348 



IRRIGATION PRACTICE 



peace may prevail in irrigation communities. What the 

 surveyor does in promoting peace as he establishes 

 boundary lines for fences between farms, the modern 

 irrigation engineer does as he determines the quantities 

 of water each farmer and his neighbor are receiving from 

 the canal or river. 



In the beginning of irrigation in this country, when 

 the pioneers were few and had an abundance of water, it 

 is evident that there was not so much need for the meas- 

 urement of water as at the present time. As more settlers 



FIG. 95. A cable measuring station with automatic gauge. 



arrived, all the waters were taken up, and there came a 

 crying need for suitable devices for measuring and dividing 

 water. A perfected system of irrigation agriculture cannot 

 come until measurements are made of the flowing water 

 in the natural river channels, in the main canals, in the 

 laterals and at the headgate of each farm. In fact, the 

 measurement of water is the great irrigation need of the 

 day, in the face of which all other needs vanish. All that 



