all sorts of conduits. When it is proposed, first to estimate, and second to measure the amount that each farmer requires to draw from the natural stream or main ditch, a new difficulty arises in the question, "How much do I need for so many acres?" or "How far will a cubic foot of water go?" This is called estimating upon the duty of water.

Duty of Water in Irrigation.-Major Powell took great pains in his surveys of the arid region years ago to determine what amount the above-given unit (a second-foot) would supply, and concluded that the area should be from 80 to 100 acres when applied most economically, This was in Utah, and has usually been accepted for California as well; but it is difficult to say how generally true it is. A great many considerations must qualify any general statement. It depends upon the kind of soil to be watered, some soils holding water well, while others permit almost immediate evaporation or rapid percolation, on whether it is old or new land, or whether the land is used during the whole or only part of the year, on the kind of crops to be raised, on the climate with reference to rainfall and the winds-the latter controlling evaporation-and on the skill and the theories of the irrigator. "Any statement," says Mr. Greene (State Engineer's report, 1888), "in which the duty of water in Colorado is expressed as a definite quantity is arbitrary. It differs with the slightest change in any of the governing conditions. As there is a demand for general results in this matter, it may be said, relative to the duty of water on the plains of Colorado, measured where distributed to the land, that one second-foot running throughout the irrigation season, in addition to about five inches of rainfall during April and May and 4.5 inches during June, July, and August, if distributed with fair care to diversified crops, on what might be called average land, would irrigate from sixty to seventy acres. It is noticed that to accomplish this duty it must be measured where placed upon the land. As in ditches of considerable length, twenty-five to thirty miles, it is not uncommon to lose by evaporation and seepage 25 to 30 per cent. of the water turned into the ditch, the estimated duty of the water turned into the ditch might be placed at fifty acres. But as the ditches are used they lose less water, as a rule, from year to year by percolation; and the lands to which they supply water need, after several applications of the water, in some cases at any rate, less water than at first, and since, as water increases in value it is more economically used, the duty of water, whatever be the locus of the measurement, is continually increasing in Colorado. If the duty of water in connection with some of our streams is considered, it will be found that, notwithstanding all losses by seepage and evaporation, the efficiency of the water can be placed at over 100 acres per second-foot. This is accounted for by the return of much of the water diverted by the upper ditches to the channel of the stream and its rediversion by lower ditches, so that portions of it are again and again distributed to the land. With more storage reservoirs, this duty will be still further increased."

It has been legally determined in California, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah that the unit of

measurement for the distribution of natural streams shall be one cubic foot per second; and probably the same system will be adopted universally for the sale of water by ditch owners to consumers. But the law of Colorado and the customs of the Southwestern Territories contemplate this sale by the inch. Sale by the inch was very well in early times when canals were few and water abundant, but it was extremely inaccurate and variable under the best devices of measurement and forms of meter. These meters have been many, but all consist of a box receiving water by a little fall, and then delivering it to the consumers' ditch through an aperture, with a sliding door marked in inches. An aper

ture one inch square will give, theoretically, in Colorado, about 45 cubic inches of water every second; but this varies with so many changing circumstances that, although a consumer knows how much he pays for, he has no idea how much water he really gets or uses. In many cases, as where a ditch has been built by co-operation, or where a lateral ditch is to be wholly divided among several farms, the proper division of the water becomes important. The ordinary device is a flume set lengthwise and filling the whole ditch, with a partition which diverts just that proportion of water to which each consumer is entitled, whatever may be the total amount in the ditch. Men at the head of the ditch have no interest in anything but their own fraction; but those below, and especially the last man, who can get only what the others leave, and often finds it sadly less than the theory calls for, has a vital interest in the proceedings of the men above him. There may be no fraud in their practices, and still he will not get his share; for it is well known that when a ditch is carrying only a little water, the waste by seepage, evaporation, etc., is much greater than when it has a full and rapid current. Where the dividing partition is permanent, no fraud can be charged, but often this partition is movable, chained in place, and locked by the water commissioner; and in this case it is possible for a dishonest man (to whom the temptation is often very great) to pry open his gate by a wedge so as to admit far more water than could legitimately pass into his gateway. Other methods of division are employed, but a generally satisfactory and trustworthy means of dividing water among consumers has got to be adopted.

Legal Questions.-As the power and value of water becomes so great, to a country dependent upon irrigation, as to make its presence and use the prime necessity of individual and public prosperity, the legal aspect of the matter looms up. The general legal aspect of irrigation the world over has been summarized by Hinton thus: "1. The maintenance of a general sovereignty among all civilized nations over all navigable waters. 2. The Anglo-Saxon or common-law jurisprudence recognizes riparian rights or control over running water, or other natural supplies, of the owners of the land bordering there3. The Latin jurisprudence, and all codes founded thereon, as well as all the Oriental codes, customs, and systems, place all natural waters as subject to 'servitude; therefore public property subject to economic individual use through In community rules or legislative enactments. this country the Spanish and Mexican codes and customs in this direction govern in large portions of our southwest territory." Among the Indian and Mexican farmers of New Mexico and

on.

