IBEIGATION PROBLEMS OF HONEY LAKE BASIX. 105 



by a system of charts and diagrams exhibiting the variations in the stream at different 

 seasons of the year. Flood waters and storage possibilities are also closely investi- 

 gated, and enterprises of this character may be undertaken with a degree of safety' 

 not possible when it is necessarj- to relj' wholly upon the reports of private engineers. 

 This thorough stud}' of water supplies furnishes a foundation upon which appro- 

 priations may be based. Another verj- important feature of the Wyoming law is 

 that which provides for the adjudication of rights on the basis of actual beneficial 

 use. The constitution adopted when Wyoming was admitted to statehood provided 

 for a careful review and readjustment of all appropriations, and compelled those who 

 were using public waters to show that they were applying them economically and 

 usefully, or to renounce their claim upon so much of them as thej' were wasting. 

 Priority was scrupulously recognized, but waste was forbidden and efficient means 

 taken to prevent it. 



One of the most important reforms effected bj- the Wyoming law concerned the 

 distribution of water. The commissioners in charge of the twenty -five subdivisions 

 are placed in absolute authoritj' on this score. They and their assistants are vested 

 with police powers, and it is their business to patrol the canals and see that the law 

 is rigorously enforced. There is here no opportunity for one neighbor to interfere 

 with another's headgate. The water commissioner knows the appropriations which 

 have been allowed and the order of their priority. He alone has anj' right to handle 

 the headgates and direct the course of the waters. He is responsible for the deliver}' 

 of the supply and iov its measurement. Complaints seldom arise because verv little 

 has been left open to dispute, but when the}' do they are not filtered through the 

 courts, but placed immediately before the board of control. This is a body composed 

 of irrigation experts and practical irrigators who have been supplied with every 

 facility required for the work of administration. There may be an appeal to the. 

 courts, but it is very seldom taken, since everybody knows that the board of control 

 is best suited to deal with the subject and that the entire water system of the State is 

 built on the foundations of eternal justice. 



The settler who makes his home in Wyoming and the investor who places his 

 money there both know at the beginning the matter and extent of their rights, and 

 they know that these will have the fullest protection. In California neither the set- 

 tler nor the investor can possibly know the precise nature and extent of his rights — 

 they can only know that they are likely to be involved in lawsuits and that the 

 final result must be the survival of the fittest, fitness being determined by the ability 

 to meet the expenses of litigation. And yet the natural conditions for irrigation 

 development are infinitely more favorable in California than in Wyoming. The 

 lifference is simply a code of laws. It would be moderate to say that if the Wyoming 

 iaws could be bodily transferred to the statutes of California the fact would be worth 

 millions of dollars every year to the latter. 



PRIVATE OB, PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF WATER. 



In California, water is private property. Once appropriated, it may be used for 

 any pui-pose to the extent of the ditch or flume constructed for its reception. It may 

 be sold or rented. It may be used first at one place and then at another; first for one 

 pui-pose and then for an entirely different purpose. It is absolutely the property of 



