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has  been  decreased  to  definite  areas  of  land.  This  principle  has 
much  to  recommend  it  and  little  objection  could  be  raised  to  its 
application,  providing  a fixed  quantity  of  water  would  always  meet 
the  requirements  of  a definite  area  of  land.  Every  one  knows 
though,  that  the  amount  of  water  required  varies  from  year  to  year 
and  under  a score  or  more  of  conditions.  New  land  which  may 
require  four  or  five  acre  feet  of  water  may  become  so  moist  in  time 
that  it  will  not  require  one  acre  foot  per  season.  The  irrigation 
laws  patterned  after  those  of  Wyoming  are  regarded  as  the  best 
yet ; in  some  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  States  in  which  such  laws 
are  operative,  we  frequently  find  the  most  wasteful  use  of  water 
amounting  in  several  cases  to  over  ten  acre  feet  per  season. 
On  the  other  hand,  California  gets  the  name  of  having  the  worst 
laws  with  regard  to  irrigation,  yet  throughout  Southern  California 
water  is  more  economically  used  than  in  any  other  district  of  the 
arid  West.  I mention  these  facts  not  for  the  purpose  of  over- 
throwing the  law  of  making  water  appurtenant  to  the  land  irri- 
gated, but  rather  for  the  purpose  of  showing  its  shortcoming  when 
regarded  in  the  light  of  an  economical  use  of  water.  Many  now 
contend  that  the  only  way  in  which  water  can  be  economically  used 
is  to  measure  out  the  amount  to  which  each  farmer  is  entitled,  and 
permit  him  to  make  the  best  possible  use  of  what  he  has  pur- 
chased. If  it  is  to  the  interest  of  water  users  to  save  the  water 
which  they  receive  from  canal  companies,  the  water  now  used  and 
wasted  on  western  lands  will  cover  a much  larger  area. 
In  the  arid  and  semi-arid  portions  of  the  United  States,  there  are 
over  1,000  million  acres  and  out  of  this  it  will  not  be  possible,  on 
account  of  the  limited  water  supply  to  irrigate  more  than  about 
50  million  acres  or  one-half  of  one  per  cent,  of  the  total.  From 
this  statement  it  is  not  difficult  to  predict  what  will  happen  in  the 
course  of  time  if  on  the  average  only  one-half  acre  out  of  every 
100  acres  can  be  irrigated.  It  will  mean,  I believe,  that  the  irri- 
gated portion  will  become  extremely  valuable.  The  best  orchard 
lands  on  the  Pacific  Cast  frequently  change  hands  at  from  $1,000 
to  $2,000  per  acre  and  this,  it  seems  to  me,  is  but  an  indication 
of  the  high  values  which  will  be  reached  by  other  portions.  It  is 
not  going  to  pay  the  irrigator  to  raise  much  grain  under  the  ditch. 
He  must  devote  such  lands  to1  more  profitable  crops,  and  these 
crops,  in  order  to  be  profitable,  must  be  well  irrigated  and  intensely 
cultivated.  Only  a comparatively  small  percentage  of  the  irrigated 
farms  in  the  West  have  been  properly  prepared  for  irrigation. 
More  attention  must  be  given  to  this  phase  of  the  subject.  The 
opinion  has  been  prevalent  that  when  a water  right  is  secured  and 
a farm  purchased,  the  chief  sources  of  expense  and  trouble  are 
ever.  This  has  not  been  the  experience  of  the  average  irrigator, 
lie  finds  as  a rule  that  the  first  few  years  after  sage  brush  or  the 
removal  of  other  desert  plants,  little  returns  can  be  derived  from 
the  soil.  He  must  wait  for  years  for  the  most  profitable  crops  to 
mature,  and  in  the  meantime  he  is  under  great  expense  to  so  fit 
the  land  that  it  will  give  him  the  expected  returns. 
