another will 

 arise the question of a proper division of the supply. And again, 

 those using the water from a canal generally have rights and methods 

 materially different from one another, and it is, I think, generally the 

 rule that the division and subdivision of the water is not satisfactory 

 to the parties concerned. Therefore I believe we can profitably con- 

 sider some of the means and methods to be employed in the distribu- 

 tion system of canals, as well as that of the streams which furnish 

 the supply. 



In the first place, then, let us consider, for a short time, some of 

 the methods emploj'ed in dividing the stream among the several can- 

 als supplied by it. Take first the case where a canal claims a certain 

 portion of the water in the stream. In such a case the simplest, and 

 probably the most common divisor, is a partition of some kind put in 

 the stream, dividing the channel in the proportion. For instance, if 

 one tenth of the water is to be diverted from the stream, fifty feet 

 wide, the partition would be placed five feet out in the stream; on the 

 assumption, of course, that the water is of the same depth across the 

 channel and that it has a uniform velocity. In order that this method 

 may give reasonably close results, either the location should be in a 

 portion of the stream where the bed is level across the whole channel, 

 and the velocity of the water about the same in the whole section, or a 

 check should be put in the channel to bring the water to a state of 

 low velocity, and a longitudinally level drop or apron over which the 



