The principal riveis are the Humboldt, .Truckee, Carson, Walker, Reese, Muddy, 

 Owyhee, Quinn, Virgin, Bruneau, Salmon and White. In addition to these are a great 

 number of creeks and brooks which in some instances are feeders of the larger streams, and 

 in others are independent and lose themselves in the valleys. To these sources of water- 

 supply for irrigation must be added springs which occur in many parts of the State 

 and from which considerable bodies of land are irrigated; also, artesian or subsurface 

 waters, which latter have challenged special interest within the last two years and will be 

 discussed separately. 



Water Rights and Appropriated Waters. 



Water, under the laws of the West, is subject to appropriation. The essence of 

 ownership, however, is "beneficial use," without which no right exists. In the ownership 

 of water, the season during which it is put to beneficial use is a limitation as well. 

 Therefore, a farmer who has a water right will be protected in its enjoyment during the 

 irrigation season, but during the remainder of the year any one else may make application 

 for all or a part of that which flows to waste, termed "flood waters," and on impounding 

 and putting the same to beneficial use may acquire ownership. 



The natural flow of nearly all the streams during the irrigation season is already 

 appropriated. But only a relatively small portion of the flood waters are appropriated. 

 The State law permits the applicant for the flood waters of a stream to acquire by con- 

 demnation proceedings any lands in private ownership required for storage reservoirs, 

 diverting canals and ditches. The appraised value is based on the actual use to which 

 the land proposed to be condemned is put by the owner. As this is usually grazing, the 

 acreage value is not high. If the reservoir site be on the public domain it may be secured 

 by application to the Government. 



We have stated that the appropriated waters of the State are utilized in the irrigation 

 of approximately 750,000 acres of land. Were the flood waters of the streams that now 

 flow to waste during the non-irrigation season impounded and conserved to flow only 

 during the irrigation season, and all such surface-waters put to a reasonably high irrigation 

 duty in place of the present more or less wasteful methods, it is safe to say that such waters 

 would be sufficient to reclaim and put under a high state of cultivation not less than 

 3,000,000 acres of land. 



Water Storage Systems Require Capital. 



Unfortunately for the homeseeker, water-storage enterprises are expensive undertakings 

 and, as a rule, have to be carried out on a scale sufficiently large to reclaim many hundreds 

 of thousands of acres of land in order to bring the relative cost per acre within reasonable 

 limits. Therefore, preceding the settler in such cases must ordinarily come the "reclamation 

 project," carried through at the expense of the national or state governments or by 

 private capital operating under the Carey Act. The storage reservoirs and diverting 

 canals are constructed to bring the water to the land, when the land with the water right 

 is sold to settlers on instalment payments covering usually ten years. A number of such 

 enterprises are in progress in Nevada at the present time, the most notable being the 

 Truckee-Carson National Reclamation Project in Churchill County. Carey Act projects 

 by private enterprise covering proposals to reclaim something over one million acres of 

 land are in various stages of progress, from that of the temporary withdrawal to deter- 

 mine the feasibility of the project, through the stage of final segregation of the lands and 

 contract with the State to construct the irrigation works. 



During the year 1912 and thereafter, portions of the lands of certain of these projects 

 will be thrown open to entrymen. Under the State law water must be available for 

 delivery to the entrymen before the land of a Carey Act project may be sold to settlers. 



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