346 IRRIGATION' INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



absolute ownership as the same quantity of sand or clay or stone taken from the 

 same land would be. 



Under the West Los Angeles Water Company's system water is carefully meas- 

 ured and the consumer pays according to the amount used. Hence there is an 

 incentive to economj^, and the duty of water will be found to be much greater than 

 under the city's wasteful system. 



It may be remarked in closing that generally throughout southern California all 

 water, even that diverted from natural surface streams, is practically regarded as 

 subject to absolute ownership — that is to say, the water is not attached to the land. 

 It may be bought, sold, or rented like any other class of merchandise. It may be 

 owned by a person who has not a square foot of land; it may be transferred at will 

 from one tract to another, etc. In fact, the only apparent difference between the 

 present accepted title to water, and the absolute ownership thereof seems to be that 

 a prescriptive title to water may be acquired b}^ five years' adverse use. But it is 

 hardly necessary to add that at the present time no water will be found running 

 around loose in southern California without an owner. The usual trouble is that 

 there ai'e too many claimants. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



Having noted in the foregoing pages some of the shortcomings and abuses of the 

 existing system of acquiring and administering water rights in this vicinity, it may be 

 proper to add some suggestions as to how this system may be improved. 



When we remember the paramount importance of irrigation in southern Califor- 

 nia, it may seem strange that a more rational and systematic plan of treatment was 

 not adopted long ago. That it was not is due probably to the unfriendly attitude 

 shown by a majority in the State legislature toward irrigation. Until quite recent 

 years the people living in the greater part of the State regarded irrigation in the 

 same light that eastern people generally view it, viz, that it is a grievous hardship 

 imposed by nature upon the inhabitants of certain ill-favored regions of the earth. 

 Holding this opinion it was the custom of the central and northern counties to depre- 

 ciate the advantages and to magnify the disadvantages of irrigation. Through their 

 newspapers and by all other means of publicity they sought to advertise the fact that 

 by great good fortune irrigation was unnecessary in their respective localities, and 

 they endeavored by these means to attract immigration to themselves. Those sec- 

 tions where irrigation was properly understood were always represented by a 

 minority in the legislature. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the 

 irrigation interest failed to secure due recognition and to have established a code of 

 laws under which it could develop in a safe and permanent manner. 



At no time in the past has a thorough stud}' of existing conditions and needs 

 been made. Statutes have been framed without full knowledge of the magnitude of 

 the subject and its economic importance to the State. The law as laid down by deci- 

 sions of the supreme court has been largely in the nature of attempts to harmonize 

 with the peculiar conditions of the arid region the unsuitable rules of the common 

 law transplanted from lands where irrigation is unknown. 



