WYOMING, LAW-GIVER OF ARID REGION 



the growth of crops. Ho also became an assistant in 

 the office of State Engineer, which gave him an insight 

 into water laws and practice. The moment of his arrival 

 in Wyoming was most fortunate. The Territory was 

 about to become a State, and its fundamental laws and 

 institutions were to bo made out of hand. The young 

 engineer had already formed strong convictions as to the 

 laws which should govern the appropriation and use of 

 the water supply. These convictions he succeeded in im- 

 pressing upon the work of the Constitutional Conven- 

 tion, and, later, upon the acts of the Legislature. Ho 

 became the first State Engineer of Wyoming, and suc- 

 ceeding Governors kept him in office, with the strongest 

 public approval, until the Agricultural Department at 

 Washington called him into its service in order that his 

 abilities and experience might be applied in a wider 

 sphere. 



Mr. Mead insisted that with tho birth of the new 

 State every old water-right should be adjudicated upon 

 the basis of the amount of water actually applied to a 

 beneficial use. It mattered not how much the appro- 

 priator had originally claimed by posting a notice on tho 

 bank of the stream and placing it upon the county rec- 

 ords. He may have claimed ten times the amount of 

 water he put upon his land, and so prevented others from 

 obtaining it to develop new farms. Or he may have put 

 upon his land twice as much water as the crop really 

 required. Whether he did this through ignorance or 

 through greed was of no consequence, since the result 

 was equally detrimental to the community in either 

 case. By means of this vigorous action the evil which 

 has caused so much suffering and cost so much money 



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