STATE CONTROL OF STREAMS. 57 



entire supply after midsummer, and the first six or seven would have a 

 right to the entire supply at any time. This would leave the. lands under 

 more than 120 of the later ditches without any legal right to water. It was 

 manifest, on the other hand, that if the board's niling was maintained every 

 ditch would have water during part of the season and with economy nearly 

 all would have water throughout the entire season. The policy of the board 

 was accepted, and the harmonious and satisfactory settlement of rights in 

 the first adjudication has been followed by ten yeai-s of similar results. 

 Beginning in opposition to preconceived ideas, the board has in the inter- 

 vening years succeeded in defining and establishing over 4,000 territorial 

 rights, with remarkably few contests or protests against its decisions. There 

 lies before me as this is written the records of the last determination of 

 territorial water rights made by the board of control. In all there are 236 

 appropriators, some of whose rights date back twenty years and amount in 

 the aggi*egate to 500 cubic feet per second. All of the rights to a river and 

 its tributaries have been determined in this one procedure, and this without 

 friction between appropriators, and with a total expense to each of 81.75 in 

 fees for the issuance and recording of each certificate of appropriation. This 

 history of another western State has been referi'ed to because it shows that 

 rights can be settled without contest and without neighborhood ill feeling. 

 The State has footed the bills, but it has been immensely benefited by its 

 ex])enditure. It has promoted development, established peace where dis- 

 cord formerly prevailed, and added to both the selling and taxable value of 

 iiTigated land. 



The settlement of water rights in Wyoming has been described not to 

 suggest the adoption of the Wyoming law in California, but to encourage 

 the enactment of some law by showing how order and security have been 

 brought out of confusion not unlike that portrayed in this report. It has 

 seemed more instructive to tell how a thing has been done than to theorize 

 as to how it can be done. In .some of its details the Wyoming law is 

 imperfect. Later experience and a better understanding of the subject 

 ought to result in more effective legislation. It is based, however, upon 

 certain fundamental principles which are essential to the success of any 

 inigation system and hence seemed worthy of comment. 



Another iirigation law worthy of the study of the people of California 

 is the Northwest Irrigation Act of the Dominion of Canada. In its admin- 

 isti'ative methods it is the most complete and effective irrigation code yet 

 enacted on this continent. A brief reference to this law is made in Bulletin 

 No. 58, Office of Experiment Stations, but this has proven insufficient to a full 



