IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS. 431 



storage. In other cases, development has simply outrun settlement 

 and only time and effective measures for colonization are required. 

 In others, inadequate water laws and uncertainty regarding water 

 titles is the cause of the delay in making use of the facilities already 

 provided. Farmers do not feel warranted in building laterals, plant- 

 ing crops, and making contracts for water when the most probable 

 result of this outlay will be an injunction suit. The story told on 

 pages 171-183, Bulletin 100 of this Office, shows that this danger is 

 not imaginary. 



The investigations of this Office have shown that the boundaries of 

 irrigation districts should follow drainage lines, that rights to water 

 should include all the watershed of the stream, and that administra- 

 tive control should not be restricted as it is now in some States by 

 arbitrary county boundaries. In several States county commissioners 

 are made water commissioners; but as many streams flow through 

 more than one county, in some cases through six or seven counties, 

 there can be no adequate or proper supervision. Colorado, Wyoming, 

 and Nebraska have each been divided under State laws into irrigation 

 districts based on drainage lines rather than on county lines. This 

 makes possible an effective division of water within the boundaries 

 of these States. Something to supplement State supervision, however, 

 will in time be required. There are interstate questions which can 

 not be ignored, although laws to provide for the proper division of 

 water within a State are a more vital and urgent necessity than 

 measures to settle the division of interstate streams. The study of 

 interstate rights should, however, begin at once. It will be most 

 unfortunate for all concerned to delay this study until the gravity of the 

 issues created shall result in'hasty or ill-considered legislation. What 

 is needed is a careful and impartial investigation of this question by 

 competent engineering and agricultural experts. The problems to be 

 solved are primarily agricultural and engineering. The first questions 

 to be determined are: Where is water now being used? Where can 

 it be used to the best advantage? What are the character and extent 

 of vested rights? These matters ought to be settled by the dispas- 

 sionate, unbiased study of experienced men and not left to be fought 

 over in the courts by warring private interests. It is impossible for 

 Congress to legislate regarding water rights within States without 

 revolutionizing existing conditions in some of the States, and without 

 interfering with vested rights. The differences between State laws and 

 in the character of the rights established under those laws make such 

 a result inevitable. But a commission could determine what propor- 

 tion of a stream should flow down from the State above to the State 

 below, and leave it to the authorities of the State above to determine 

 what measures shall be taken to accomplish this result, and to the 

 authorities of the State below to determine what shall be done with the 



