60 
exposed surface diminished, but as 1 ransfers are almost always upstream 
the waste encountered by traversing a broad, sandy river bed to the 
lower head gates is eliminated entirely. 
Section 3 of the act quoted above was the most discussed and the 
most highly praised or bitterly condemned of any law ever passed 
relative to irrigation, and its praise or blame rested on whether the 
individual was benefited or conceived himself to have been hurt. 
That the law in its practical application both benefited and hurt irriga- 
tion there can be no doubt; but it was in the interpretation of the law 
by the different commissioners and superintendents that the benefit or 
harm lay. The section was intended to sanction the exchange and 
prorating of water in times of emergency and to enable a ditch of late 
priority to obtain water late in the irrigating season for the preserva- 
tion of orchards and small fruits and for domestic use. where it would 
require only throe or four days' run to give the orchards or other 
crops an irrigation that would probably last them the rest of the sea- 
son. It was also deemed proper and desirable where a ditch had a 
small but early priority, not sufficient to reach the end of the ditch on 
account of loss by seepage and evaporation that it should be permitted 
to agree with another ditch in similar circumstances to loan its water 
for a short time to such other ditch, and in return should receive the 
water of that ditch for a like time, and each could with combined heads 
force the water to the end of the ditch. 
The law sanctions the exchange of water between ditches and reser- 
voirs. It is very often impracticable for a ditch company to have its 
reservoirs so located that the stored water is available for use on its 
land. If, however, it is allowable for it to give its stored water to a 
ditch lower on the stream and receive at its head gates water from the 
river on that ditch's priority, a distinct gain results. Also, reservoir 
construction is encouraged and no one is injured, as the amount of 
water diverted at the time of exchange is not increased. 
The commissioners and the superintendent of one division gave the 
most liberal interpretation to the law. They decided that as the law 
read "the water commission shall recognize tin 4 same" (notice of 
agreement of exchange) in his distribution of water, they had no 
discretion in the matter, and as a consequence transfers were made 
whenever and however best suited the contracting parties. It is more 
than suspected that actual sales of water were made by some parties 
having old priorities. The effect of such a proceeding is readily seen; 
priorities were practically suspended and decrees nullified; ditch No. 
1 " loaning" water it could not use to ditch No. 3 deprived ditch No. 2 
of water which would otherwise have been in the river and available 
for the filling of decrees. Crops were not only t; saved/' as allowed 
by the law, but planted, grown, and matured on "borrowed" water. 
Under so liberal a ruling, the management of a ditch could deprive the 
