332 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



make a scientific study of the quantity needed for the 

 several crops best adapted to the particular region ? 



Who can say how much waier is needed in the 

 several irrigated valleys in the State of Washington 

 to make farming profitable? What are the crop de- 

 mands for water? Some require more, some less. If 

 we either legislate or contract for a limit to the amount 

 of water to be used, then we should specify either b\ 

 legislation or contract the particular kind of crop to 

 be raised on each tract of land. In irrigated agricul- 

 ture today, the question that most needs answering is 

 the duty of water and specific crops and a study of the 

 most economical and profitable way of applying it. So 

 many things from year to year enter into the problem 

 that only by studying during a scries of years can the 



the exigencies of the case and at the same time main- 

 tain the honor of the State for fair dealing with her 

 citizens. 



Millions of money is now being expended on storage 

 reservoirs, structures and canals. Hundreds of thou- 

 sands of untrained irrigators are buying and moving 

 onto these raw lands. In the end they will have put 

 more money and labor into their farms than all the 

 reservoirs and canals have cost. They pin their faith 

 to the statement that the amount of water to be supplied 

 is ample. 



If injury comes from a bad guess, who will be the 

 injured party? 



In arriving at a statutory limit or in writing one 

 into a water contract, upon what evidence have the 







Diversion Dam at Mihiei, Idah. , Twin Falls Canal. 



answer be given and then the duty should not be based 

 on the most favorable years or conditions, but on the 

 mean, keeping in mind always that the husbandry should 

 be good. 



This is neither a plea for, nor a defense of, the 

 sloppy, wasteful irrigator. As a rule in many places 

 more water is used than is needed. How to use water 

 most economically should attract the attention of every 

 water user. Many irrigators think the conditions on 

 their farms are entirely different from those on other 

 lands. Yet that affords no excuse for waste. Every 

 acre of irrigated land is entitled to all the water that 

 can be beneficially used but to no more. However, be- 

 fore fixing any limits or permitting them to be written 

 into contracts it is clearly the duty of the State to es- 

 tablish a rational basis for such limits. The State should 

 make a study of conditions as actually found anil 

 pass a rational code of laws to honestly and fairly meet 



findings been made ? Always upon a guess of the party 

 or parties to be benefited. Usually the promoter who 

 would reap a profit and unload his plant upon the public 

 before the real shortage comes. 



Any law now enacted limiting the use so as to re- 

 quire the expenditure of money and labor to meet the 

 requirements of such a statute would be clearly expost 

 facto and would work a hardship upon our citizens 

 unless some means were provided by the State or 

 through some later appropriation to reimburse the farm- 

 ers for their trouble and outlay in conforming to siu-h a 

 statute. The beneficiaries of such a law should certainly 

 be called upon to make the senior users of water good 

 in their present methods of using water in so far as 

 these methods are within reasonably good and long 

 established practice. 



REMEDIES. 



(1) The water requirements of the irrigable lands 



