10 BULLETIN" 913, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
reports. Water rights in such companies are represented by stock 
in the companies, and each share of stock entitles its holder to a share 
of the total supply of water belonging to the company rather than 
to any fixed quantity. Water is not delivered in proportion to the 
acreage but in proportion to the stock owned, although there is a 
tendency for stock to be held in proportion to acreage. The cost of 
operation and maintenance is raised by assessments on stock, and the 
laws of many of the States provide that companies may sell the stock 
of parties who fail to pay assessments levied on their stock. Usually 
the stock may be rented, and the lessee may draw the water repre- 
sented by the stock. In this respeet, a right represented by stock 
in a mutual company differs materially from rights in other com- 
panies or districts. In the latter enterprises the water may be used 
only on particular tracts of land and if it is not used on those tracts 
the owners are not permitted to draw it or dispose of it in any way. 
The. plans of enterprises of all the other classes mentioned, except 
irrigation districts, contemplate that eventually they will become 
joint stock companies of the type* just described, or irrigation dis- 
tricts. This change is discussed in connection with the discussion 
of the other types of enterprises. 
IRRIGATION DISTRICTS. 
Iii irrigation districts a right to water is an incident to ownership 
of land within the boundaries of a district and goes with the land. 
Each acre of land in a district is entitled to its share of the water 
supply of the district, whatever that supply may be. Here the quan- 
tity of water which will be received depends entirely upon the re- 
lation between the quantity available and the acreage of land in the 
district. Thus an examination of the water right of the district itself 
is the only means of forming an idea of the value of the right. 
Every district has a nominal water supply of a certain quantity for 
each acre in the district, but, as pointed out, this may be only nomi- 
nal. The actual supply may be much less. 
In districts there is no purchase of a water right, as such, but 
merely the purchase of land. Districts issue bonds to obtain funds 
for securing a water supply, and taxes are levied to raise funds to 
pay the bonds and interest and the cost of operation and mainte- 
nance. These taxes, if unpaid, become a lien on the land, and the 
amount of bonds which must be paid off by each acre of land is in 
effect the price of a water right for that acre, although it may 
not be called that. At present (1920) there is a very strong tendency 
to reorganize enterprises of other types, particularly United States 
reclamation projects, into districts. 
