THE IKEIGATION AGE. 



109 



WATER RIGHTS IN THE BUHL COUNTRY. 



BY TAYLOR. 



The most important legal right in an irrigated coun- 

 try is a perfect water right for irrigation purposes, and 

 the most valuable property that can be owned in such a 

 country is a perfect, perpetual, inalienable water right. 



When it is remembered that irrigated lands produce 

 more abundantly, and a far better quality of crops than 

 any other kind of lands and that, ordinarily, there can be 

 no such thing as a crop failure, it is readily seen how dif- 

 ficult it is to estimate the real value of a good water right. 



The water rights in the Buhl country, embracing 150,- 

 000. acres of the finest land on the globe, in the center of 

 which is located the progressive and rapidly growing town 

 of Buhl, are the best water rights that can be acquired 

 under any law yet made. Every step required by the laws 

 of the United States and the state as well, in order to ac- 

 quire and establish a perfect, perpetual and inalienable water 

 right for the irrigation of the lands of the Buhl country, has 

 been taken, from the posting of the notice of appropriation 

 at the point of diversion to the full completion of the works 

 and canal systems by which the water is conducted on and 

 applied to the land, and the application of the water to the 

 land. 



The water right in the Buhl country attaches to and 

 becomes appurtenant to the land the moment the title 

 passes from the United States government to the state of 

 Idaho, or to an individual under the Gary act, and remains 



The Milner Dam Across Snake River Source of Water Supply for the 

 Country Around Buhl, Idaho. 



thereafter and forever an inalienable appurtenant to the 

 land. 



The next thing "in importance to the water right itself 

 is the priority right to use of the water. In this respect 

 the Buhl country occupies an enviable position, for it 

 has a priority water right .over all the other great irriga- 

 tion projects in the state of Idaho, taking their water 

 from the Snake river. It has priority No. 1. The value 

 of this priority right is inestimable and cannot be fully 

 appreciated by any but those who live in irrigated coun- 

 tries. 



No one familiar with the conditions existing in the 

 Buhl country and the immense volume of water carried 

 by the Snake river, together with the numerous reservoirs 

 in course of construction and in contemplation for the 

 conservation of the waters of the river until needed en- 

 tertains the slightest fear of a scarcity of water ever oc- 

 curring in the Snake river valley, but if, possibly, the Buhl 

 country would not suffer the loss of a single drop to 

 which it is entitled, for, as said above, it has priority No. 

 1, and therefore must receive all its water before any of 

 the other projects could get any at all. This fact should 

 be borne in mind by persons intending to invest in land 

 or town property on any of the various Gary act projects 

 now under way in the state of Idaho. 



Anyone wishing further information, write to the fol- 

 lowing firms: Buhl Investment Company, Shank & Wil- 

 kinson, Idaho Realty Company, Monahan & Kerley, Buhl 

 Land Company. 



The Art of Irrigation 



CHAPTER NINE 



By T. S. VAN DYKE 



When you look at your fine streams a few hours 

 after starting them you may find half or more of them 

 stopped with the rest carrying all the water. You 

 may have discovered before that you can not carry all 

 your knowledge on your finger's ends. That you could 

 not think of it all at once is no fault of the system. 

 You very naturally tried to take a lot of small streams 

 out of the side of a ditch. Had it been a larger ditch 

 it would have cut out some of the openings and flooded 

 the whole place. But even with a small one you can- 

 not safely take out water if it is running on a slope 

 sufficient to give it a reasonable velocity. You may fix 

 it so as to prevent cutting but it will not feed the fur- 

 rows with uniformity. You must take out the head 

 into a smaller ditch alongside of it so as to keep the 

 surface level. This ditch must have no more flow 

 than is needed to feed the furrows. It must not be too 

 long or the level necessary to give uniformity will be 

 lost. It must generally be a series of levels if streams 

 are to be taken out by running furrows into it. 



You do all this and soon come to grief again. 

 Some of the streams soon become too small to run 

 through the tract. Same old story you did not stop 

 to think about it. On almost any light, loose soil the 

 smallest streams are liable to cut in one place and fill 

 in another. If the main stream carries silt the build- 

 ing bars at the mouth of some of the furrows is cer- 

 tain, either stopping, or reducing, the flow; while oth- 

 ers cut out more at the head under the increased pres- 

 sure brought on the second ditch by the stoppage of 

 the others. This second ditch is sometimes called the 

 "head ditch" to distinguish it from the main ditch or 

 canal, but for many furrows you must have something 

 harder than earth to regulate the flow into them. 

 Coarse, gravelly ground and tough clays of some kinds 

 permit quite a number of streams sometimes but it is 

 not well to rely on them or you may pay for it later on. 

 I have run as high as forty at once on very gravelly 

 ground without any regulators and I have good soil 

 where I can not trust even four. So it is best to put in 

 something at the start unless you have ground \m- 

 usually tough, when, for small garden work, you can- 

 not lose much time chasing after them. 



It is common to regulate the flow with straw, 

 weeds, rags, brickbats and all sorts of things. This is 

 recognizing the difficultv and resorting to the stupidest 

 way of avoiding it. The failure to do this properly 

 and using all sorts of makeshifts to save a few dollars 

 has been a prolific source of failure to realize the best 

 results and has cost in the end many times what has 

 been saved. Bags half filled with earth are the best 

 makeshift, because there is slight danger of the water 

 getting behind them if not too full and if properly 

 tamped down. But they are far inferior to wood, 

 iron or concrete properly fixed. In many cases four 

 laths nailed together make a square conduit which is 

 cheap and quite effective. These are often placed in 

 the bank of a main ditch if not too large without the 

 intervention of a second ditch or "head ditch." But 



