LXXXVI REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Under present conditions no one knows who would control the water 

 made available by public funds. No one knows whether the needy 

 user or the speculative holder of a water title would reap the benefits 

 of this expenditure. The report on irrigation in Utah, soon to be pub- 

 lished by this Department, shows with equal clearness the need of laws 

 to insure stability and justice in the distribution of the water supply. 

 These reports will be followed by similar investigations in other arid 

 States. They will present the facts. With these before them the peo- 

 ple of each State can determine what action, if any, is required. 



Reform in irrigation laws will be final and satisfactory only when 

 it comes through the enlightenment of the people most concerned. In 

 a matter so vitally affecting the home as the control of the water sup- 

 ply no legislation will be effective which has not the sanction of the irri- 

 gators themselves. As yet, this kind of agriculture is new and its 

 requirements are only imperfectly understood. Material develop- 

 ment has outrun the creation of institutions necessary for its protec- 

 tion. The last is the most difficult problem, and it is the one now 

 directly before us. The possibilities of irrigated agriculture are so 

 great that everything which will contribute to its largest and best 

 development is a matter of national interest. We are now in the 

 momentous years when institutions are forming, and the labors of this 

 Department to foster tendencies in the right direction and to correct 

 mistakes before they have become fixed by time and custom should be 

 continued. What is done now affects not only the present generation 

 of irrigators, but will vitally influence those of the distant future. 



DISTRIBUTION AND USE OF WATER. 



The design and improvement of instruments for measuring the 

 water used in irrigation have received the further attention of the 

 experts employed in this work, and have resulted in registers being 

 furnished to irrigators at about one-half the cost of foreign instru- 

 ments made for this purpose. Accurate measurement of water tends 

 to promote economy, because it enables farmers to know whether they 

 are receiving what they pay for and canal companies to check wasteful 

 use wherever it occurs. 



In addition to improving instruments for measuring the depth of 

 water flowing in canals, a station has been established at Cheyenne, 

 Wyo. , for rating current meters and testing water registers. This 

 station has been of marked service to the irrigation interests of the 

 surrounding States. 



The studies of the duty of water have been extended so as to embrace 

 all the problems of a river. The results show that the volume of water 

 required to irrigate an acre of land along some parts of a stream will 

 irrigate two or three acres in other places. They also show the need of 

 preliminary study of this subject in order to rightly locate ditches and 



