74 
goon adding reasons for such a change, in view of the condition of the 
decrees already rendered by the courts, is entirely unnecessary. If 
the customs and laws are so firmly grounded as to preclude the possi- 
bility of the change indicated, a law requiring the State engineer to 
examine and make report on the ditches of a district before decrees 
arc <ntered would meet most requirements. In the old districts, how- 
ever, where the decrees have become fixed, the State engineer should 
be required to examine each ditch, reservoir, and decree, and upon his 
report to the district judge, after proper hearing, excess decrees should 
be declared abandoned. 
Enlargement is productive of more evil than transfers. Transfers 
are open, subject to examination and question. Enlargement is a slow, 
insiduous, intangible process of taking more and more water from the 
river and of depriving later appropriators of benefits which the}' have 
before enjoyed. The simple process of cleaning a ditch, if well and 
thoroughly done, may be made in a few years to double the capacity. 
An examination and record of the present ditch capacities would pre- 
vent much of this and declared abandonment, resulting in practically 
a new set of decrees, would stop it altogether. 
The decrees all contain one element so indefinite that one is at a loss 
how at this time to apply a remedy, though in future decrees this 
might be more specifically stated — that is the time element. A decree 
purports to establish the maximum amount of water that can be 
diverted at any time. It is left to conjecture, however, for what length 
of time the water is so run. Under the conditions existing at the 
time appropriations were made for the early ditches, and extending 
even to the time of the decree, the water was used quite differently 
from what it is at present. The crops were all early maturing and 
required little late water. Now, however, both early and late crops 
are raised, the result being that instead of having little use for water 
after July it is now demanded for August and September as well. 
Formerly water was run on the land perhaps one week in the month; 
now with larger ditches, larger and more diversified crops, it is run 
every day in the month. This, then, is an increase in the length of 
the season and of use from an intermittent to a continuous flow, with 
the result of a largely increased acreage irrigated and actual volume 
diverted though the number of cubic feet per second may be no 
greater. 
This enlarged use is made possible by the segregation of the land 
and water under the rulings of courts and brings up a consideration of 
the fourth item in the summary on page 64. 
Numerous cases have been tried in the State in which the right to 
transfer water has been confirmed. With the conditions of excess 
decrees, it is to be expected that the excess, when water becomes val- 
uable, will, if possible, be used. The water becomes an article of sale 
and purchase, and, while as stated in the section on laws, transfer, 
