THE WATER-JUDGES 45 



Andalgala the " turn " is sometimes obligatory, and 

 regulated by custom, in channels where the irrigating 

 proprietors are too numerous ; at other times optional, 

 and settled by convention amongst the owners them- 

 selves, when water is scanty. At Valle Viejo (Cata- 

 marca), when the water runs low, they set up the mita ; 

 that is to say, the sluices remain closed in each channel 

 during four days out of eight, each proprietor in turn 

 giving up his right to a permanent supply in order 

 to have a double allowance when his turn comes. 

 The turno is, therefore, a general practice. Everywhere 

 we can see the farmers on the watch along the acequias, 

 waiting for the moment to close their neighbour's trench 

 with a pellet of clay and to let the stream into their 

 own trenches with a blow of the spade. 



The most minute precautions are taken in order that 

 no one shall suffer injury. As the irrigation is always 

 slower and less thorough during the night, they take 

 it in turns to have the day and the night alternately. 

 When the community receives the water from another 

 community higher up the stream, the succession of 

 " turns " amongst its members differs every time. The 

 water comes down charged with sediment, pushing in 

 front of it a mass of liquid mud, as the flush of a torrent 

 does. It takes some time for the stream to become 

 regular and clear. The first irrigator therefore exercises 

 his right under unfavourable conditions. In the local 

 phraseology the volcada de agua is not as good as the 

 corte de agua, which means the irrigation that begins 

 when the acequia is full. 



Irrigation entails the services of quite a staff of 

 arbitrators and administrators. The head men, who 

 have jurisdiction of a higher order and secure the 

 accurate distribution of the water amongst a number 

 of channels or communities, are now, as a rule, officials 

 of the administration, appointed by the provincial 

 authorities (Juez de Irrigacion at Catamarca, juez de rio 

 at Rosario de Lerma). But the juez de agua of each 