Arizona the community customs have worked very well for three centuries; and also in Utah, where the power of the church and the principles of brotherly assistance have hitherto sufficed to regulate this matter and settle any disputes that may have arisen; but in both these instances the operations were simple and the demand for water has not overtaxed the supply available without any very expensive or corporate works. In the larger and differently constituted communities, like California and Colorado, whose systematic irrigation on an extensive scale was necessary, primitive customs like these have been found wholly inadequate. In California-where the Mexican customs and code which had prevailed among the missions and villages of the southern counties previous to the advent of the Americans in 1849 were brought into rude contact with the Anglo-Saxon doctrine of riparian rights, which came in with the Eastern immigrants-the matter has become one of the most important in State legislation, and it is not yet settled. As soon as irrigation in California was begun by the American residents, it was perceived that there would be an irrepressible conflict between the provisions of the common law on the subject of riparian rights and the requirements of agriculture in a region requiring irrigation. The declaration of the former, that every riparian owner is entitled to the undiminished volume of the stream (intended evidently for the safe guarding of the interests of the uses of water power), strikes at the very foundation of the use of water for irrigation, and is incompatible with such use, and, therefore, with the very existence of agriculture in the arid region. Yet this law has been invoked again and again in California by riparian owners claiming the undiminished volume of the streams from those above them, while fully intending to use it freely on their own lands. Numerous costly and protracted lawsuits are pending in the courts of the State, which are embarrassed by the conflict of the acknowledged foundation of American civil law with the manifest equities of the cases before them. The forestalling, by means of the pre-emption, homestead, or timber privileges, of all the water supply from

springs available during the dry season has, in California, created a situation that makes such pre-emptors lords of all they survey, since no one can occupy the adjacent lands without paying tribute for water supply. The control of water used in irrigation ditches in California is almost altogether based upon the right of “prior appropriation" in pursuance of custom rather than law. The agitation of this subject in California culminated in conventions for the recommendation of laws that should settle the matter, and that of 1887 adopted the following propositions as the demands of irrigators:

1. The declaration that every natural stream and water source is public property.

2. That the appropriation for beneficial uses of any such stream must be made under legislative enact

ments.

3. That all water so appropriated in the State is declared to be a public use.

4. Rates and rents for use are to be fixed by public authority, but must not exceed 7 per cent. on capital actually expended in constructing irrigation works.

In Colorado, common law was at the founda

tion of procedure, but in irrigation matters it has almost disappeared under the doctrine of priority of appropriation. This arose out of the necessity felt by men working gold placers on the public domain of securing an indefeasible right by first use (beneficial) of the water that covered claims. This doctrine has been legalized was indispensable to the enjoyment of their disby the United States in its mining and land laws, and is recognized by the Constitution of Colorado.

In the matter of State legislation, the water laws of Colorado, now adopted by Wyoming, are conceded to be the most comprehensive and just. That code provides :

The public character of all natural water sources.
Maintains the doctrine of prior appropriation.
That the farmer has first claim in unappropriated

water.

by

That unused water must be returned to the stream. That irrigation works shall have legal right of way. That the standard of measurement shall be fixed

law.

Water districts to be formed with commissioners to peals to district courts being allowed. settle disputes and water masters to distribute; ap

Registration in county clerk's office of all water appropriations.

Franchises to be granted with power to construct works and levy rents.

Providing for a State engineer.

In a large number of cases the farmers own stock in the ditch corporation whose water they use. To such a company they pay a certain fee, as to a common carrier, for transportation of the water to which their shares of stock entitle them: for any additional supply they must pay as if they were outside customers. The stock of some of the early canals has appreciated enormously in value; and the "water rights" adhering to a piece of cultivated property, or to land accessible to an existing ditch, often constitute the major part of its value.

