24 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



HOW CAN GREATER EFFICIENCY IN IRRIGATION 

 MANAGEMENT BE SECURED? 



By W. 0. COTTON. Idaho Falls, Idaho 



It will be impossible in the allotted 

 space to tell what it has taken me 

 several years to study and experience 

 to learn, and the writer does not in- 

 tend to solve this problem in these 

 few lines, but if this paper succeeds in 

 provoking a thorough discussion of 

 the subject, it has fulfilled the pur- 

 pose for which it was written. 



Moreover the subject of irrigation 

 management is so closely interwoven 

 with engineering, the physical, legal, 

 administrative and human problems, 

 that it is very difficult to treat these 

 in their regular sequence. 



One of the principal features of an 

 irrigation district is that the system 

 shall be operated for the common 

 good of all without undue profit to 

 anyone, and that each patron of the 

 district shall pay 

 in proportion to 

 the benefits re- 

 ceived. It is a 

 faithful saying that 

 "Almost every un- 

 dertaking that fails 

 to make a profit or 

 that fails in busi- 

 ness, can be traced 

 directly to waste in 

 management and 

 operation." This 

 is applicable to the 

 irrigation district 

 as well as any 

 other business, as 

 the profits, if any, 

 are enjoyed by 

 each patron of the 

 district by a re- 

 duction in the as- 

 sessment. 



Assuming now 

 that the engineer- 

 ing, physical and 

 legal problems 

 have all been met 

 and correctly 

 solved in the con- 

 struction of the ir- 

 rigation dist r i c t , 

 there are still left two important 

 problems, namely, administrative or 

 operation and maintenance, and the 

 human element. 



The thing that goes the farthest 

 towards making a successful system, 

 that costs the least and does the 

 most, is the successful farmer. Now, 

 how can we better conditions for the 

 farmer? The farmer has plenty of 

 work to occupy his attention on his 

 farm without being hampered with 

 the distasteful task of visiting his 

 neighbors on a quest for water in their 

 neighborhood lateral where the con- 

 trol of the district management ceases. 



There has been, and will continue 

 to be, a strong tendency toward the 

 division of labor here, as in commer- 

 cial and manufacturing industries, and 

 the natural point of such division, 

 from the viewpoint of efficiency, jus- 

 tice, harmony and economy, is at the 

 farm headgate. How to operate a 

 canal system so that each irrigator 

 shall receive water when and where 



his crops demand it, is a perplexing 

 problem, inasmuch as it calls for a 

 knowledge of "team play," measure- 

 ment of water, and duty of water, 

 with all of their intricate business de- 

 tails, and just how to arrange a force 

 to accomplish this without friction 

 and at a cost the irrigators will pay, 

 is by no means a small matter. These 

 are questions the solution of which, 

 in a large measure, determines the 

 success or failure of the system and 

 usually take years of study and expe- 

 rience to successfully master. 



The importance of forestalling 

 breaks, erosion of banks, weakening 

 of structures and accidents of any 

 kind," cannot be too forcibly empha- 

 sized, and oftentimes new construc- 

 tion is a good investment, as the per- 



Concrete Linini 



id Distributing Gates. Canal of Truckee-Carson Project, Nevada. 



manent work costs less than the extra 

 maintenance on poor work. "Safety 

 First" is the slogan. 



Irrigation district management, I 

 take it, does not differ widely from ir- 

 rigation management on government, 

 state or private projects, except that 

 the laws governing these projects are 

 different in several respects, the irri- 

 gation manager being more amenable 

 to the people in the case of an irri- 

 gation district than in other forms. 



The growing opinion is that the 

 easy-going, haphazard fashion of op- 

 erating the small canal system, would 

 be criminal in connection with the 

 steady flow of a canal carrying an en- 

 tire river; hence, it is being recog- 

 nized that the operation and manage- 

 ment of the district, instead of being a 

 sort of neighborhood affair, is a dis- 

 tinct profession. There must be a 

 strong central organization headed by 

 a capable manager, who is removed 

 from the danger of being influenced 

 by individual water users, who can 



cope with the engineering problems, 

 and who has enough assistance (re- 

 sponsible directly to him) to enable 

 him to carry out effectually the gen- 

 eral plans and policies. 



Questions concerning the measure- 

 ment and division of water probably 

 give rise to more trouble than all 

 other questions combined in an irri- 

 gation district. While frequently the 

 amount of water in question is small, 

 it may be, and often is, a serious 

 matter. It certainly is a source of 

 irrigation, causing constant friction 

 between the management and the 

 consumer, as well as between neigh- 

 bors. The stream in the ditch on the 

 opposite side of the fence always 

 looks the larger. A more widely dis- 

 tributed knowledge of methods, to- 

 gether with a uni- 

 versal installation 

 and use of the 

 most simple and 

 accurate measur- 

 ing device, will re- 

 move much of this 

 trouble, as is al- 

 ready in evidence. 

 I say "simple," be- 

 cause the more 

 readily the farmer 

 understands the 

 device the more 

 confidence he has 

 in the system, and 

 eventually in the 

 manager; this sys- 

 tem should be in- 

 stalled and oper- 

 ated to the farm 

 unit and not leave 

 part of the patrons 

 of the district to 

 deliver their own 

 water through sev- 

 eral miles of com- 

 m u n i t y laterajs 

 after paying their 

 proportion of the 

 total cost to the 

 district. I have in 

 mind a well managed district, where 

 payment is made on the amount of 

 water used in acre foot units; the 

 water master knows twenty-four 

 hours in advance what water he is ex- 

 pected to deliver; this he compares 

 with the capacity of his canals and 

 deals it out to the riders on the main 

 canal accordingly; these men are 

 charged with the water and through 

 the use of frequent gauging stations 

 on the system; the exact loss is de- 

 termined and the net available is in 

 turn dealt out to the various laterals 

 where the proper amount of water is 

 charged to the rider on each lateral. 

 The losses are figured to such a 

 nicety and the measuring device on 

 the individual turnouts check so well 

 (with simplicity in their favor) that 

 complaints seem to be down to a 

 minimum. If Resolution No. 2 of 

 the Denver Irrigation Conference of 

 1914 is to be discussed, which reads 

 as follows: "Resolved, that unifor- 

 mity of district laws be made so that 



