THE IRKIGATION AGE. 



373 



natural power uv livin' in several different places to 

 oncet he gits his hooks in wherever he finds an 

 openin'.' 



" 'Silas, I tremble fur our little ranch,' said Pris- 

 cilly, with a womanly whimper. 



" 'You may well be skeered,' said I, gloomily, 'fur 

 he'll git a mortgage on 'it without our knowin' it ef 

 he comes around here fur contributions. He must 

 hi'v 'em, Priscilly, fur the expenses uv savin' the land 

 fur the homeless is enormous, almost ez much-ez the 

 land is wuth, but he says it is a question of principle 

 an' that settles all doubts. I think, myself, that his 

 pussonal magnetism amounts to hypnotism. Why, Pris- 

 cilly, a short time ago he came within several miles uv 

 bein' unanimously nominated for vice-president, an' 

 the only things that pervented him wuz the fac' thet 

 there wuzn't any nominatin' convention in progress, 

 an' thet he wuz a resident uv so many different states 

 thet it was impossible to tell whether he wuz the favor- 

 ite son uv any uv them. He can go on collectin' 

 contributions, an' get a bigger pile, fur he hez only to 

 present his card with "Ex-Candidate for the Vice- 

 Presidency of the United States" on it an' every feller 

 will git obfusticated an' reach fur his pocket-book. The 

 vice-president ain't it alongside of this job.' " 



A LESSON FROM ITALY. 



The following letter from Elwood Mead to Mr. 

 Fred J. Kiesel, chairman of the Executive Committee 

 Eleventh National Irrigation Congress, and which 

 THE IRRIGATION AGE is permitted to publish, contains 

 some very useful and entertaining information on the 

 subject of irrigation in Italy. Mr. Mead is an inval- 

 uable ally in the cause of irrigation, and his absence 

 from the Ogden Congress was regretted by all who 

 know his expert value. ED. 



MILAN, ITALY, August 24, 1903. 

 Mr. Fred J. Kiesel, Chairman Executive Committee, 

 National Irrigation Congress, Ogden, Utah. 

 DEAR SIR: 



I regret very much that I am compelled to write 

 this letter instead of meeting in person with my old 

 friends and neighbors of Ogden and Utah and the 

 friends of irrigation gathered in your city. I have, 

 however, been unable, since the receipt of your cable, 

 to get a berth in any ship which would land me in 

 America in time. The large number of Americans 

 in Europe hurrying home early in September has more 

 than equaled the capacity of the ships leaving this sido. 

 My disappointment is made the keener because I feel 

 sure your efforts and the importance of the interests 

 to be considered are certain to bring together one of 

 the largest gatherings of men interested in the reclam- 

 ation of the West ever assembled and result in dis- 

 cussions to which I should enjoy listening. 



The purpose of my visit to Europe is to study 

 its irrigation methods, and laws from the standpoint of 

 the West ; to endeavor, in the light of my twenty years' 

 experience in the United States, to gather some facts 

 and learn some lessons which would help solve the 

 questions already created by our use of streams in 

 irrigation and promote the extension of irrigation in 

 the future. Thanks to the aid of our representatives 

 abroad and the courtesy of every one with whom I 

 have come in contact here, I have been able to learn 

 much not heretofore published and which has had for 



me an absorbing interest. I do not think I can do 

 better in this letter than outline some of its lessons. 



The growth in value of rivers and water courses 

 is one of the most significant economic facts of .the 

 past quarter of a century. It arises from three causes : 

 The extension of irrigation in both humid and arid 

 districts, the growing demand of cities and towns for 

 water for domestic and industrial uses, and last, but 

 not least, the generation of power. The ability to trans- 

 mit power long distances cheaply and effectively by 

 .electricity is revolutionizing industrial methods in many 

 parts of the world. Especially is this true in Switzer- 

 land and Italy, where every cataract has a market or 

 potential value not dreamed of forty or even twenty 

 years ago. Streams are coming to have a definite com- 

 mercial value just as mines of coal or iron. Water is 

 ceasing to be regarded like air, free to everybody, be- 

 cause there is not enough for everybody. 



In Europe two things have become manifest from 

 these changes. The first is the importance of prevent- 

 ing waste and loss. The second is the overshadowing 

 importance of having definite and stable titles to water. 

 In Italy, old crooked, leaky canals are being straight- 

 ened and cemented at enormous cost. Waste and seep- 

 age water is being gathered into drainage canals aiTd 

 sold to other irrigators. The Government is aiding in 

 this by offering large prizes for the best completed works 

 and by subsidies to some of large cost. Farmers are 

 economizing by using water in rotation so that the 

 actual duty of water in Italy today is in many cases 

 double that of any reports published in America. 



The need of just and stable titles to water and 

 the importance of protecting them in times of drouth 

 is shown as strikingly in the older countries of Europe 

 as it is with' us. Some of the cantons of Switzerland 

 hundreds of years ago gave away rights to streams in 

 a lavish fashion. Now the Government is buying them 

 back to prevent their being absorbed for speculative 

 purposes. A new code of water laws has just been 

 framed by some of the leading experts of the country. 

 In Italy no more perpetual rights are given ; all new 

 ones are limited in time, usually to ninety years. 

 Commissions are settling the status of old rights^ both 

 to prevent controversies and to give a safe basis for 

 future investments. This is slow, laborious, difficult 

 work, as everyone who has had to do with the right 

 settlement of water titles in America knows. What it 

 means to irrigators to have this well done was shown 

 to me this summer by two examples. On one river 

 where rights have been defined for a quarter of a 

 century, I did not meet a farmer or talk to an irri- 

 gation officer who had a complaint or a fear that he 

 would not have his proper share of the common sup- 

 ply, yet 27,000 cubic feet of water per second was 

 being used by irrigators and 13,000 farmers were be- 

 ing supplied from one canal. On another river where 

 the settlement of rights is- now going on, the books 

 of a co-operative irrigation society show that for many 

 years their expenses for litigation have been greater 

 than for all their other expenses combined. Water has 

 cost these farmers just twice as much as it ought to 

 and as it will when their rights are defined. They 

 were ready to agree to the German proverb that "A 

 lawsuit over water is worse than a lawsuit over a horse." 



I am coming home strengthened in my belief that 

 irrigation has a wide field of usefulness in the eastern 

 part of the United States and that it will be adopted 



