73 
foot of water per second" had do meaning to -nine; others maintained 
thai L2 "inches " a was afoot: others still thai L 4.4 or 1,728 was cor- 
rect. It would appear from the results thai the majority favored the 
12 inches to a foot idea, resulting in decrees three times what was 
intended. 
It is strange that the judge or referee, who presumably knew of the 
conflict of opinion and of the wide range of statements relative to w hat 
was necessary to irrigate an acre of land and what constituted an 
'•inch." did not avail himself of the services of a competent engineer, 
who would report on each ditch, classify the land under each, estimate 
the acreage, measure the canal, and ascertain its capacity and the 
amount it probably used. The expense would have been much less 
than the witness fees or the time value of the gratuitous witnesses. 
Had we at that time bad a State engineer who, without bias or prej- 
udice, employing the same methods of measurements and standards 
of classification, was authorized to make reports, the judge would have 
had reliable, uniform data on which to base his decrees; instead of 
such information he relied on the statements of interested parties, who 
were ignorant alike of standards or methods of measurement. During 
the last year a man who has been irrigating for at least thirty years 
demanded in all seriousness and good faith 2,000 inches of water for a 
320-acre farm. About 200 inches were turned into his ditch and he 
reported that he was getting his 2,000 inches all right. He is a type 
of the witnesses testifying before the referee — honest and with the 
best of intentions. The result of all this was, naturally, excessive 
decrees and indefinite and conflicting terms, as in the decree previously 
given. The peculiarities of the decrees in district No. -I- have been 
discussed, but all the above reasons and those previously mentioned 
do not explain, nor can they excuse all the mistakes made. No man. 
no matter how good a judge or attorney, is competent to render 
decrees unless he has had practical experience in the handling and dis- 
tribution of water, and for this reason it seems necessary either to 
remove the settling of priorities from the judiciary or to supply them 
with such expert aid as is necessary. 
A board consisting of men trained in the service who recognize its 
needs, the difficulties and dangers likely to arise, and who can and will 
make examination on the ground to settle disputed facts, seems far 
superior to a judge who has had at most little practical experience with 
water, who is accustomed to handling civil cases with rules of pro- 
cedure scarcely applicable to irrigation cases, and who in the press of 
other work can not take the time necessary to become personally 
familiar with the case on the ground as well as in the court room. To 
r ' In Colorado an "inch" is the volume which will pass through an orifice 1 inch 
square under a pressure of 5 inches, measured from the top of an orifice, and varies 
somewhat with the number of "inches" sought to be measured; 38.4 inches is the 
accepted equivalent of a cubic foot per second, however. 
2817— No. 118—02 6 
