2 BULLETIN 1340, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
abundance of a natural resource led to lax methods in determining 
the rights of the users, and not infrequently excessive quantities of 
water were granted to individuals, associations, and corporations. 
These lax methods apply to a considerable part of the 19,000,000 
acres irrigated in the United States in 1919, for which the water 
requirements were more or less arbitrarily fixed by various agencies. 
Due to the growing scarcity and increasing cost of public water, its 
apportionment in recent years has been made with increasing econ- 
omy and equity, many former grants have been questioned, and 
many rights are being readjudicated. 
A consideration of the unutilized water supplies and the economic 
benefits resulting from irrigation leads to the conclusion that fully 
50,000,000 acres in the West may ultimately be irrigated. In other 
words, about 60 per cent of western water supplies are still to be uti- 
lized ; but, judging from the trend of public sentiment in recent years, 
the apportionment of these supplies will be done with much more skill 
and economy than was exercised in alloting the 40 per cent now 
utilized. Furthermore, since fertile land is plentiful and cheap and 
water scarce and valuable, the ultimate prosperity of the Western 
States, from an agricultural point of view, will depend upon how 
wisely and equitably the water supplies are used. If too much water 
per acre is allotted, the ultimate possibilities of the land and water 
resources can not be attained. On the other hand, if too little water 
is allotted, profitable crops can not be raised and the interests of the 
farmer will suffer accordingly. To avoid either extreme and to place 
irrigation farming on a secure foundation, the quantity of water 
required to irrigate each kind of crop in each type of soil under 
the varying climatic conditions which prevail should be carefully 
determined. The results of such studies should be widely dissemi- 
nated, in order to guide the correction of errors already made and 
make possible a more equitable and economical apportionment of all 
the available water supply. 
Such an apportionment of water is rendered difficult by topogra- 
phy and other physical conditions. The higher mountain ranges 
intercept the moisture-laden winds and cause a relatively heavy pre- 
cipitation of rain and snow. The locality of heaviest precipitation 
may, however, be quite far removed from the farms to be supplied 
with water, and the storage, conveyance, and distribution of the 
run-off involve heavy construction cost and require wise adminis- 
trative regulations in order that the farmers may receive at the 
proper time an adequate supply of water. Wide fluctuations in 
stream flow, seepage losses from earthen channels, waste of water 
on irrigated lands, and the return and reuse of part of the waters 
diverted, all tend to complicate the undertaking. 
Largely because of the scarcity of water and the injurious effects 
on soils and crops of using too much, several Western States have 
enacted laws limiting the quantity that can be used in irrigation. 
Some have created special tribunals and administrative bodies whose 
duty, in part, is to apportion the public waters within their respec- 
tive jurisdictions. When litigation arises over water rights in- 
volving the duty of water for certain lands, it devolves on the judi- 
ciary to settle the controversies. In like manner, the management 
of irrigation enterprises, where the State does not interfere, de- 
