1190 
plies by impervious strata are a matter 
of small concern in sparsely populated 
regions, but in highly civilized countries 
they seriously impair the value of lands 
for agriculture and become a menace to 
the health and prosperity of cities and 
towns Ex1woop MEAD, 
Washington, D C 
United States Bulletin 855 
WATER RIGHTS 
Dwicyt S. ANDERSON 
A water right may be defined as a 
proprietary interest in the use of water 
for the purpose of irrigation or the gen- 
eration of power, which is enforceable at 
law. For the purpose of this discussion, 
this definition will be considered exclu- 
sive of all features excepting those per- 
taining to water for irrigation. 
It may be said at the outset that the 
quality and quantity, so to speak, of a 
water right is of the last importance to 
the owner of arid land. Too frequently 
he is deceived by the quality of his water 
right, ultimately proving to be inferior 
to the quality of the water right of an- 
other, so that his lands become deprived 
of that amount of water necessary to 
cultivation; or by the quantity, so to 
speak, of his water right supplying him 
with an inadequate amount. Both frailties 
come to the same end: deprivation of 
water and partial or complete ruin to the 
farmer, but they reach the same end by 
different means, for few Western streams 
earry enough water throughout all the 
season to supply all the land that may 
be profitably irrigated, and, while it is 
always true in the early days of a com- 
munity that there is plenty of water for 
all, as the years roll by and hundreds of 
thousands of acres are added to the area 
over which the stream is made to flow, 
there comes a conflict between individ- 
uals or groups of individuals springing 
from shortage in the supply, and then 
it is that the question of the water right 
becomes vital to the preservation of 
homes that have perhaps too thought- 
lessly been built upon the desert sands. 
A water right is usually evidenced by 
a paper certificate of some sort showing a 
membership in some co-operative water 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
users’ association, or a share of stock 
therein; or is quite frequently merely a 
contract between the owner of the land 
and a company organized to supply water, 
by which the latter agrees to furnish to 
the former a certain amount of water 
each season, on the payment of a certain 
price for maintenance. The first and the 
most important thing for the prospective 
purchaser of land with such a water right 
to know is not so much the quantity of 
water to which he is entitled by such 
certificate or contract, as between him- 
self and the company, but what right that 
co-operative organization or that water 
company has to the main supply, as 
against other and adverse claims which 
may arise in the future on the part of 
other persons and companies. 
It is quite obvious, in the event that 
a claimant arises, alleging that his right 
is superior to yours, or that of the com- 
pany from whom you hold, that in the 
event of the water being insufficient to 
meet the requirements of both, your in- 
terests will be in very great peril. It is 
certain that you will stand in the place 
of the company, and that your share of 
water cannot be greater than your pro- 
portion of the right of the company or 
organization from whom you hold, de- 
spite any allegations or representations 
of that company which have been made 
to you. If the water is not to be ob- 
tained, or if a superior right extinguished 
your right to the water, no amount of 
warranties to supply a certain amount to 
you can avail anything except to entitle 
you to an action at law for your damages. 
And few, if any, water companies are 
financed on a basis to enable them to 
make good to landowners the damages 
sustained by the deprivation of water, 
while, in the case of a co-operative com- 
pany, the situation would likely be that 
of the landowners suing themselves as 
an organization for what they, as indi- 
viduals, have lost. 
Therefore the question of the kind and 
quality of a water right is first a ques- 
tion of fact, and second a question of 
law. The question of fact should first be 
determined, and then the question of law. 
