474 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



I'he Colorado Constitution, Sec. 5, Art. XVI, de- 

 clares the water of every natural stream to be the 

 property of the public, and Section 6 in substance gives 

 the prior right to the prior appropriator to beneficial 

 use. The underlying principle seems to be that the 

 water of all natural streams belongs to the public until 

 appropriated to beneficial use, and then to the prior 

 appropriator, and these principles with slight varia- 

 tions more or less well defined are the basis of the laws 

 upon the subject in other States and Territories, where 

 for natural reasons the rules of the common law do not 

 obtain. 



The common law rules and principles of riparian 

 ownership never obtained in Colorado. The Consti- 

 tution, Sees. 5 and 6, Art. XVI, declaring the waters 

 of all natural streams to be the property of the public 

 until appropriated to beneficial use, and that it then 

 belongs to the prior appropriator, is only declaratory 

 of an unwritten law which existed long prior to any 

 legislation or judicial decision upon the subjedl, and 

 arose from the peculiar conditions of soil and climate. 



And the various adls of Congress upon the subjedl 

 are but the recognition of a pre-existing right, and not 

 the establishment of a new one. 



Broder vs. Water Co., loi U. S. 276 



Waters in the various streams of this climate 

 acquire a value unknown in moister climates ; the 



