The Trrigation Problem in Montana. 225 
they were not at first compelled to construct their works, “with 
due diligence until completed,” nor to make ditches of capacities ca- 
pable of carrying the volumes claimed, and above all because there 
is no officer having the power to measure the quantities of water 
diverted or to see that the works are prosecuted with due dili- 
gence. Endless and unsatisfactory litigation results, hastened by 
the occupation of lands lower down on some stream which in a 
very dry season may not flow sufficient water for all the appro- 
priators who have acquired titles, whereupon the later settlers 
who have recorded their appropriations claim the water, while 
those who diverted water before the passage of the last law claim 
the right to it, though unrecorded, and as a consequence the case 
is carried to the courts, often with unjust and always with expen- 
sive results. 
During the past exceptionally dry season these conditions led 
to much bitter litigation, often to bloodshed, and equally often to 
financial ruin owing to the Sunny of water being insufficient to 
mature the crops planted. 
Water being very abundant in the smaller mountain valleys has 
led to great wastefulness in its use, the irrigator after applying 
what water his crops needed, instead of turning it back into the 
stream for the use of settlers lower down, generally turns his 
ditch loose on the open prairie and allows the water to run to 
waste. Then wasteful methods of applying the water to the crops 
are employed, and owing to the cheap and hasty construction of a 
vast number of small ditches the loss by seepage is very great ; 
it has been estimated that there is on an average a ditch for every 
200 acres of land cultivated, making a total of about 2500 irri- 
gating ditches in the State. 
In the last two years there has been a marked increase in the 
interest taken in irrigation enterprises, and though this has re- 
sulted in the formation of several large companies, which intend 
to take water by long and expensive canals to sections now uncul- 
tivated, yet in these cases are universally seen the same crude 
methods employed in first beginnings, without the aid and advice 
of experienced engineers. Large canals are being constructed. 
at great cost, capable of carrying many times the amount of 
water flowing in the stream appropriated, whereas a much smaller 
and less expensive one would have carried the entire water supply. 
Again small canals have been constructed to carry small vol- 
umes of water very long distances, often 50 to 80 miles, while in 
