174 



THE IBBIGATION AGE. 



the Legislature has required that an automatic record- 

 ing instrument shall register the depth of water flow- 

 ing over a weir. 



The reservoirs are filled any time that a surplus 

 exists. If the snows melt, much water is run in in 

 the spring and in early summer. Sometimes a week's 

 rain storm will serve to fill all of them. The general 

 result is that the farmers are able to secure nearly all 

 the water they need. The canal companies are en- 

 abled to make their contracts good and the district, as 

 a whole, enjoys a high degree of prosperity, as the fol- 

 lowing statistics will show : 



When the first settlers entered this valley it was 

 a cactus-covered waste. Land could be purchased from 

 the railroads for $1.25 an acre and water rights sold 

 for $4 an acre. Today over 25,000 people live within 

 the irrigated district. There are three beet sugar fac- 

 tories, one of which is said to be the largest in the 

 United States. From one railroad station 70,000 

 cars of potatoes have been shipped in a single year. At 

 another station 175,000 sheep have been fattened in 

 one season from the alfalfa grown under the surrounding 

 ditches. The best land, with a water right attached, 

 sells for $100 an acre. The best water rights are 

 worth $40 per acre without the land and few are for 

 sale. 



Summarizing briefly the administration of this 

 river, we find it to be as follows: The rights to the 

 stream belong to the owners of ditches and are estab- 

 lished by decrees of the court. These decrees are large- 

 ly in excess of both the capacity of ditches to divert 

 water or the river to supply it. Eights to water in the 

 stream are personal property and are bought and sold 

 like wheat stored in an elevator. The decree of the 

 . court represents an ownership in the running water, 

 just as a warehouse receipt represents the ownership 

 of grain in the elevator. In his division of the stream 

 the water commissioner pays no attention to how or 

 where the water is used after it passes the headgate. 

 Its subsequent disposal is under the control of the ap- 

 propriator and his or its customers. 



The building of the storage works gave rise to 

 litigation over the priorities of rights to fill reservoirs. 

 The owners of the early priorities attempted to fill the 

 resevoirs under the right acquired for filling their 

 ditches. Those having iate rights insist that rights for 

 ditches and reservoirs should be based on the time 

 when the reservoirs were built rather than on the time 

 when the ditches which filled them were built. 



The litigation over this matter has resulted in con- 

 tradictory decisions, but the indications are that ditch 

 and reservoir rights will be held to be separate from 

 each other, and that there will be two tables of priori- 

 ties for the water commissioner to look after. 



Considering all the circumstances, the results 

 achieved in this district are highly creditable, but the 

 system has dangerous features which should be re- 

 formed. The experience of Europe has shown that 

 titles to water and titles to land should be inseparable, 

 and that with each irrigated farm should go a right 

 to water which makes it productive. Nothing can be 

 more dangerous than a divided ownership of land and 

 water. It leads almost inevitably to monopolies in the 

 stream and to the oppression and misery of the tiller* 

 of the soil. If the water rights on the Poudre had been 

 given directly to the land irrigated, the needs of tin-; 

 land would have always been a measure of rights and 

 excess decrees would have been impossible. Further- 



more, the amount of water controlled would have been 

 diminished with the saturation of the soil and the in- 

 auguration of more skillful methods of culture, and 

 this would have left more and more for later appro- 

 priators. But under the plan which was followed, those 

 who did not intend to use it have been enabled thereby 

 to levy tribute on those who did. Furthermore, there 

 is no measure by which economy can be enforced or 

 rights restricted to beneficial use. The freedom of 

 transfer, which is recognized, makes it possible for a 

 single individual or corporation to acquire an absolute 

 ownership to the entire river and in this way create 

 a monopoly of an element indispensable to civilized 

 life. 



ARTESIAN WELLS. 



Snake River Lands will be Irrigated by this Method. 



The ranches along the Snake Eiver valley in the 

 locality of the Warm Springs Ferry, have solved the 

 problem of irrigation, says a writer in the Caldwell. 

 Idaho, News, and will soon make that section bloom 

 like a rose. They began sinking artesian wells in that 

 section about a year ago, and were successful in strik- 

 ing some strong flows at a depth that justifies them 

 in resorting to that method of securing water for irri- 

 gation. 



It having been practically demonstrated that ar- 

 tesian water can be produced at reasonable cost, many 

 ranchers are now engaged in sinking wells, there being 

 now five drilling outfits at work, two above and three 

 below the ferry. A good flow of water is struck at a 

 depth of 600 feet. 



John Keith, the sheepman, who has 440 acres of 

 land in the Snake Eiver valley, has sunk five wells, 

 which are all flowing strongly, and is still sinking 

 others, as he intends to have a sufficient number to 

 irrigate the entire tract. 



The following gentlemen have already secured 

 strong flowing wells on their ranches there: J. C. 

 Bernard, Perry Smith, Bobert Noble, Dave Prichard 

 and George Newell. 



Land is being taken up very rapidly in that neigh- 

 borhood, both by parties coming in from the East 

 and by settlers in that section, because of the ease 

 and cheapness by which water for irrigation may be 

 secured. 



Desert claims are filed on the land and artesian 

 wells* sunk to reclaim it. 



There is an immense body of the best land on 

 earth there, and it will furnish valuable homes for 

 many thousands of people. 



While there has been a very large quantity of it 

 taken up of late, no considerable portion is yet exhausted. 



<&$>Q><S><&S&S><$><S><S&<$>&&^^ 



f 

 f 

 I THE IRRIGATION AGE, 1 year $1.00 



I THE PRIMER OF IRRIGATION, a finely illustrated 



I 300-page book 2.00 



II both are ordered send .... 2.50 

 Address. IRRIGATION AGE. 



112 Dearborn Street, Chicago. 



