54 
Little was done under this law. many details of procedure being 
omitted. In L881, therefore, the act was amended, making further 
77 c 
provisions for settling and recording priorities of right, viz, a pro- 
vision for petitioning the district court to proceed to an adjudication 
of rights, for the water commissioner to keep a record of decrees, and 
that the county clerk should record them: also for numbering the 
decrees, for keeping the testimony where it could be inspected by 
interested parties, for fixing the method of procedure in cases of 
appeals to the supreme court, which court could then render a decree, 
and providing that four years in place of two be allowed in which 
proceedings may be begun to set aside the decrees. 
The present practice in obtaining title to water is to have the ditch 
or reservoir surveyed and platted, then either before or after con- 
struction statements are filed in the offices of the State engineer and 
county recorder. After completion of the works and after the water 
has been applied to the land a petition is presented to the district 
court asking that the rights be defined; after proper notice to all 
interested parties and due publication, the evidence is taken by the 
judge or a referee, and decree entered according to the findings. The 
water commissioner and other officials are notified by the clerk of the 
court, and a copy of the decree is furnished. Adverse claimants may, 
within four years, present their protest to the court, and the usual 
court procedure establishes the contested rights. The following cir- 
cular, issued by the State engineer's office, gives the forms used at 
present for filing claims to ditch and reservoir rights, and is in accord- 
ance with the laws now in force: 
[Circular.] 
State Engineer's Office, Denver, Colo. 
Instructions for preparing sworn statements and maps in the appropriation of 
water for ditches, canals, and reservoirs, and for the preparation of plans of specifi- 
cations for dams. 
RECORDING STATEMENTS OF CLAIMS TO WATER RIGHTS. 
State of Colorado, County of , ss: 
Statement of claim to water right. 
Irrigation division Xo. — . Water district Xo. — . 
The undersigned, , owner — of the following-described ditch, in 
compliance with the requirements of general section Xo. 1720 of the general stat- 
utes of the State of Colorado, and the amendments thereto, hereby make this 
statement for filing in the proper offices: 
1. The name — of the owner — of the said ditch, , whose post-office 
address is , county of . 
2. The name of the said ditch is the ditch. 
3. The head gate of the said ditch is located on the bank of , from 
which stream said ditch diverts its auppy of water, at a point whence the cor- 
ner of section , in township , of range west, bears feet. 
From the head gate the said ditch inns in a general direction, as show!! on 
