82 BULLETIN" 1026, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
engineers and hydrographers to determine losses and gains in the 
streams, the return flow, characteristics of flow peculiar to each 
stream in flood and at low stages, and other pertinent facts. With 
this information at the disposal of the administrator a fairly satis- 
factory distribution would be possible immediately upon his taking 
office and not after 2 or 3 years of painstaking and perhaps costly 
experimenting. 
The duty of water figured for the river as a whole is 1.67 acre-feet 
per acre ; or, expressed differently, each second-foot of the average 
annual discharge irrigates 434 acres. This very high duty is made 
possible only by the reservoirs of the valley. To attain a duty as 
high without stored water, the crops grown would have to be limited 
to the grains. 
The consumptive duty for the valley is estimated not to exceed 
1.25 acre- feet per acre. 
Nonproductive and waste land averages approximately 15 per cent 
of the area under irrigation. 
The areas irrigated by the various canals lie in very compact 
bodies, which promotes to a pronounced extent the efficient use of the 
water supply. 
The area actually irrigated in the valley proper in 1916 was 218,000 
acres ; in 1917, 225,700 acres. Any marked extension of the area irri- 
gated is improbable. 
The majority of the canals of the valley are cooperative enter- 
prises and present no unusual features of organization. The fact 
that the majority were cooperative from the beginning has an im- 
portant bearing on the development of the valley. Such systems 
were run for the mutual benefit of water users and there was very 
little of the paralysis of development caused elsewhere by overpro- 
motion for profit. 
The great majority of laterals serving more than 2 or 3 users are 
controlled by incorporated cooperative stock companies, and this form 
of organization for laterals is to be recommended. By it the delin- 
quent water user can, in an impersonal way, be made to live up to 
his obligations. 
Canal structures follow common designs and concrete is replacing 
wood for construction purposes. The systems of the valley have long 
since passed the stage of development where cheap construction was 
permissible in order to reduce first costs, to keep down interest 
charges, and to permit expansion. Future construction should be of 
the most substantial character. 
The rating flumes of the canals are generally most unsatisfactory 
and should be replaced by structures better suited for the purpose. 
They should be of the same cross section as the canal and should 
neither constrict nor widen the channel. They should be on grade 