Methods.-The actual methods of irrigation in the United States are very simple. A main canal or ditch brings water from streams that may be miles away. These canals come from a stream that is fed by the melting of snows on the mountain tops in May, June, and July-just

the time when water in the canal is most needed. The canals are carried along with a descent of only one and a half to two feet per mile, winding around hills or uneven ground to maintain a uniform grade. If the ground and the stream descend rapidly, the canal may thus be carried scores of miles, and at its end be twenty, fifty, or one hundred feet above the parent stream. The side canals are taken out at different places and similarly carried over or around uneven land, so that a single main canal may irrigate hundreds of thousands of acres. The "lateral," by means of which each farmer takes his supply of water, comes from the side of the main canal, and extends several rods, or even miles, to the upper side of a field, into a plow furrow nearly on a level, and the water in this case spreads out each way. From this head furrow very small ones are made with a hoe, or quicker with a single-horse small plow. They are run in such direction, required by the conformation of the land, as will give them only a slight descent. A shovelful of earth in the plow furrow at the entrance of these little ditches keeps them closed. When the land needs water, the little gate or sliding board at the canal is raised.

face, then run one furrow along the upper side of the field to receive the water. A small opening with a hoe against the furrows or hollows between the rows allows the water to flow along the furrows and soak into each side of them. The main lateral ditch is usually permanent, made by a few plow furrows, not so deep as to prevent easy driving over it. The small field channels are usually obliterated in the general plowing, new ones being made or left when the crop is put in. A wheat or other grain or grass field is often flooded over its whole surface by openings from the ditch along the higher side. Another method, where land is very valuable and permanent improvements are desirable, is to run perforated pipe, like drain pipe, one and a half to three feet underground, and let water into the heads of them to soak up into the soil.

The large plow furrow being filled with water, the irrigator opens or closes the upper ends of the small furrows by taking out a shovel of earth. The operator walks over the field, and where water enough is not flowing out in any place he clips off a bit of earth from the side of the small ditch or furrow, or stops the flow at any point by throwing in a little soil. In this way he can, in an hour or two, give an entire field what would be equal to a heavy soaking rain. This may be done so deeply that the growing crop may flourish through the hottest season or drought, without another irrigation.

Where water goes deep, it is only very slowly evaporated from the surface, while the roots of the crop grow downward so far as to find a good deal of moisture. Usually only two, or at most three, such irrigations are needed on a wheat crop grown on a soil that is literally a dry ash heap. The number of irrigations and the amount of water at each flowing depend upon the character of the subsoil. Some land requires only a single flowing in May or June. Sometimes a flowing about the heading-out time will produce heavy kernels. Sometimes the ground is well flooded before the seed is sown and once or twice afterward unless there is an unusual amount of rain. Most farmers using irrigation rather prefer no rain. Having a supply of water in the canal to use whenever needed, they prefer continual hot sunshine, which pushes forward growth most rapidly.

For corn, potatoes, and other crops in rows, for fruit trees, etc., one method is to have the rows run with the downward incline of the sur

In this way one has a positive and permanent moisture in the soil.

Advantages of Irrigation.-"Crops thus cultivated," to quote Prof. Eugene W. Hilgard, "are not subject to the vicissitudes of rainfall. The farmer fears no droughts, his labors are seldom interrupted, and his crops are rarely injured by storms. Again, the water comes down from the mountains and plateaus freighted with fertilizing materials derived from the decaying vegetation and soils of the upper regions which are spread over the cultivated lands. It is probable that the benefits derived from this source alone will be full compensation for the cost of the process. When the flow of water over the land is too great or too rapid, the fertilizing elements borne in the waters are carried past the fields and a washing is produced which deprives the lands irrigated of their most valuable elements and little streams cut the fields with channels injurious in diverse ways. Experience corrects these errors, and the irrigator soon learns to flood his lands gently, evenly, and economically."

Subirrigation is peculiarly adapted to fruit raising and the cultivation of garden vegetables. The remarkable success following this method in Yuba County, Cal., is noteworthy. An orchardist there has declared that one acre of land irrigated in this way would yield returns the net value of which was equivalent to that obtainable from fifty acres of land irrigated on the surface. Sediment in the water distributed to the perforated pipes is fatal to this plan, so that the water must be settled before being used.

Where it is necessary to irrigate hillsides, what is called "hanging up water" is resorted to. A high-line ditch is dug two feet wide, six feet deep, and as long as the land to be irrigated.

Below this first ditch and at intervals of ten feet parallel ditches are made. An iron pipe is then run along the end of the ditches with a stop-cock opposite each. The ditches are next covered with slabs laid on cross pieces sunk about a foot in the ground. The slabs are then covered with earth, after which the whole hillside may be plowed over. When the crop requires it, water is turned into the ditches from the pipe at the end and percolates through the ground. If a lower ditch becomes too full it is pumped or tapped. Another method is to plow deep furrows and fill them with straw, then cover the straw by a return plowing. These buried lines of straw serve as channels for the water, which is admitted at the highest level.

