70 ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 



taken from a river at its mean stage, for the irrigation of a 

 definite quantity of land, should be fixed by a reasonable rule, 

 so that those who come late shall not find all the water taken 

 up, and so that proper drainage shall be secured. 



"'That such supervisor will probably be distasteful to parties 

 consuming ; that nevertheless we believe it is essential to future 

 prosperity, and that its neglect now will bring a fruitful crop of 

 contention in the future, will delay the development of the coun- 

 try, and, by irrigation unhealthful, it may make it odious.' 



" With some modifications, the general laws of Spain and 

 Italy might be made applicable to the management of the 

 waters of our rivers or other natural supplies of mountain 

 streams. 



"Each district might elect its own board of commissioners, 

 that would appoint its own general officers and superintendents ; 

 and the county to elect an officer at large, whose duty would be 

 the supervision of the entire irrigating works of the county. It 

 is a difficult matter, if not an impossible one, to pass any gen- 

 eral State law that could in justice and fairness be made to 

 govern all the districts. A general law would, in its provisions, 

 be so conflicting with pre-existing rights that I am clearly of 

 the opinion it would not answer. The law should allow each 

 district to manage its own water matters, under proper re- 

 strictions, as the mining class have always done in their local 

 affairs, and which management the courts have always stood 

 ready to sanction and confirm. 



"As the climatic conditions in our own State, small rainfall 

 and so high temperature in all our interior valleys, make the 

 necessity of irrigation more apparent than in either Italy or 

 Spain, and as the results are of so great importance to the 

 country at large, I believe all proper irrigating enterprises 

 should receive the aid of the Government, State, counties and 

 districts in which they may be undertaken. They should re- 

 ceive from the Government the carefully-given aid, where the 

 Government still has lands unoccupied and unproductive ; from 

 the State, when the magnitude of the work to be undertaken, 

 and the consequent greater increase of values to the State, 

 would justify; from the counties, when several districts would 



