IRRIGATION WATERS AND THEIR 
EFFECTS. 
BY W. P. HEADDEN. 
I shall endeavor to set forth in general terms some of the 
broader features of the questions pertaining to the changes caused 
by irrigating onr lands, without making any attempt to go into de¬ 
tails, or any pretense to a thorough discussion of the questions 
connected with this subject. The following pages are intended as 
a brief or popular bulletin, presenting some of the conclusions ar¬ 
rived at in bulletin No. 82, but are entirely independent in the 
manner of presentation. 
The waters used for irrigation in earlier years were really 
derived directly from the melting snows of the mountains to a 
much greater extent than at the present time. The cold of the 
higher altitude of the mountains was then the only cause prevent¬ 
ing the waters falling in these regions, or formed by the melting 
of the snow, from flowing rapidly from the place of their precipi¬ 
tation to the lower reaches of the rivers, through which they find 
their way to join the oceanic waters. This agent is as active now 
as then but alone it is inadequate to effect a sufficiently regular dis¬ 
tribution of these waters to meet the varied and growing require¬ 
ments of agriculture, and it has been supplemented by the use of 
reservoirs to store the waters and prevent them from going to 
waste. Not only has the attempt been made to store the flood 
