DATA CONCERNING IRRIGATION IN THE WEST. 311 
reverse of economical. It partakes of the prevalent western spirit, by which the 
cream is skimmed from every source of natural wealth, which is then abandoned. 
" After us the deluge." In Colorado, irrigators use five times as much water as is 
needed, in Utah two to three times as much, and in the great valley of California it is 
used as wastefully. But in the arid regions of Southern and Southwestern California, 
where the ranchmen are Mexicans, who have had centuries of experience, and where 
the water supply is very limited and is all used, the utmost economy prevails, and 
probably the "duty" of water is carried to the highest possible extent. 
But it is not alone the lavish use of water which should be criticised. The want of 
a general plan for the distribution of the contents of the larger streams will inevita- 
bly, in the near future, cause great waste of arable land. The let-alone policy is the 
only one in practice at present. By it each ranchman, or each ditch company, helps 
himself to water wherever he may find it. The only rights are those of priority of 
possession. The result of this happy-go-lucky mode of procedure is that the water 
is distributed to the land by no means in the most economical manner. As a general 
thing, the lands immediately adjacent to the streams — the bottoms — are first taken up, 
and they, monopolizing the water, render valueless all the land back of them, al- 
though the contents of the stream may not be by any means all used. 
The general and the State governments are perfectly cognizant of this condition of 
things, yet practically nothing has been done by them. With the easy indifference 
of the optimist, the government has watched this waste going [on for the past two or 
three decades, and has done nothing to correct it. A move in the right direction was 
made in 1873, when Congress authorized a commission, under a small appropriation, 
to make an examination of the Great Valley of California, with a view to forming a 
general plan for irrigating it. The commission made as full an examination as was 
possible with the limited means at its command, made its report — a very able, though 
by no means an exhaustive one — and there the matter ended. 
In 1874, Prof. George Davidson, of the Coast Survey, was sent, under the auspices 
of the general government, to study the irrigation systems of foreign lands. He 
made a brief study of the methods in use in India and several European countries, 
and the results of these studies were embodied in a report to the Secretary of the 
Treasury, constituting Ex. Doc. 94, Forty-fourth Congress, first session. 
The Geological Survey of the Territories, under Dr. Haydeu, has made an examina- 
tion, not by any means exhaustive, however, of the irrigable lands of Colorado, bring- 
ing out, as a net result, that 7 per cent, of the area of the State, or a little over 7,000 
square miles, can be irrigated at once from the streams without having recourse to 
the reservoir system. 542 
The survey of the Rocky Mountain region, under Maj. J. W. Powell, made a simi- 
lar examination of the Territory of Utah. The result of this work showed that but 
2.8 per cent, of the Territory could be irrigated. 343 This, in the opinion of the writer, 
js too small, owing to some conclusions of Major Powell, to be hereafter noticed, 
w hich are believed to be erroneous. 
The above embrace practically all that has been done by the general government 
touching this important subject. Fugitive articles upon the subject have been pub- 
lished here and there in government reports, but they have little permanent value. 
State and Territorial governments have done quite as little. Indeed, not one has, so 
far as we are aware, touched the subject, excepting California. During the past year, 
this State has had a large engineering force at work, under the supervision of its 
State engineer, Mr. W. H. Hall, examining the southern half of the great valley, and 
the valleys of Los Angeles County, on and near the coast, with a direct view to drain- 
age and irrigation. The present extent and character of the irrigation now carried on 
has been thoroughly canvassed. The nature of the surface of the land as regards 
342 Annual Report Geological Survey of Territories, 1876. Paper on "Arable and 
Pasture Lands of Colorado," pp. 311-347. 
343 Lands of the arid region. 
