172 



THE IBBIGATION AGE. 



seventy-two feet deep in one season, while the owners 

 of twenty small ditches were given water enough to 

 cover their lands to a depth of 250 feet in six months. 

 The rights granted some of the large canals were not 

 excessive, and in a few instances the ditches had di- 

 verted more than they were given. 



The giving of these rights to the ditches had been 

 strongly objected to by many farmers who believed 

 that they, as the users of the water, should be made 

 the appropriators, and that the rights should go to 

 the land rather than to the canals. This plan was de- 

 feated because but little of the land was being farmed. 

 The canal companies were represented by able coun- 

 sel; they had assumed an ownership of the water be- 

 fore the decree was rendered and had been selling 

 rights to farmers based on such ownership, and they 



ties as those with early ones. Even if settlers had 

 started in to make inquiries, it is doubtful if they 

 would have learned much, because the people them- 

 selves did not fully realize the situation. It requires 

 experience to show that a court decree did not increase 

 the flow of the streams and that a paper appropria- 

 tion, when there was no water back of it, had no more 

 value than a gold brick, even if it had been given an 

 extra gilding by a judicial authority. 



In 1884 and 1885 the river was the highest ever 

 known, the water supply was ample, and this gave a 

 breathing spell in which to put the new system in or- 

 der. It gave time to gauge canals and prepare tables 

 for the use of the water commissioner, the official 

 whose duty it was to enforce the decree and who had 

 authority to open and close headgates in such a way 



Springs near Thousand Springs. Snake Rirer, Hagerman, Lincoln County, Idaho. This is the flow 

 which will be the source ol supply for Lost River Irrigation Company, 



wished for the power which the control of the com- 

 modity gave. In some instances the farmers were also 

 ditch owners and the ownership of land, water and 

 means of transportation were all united in the same 

 person, but under the large canals the water was given 

 to those who were not users but who had acquired it in 

 order to sell to users. 



The decree was rendered in 1882. At that time 

 one of the large canals had not been completed and 

 there was hardly any land cultivated under it. Un- 

 der two others there were more vacant sections than 

 there were with houses on them. The farmers who were 

 coming in from the East looked carefully at the land, 

 but they knew nothing about the value of priorities, 

 and all water rights looked alike; hence, settlement 

 went on as rapidly under the ditches with late priori- 



npany, 



as to give each appropriator his proper share of the 

 stream. The commissioner had little trouble in these 

 years. He could not give appropriators all that had 

 been decreed them, but he could give farmers all the 

 water they needed. 



When the years of normal water supply returned 

 many of the settlers found that irrigation was no in- 

 surance against drouth. Headgates of late appropria- 

 tors were closed before midsummer, and no drouth in 

 Kansas was ever more severe than prevailed under 

 these canals. Damage suits by the exasperated settlers 

 became common and the companies, .which had not 

 planned frauds, had to set to work in some way to 

 provide the water they had sold. There were two ways 

 of doing this. The earlier ditches were all small and 

 had never been able to use one-tenth of the water 