In climates having a long growing season, so far as temperature is concerned, the effects of irrigation on actual production are startling. In southern California as well as in western Arizona crops may be started at any season (except two months) in the year, and this holds true for market gardens as far north as San Francisco. In Tulare and Kern counties five cuts of alfalfa have been taken off the same field in a single season and ten tons of its hay made. So with sorghum, Egyptian corn, and pearl millet when cut for forage, of which with irrigation three heavy cuts have been made, an enormous yield, which, of course, could be maintained only on a very strong soil or later by the aid of manure; but irrigation enables the farmer to impart to the penny a nimbleness unheard of in regions dependent upon the seasons alone.

Irrigation enables the farmer to keep his pastures green in autumn or start them early in spring. It enables him to produce heavier crops and to secure a larger growth of fruit trees, shrubbery, etc., in one season than can be obtained by any unaided process of nature. The same stream that beautifies and fertilizes his soil can be led by his door and made to furnish power for his churn, grindstone, saw, fanning mill, etc. Finally, it adds immensely to the general beauty of the country, keeping shrubbery verdant and a multitude of blossoming plants alive and in full leaf or flower throughout the year.

Artesian Wells.-Artesian wells may become an important factor in irrigation by supplying water where otherwise it is unattainable. Though the soil of the plains between the 100th meridian and the Rocky mountains is mainly fertile, the spaces between the rivers are destitute of water during summer and early autumn. Experiments with artesian wells on these plains previous to 1880 failed, except at Pueblo, Col. In 1880 Congress appropriated money for a geological survey and the putting down of test wells. The report of this commission was interesting scientifically, but the practical outcome was discouraging, Nevertheless, continual experiment and searching has borne fruit in that region. In western Kansas several limited spots have been discovered where wells produce sufficient water for a small local irrigation. Robert Hay says, in the August and September Report of the Kansas Board of Agriculture":

A flow of 100 gallons a minute is almost exactly 800 cubic feet an hour. This is 19,200 cubic feet a day. This would cover 19,200 square feet of land one foot deep, or 230,400 square feet of land one inch deep. An acre of land contains 43,560 square feet, which is contained in 230,400, 5-28 times. That is, a flow of 100 gallons a minute would in one day cover a little over 5 acres one inch deep. Supposing one third (which is a large estimate) of this water were lost by evaporation, this would suffice to put one inch of water on 35 acres once every ten days (3 acres a day.) This, for a year, is equal to a rainfall on 35 acres of 36 inches-abundant for any growth of vegetation. It is certain also that except in summer the evaporation would not equal that estimated above. In June, July, and August it might be desirable to give the land half an inch of water every five days, so as not to have long intervals. A well, then, of a hundred gallons a minute, with the rainfall of ten inches per annum (the least given in the fourteen years' records at Dodge City), would be ample, if properly used, for the irrigation of 50 acres of land. It is a reasonable estimate to suppose the existing Meade County wells are yielding 600 gallons a minute, so that 300 acres could readily be irrigated. There are other districts in the West that will probably do as well, though the prospector's drill without guidance is as likely to miss them as to find them.

Laramie City, Wyoming, according to Hinton, is the center of an artesian-well district. In Colorado artesian wells are numerous. Denver has long obtained the larger part of its drinking water from them; and it appears from the water commissioner's report from that district, for 1888, that the city and its vicinity possessed 81 wells, the deepest of which was 1,069 feet. New Mexico and Arizona also possess artesian wells. In Tulare County, Cal., there are nearly or quite 100 artesian wells, and in Fresno and Kern counties nearly as many more. They cost about $1,200 each, and go to a depth, in some instances, of 350 feet. In the Kern County “artesian belt," farms are deemed very desirable. They are generally small. The water is raised by windmills from such wells as do not overflow, and the irrigator is able to use the water at will; and as the wells are generally in the frostless or citrus belt, they are fast becoming an important agent. In San Bernardino and Los Angeles the same source of supply is being used extensively.

Reservoirs.-The construction of reservoirs to save water in the seasons of rainfall or snow melting, until it shall be needed in the season of drought, early engaged the attention of agriculturists. The tanks or irrigation reservoirs built by the ancients in southern Asia are the admiration of engineers, and are still the mainstay of local husbandry. In the United States works of that kind are constructed, or under way, in California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona.

The reservoirs of California are on an extensive scale. Fortunately, some of the tracts most desirable for cultivation lie in close proximity to catchment reservoirs, which in years past have been constructed to serve the hydraulic or placer gold fields. The inability of those corporations to dispose of the débris, so destructive to agricultural lands below if poured into the Sacramento and its confluents, has compelled the disposal of their storage waters for irrigation on a much more extensive scale than formerly prevailed. One of the greatest reservoirs lately constructed is that five miles above Merced, where an area of about 800 acres was turned

into a reservoir by the erection of a dam 4,000 feet long. Five years were consumed in the construction of this work, from 250 to 1,000 men and from 200 to 500 horses being constantly employed. The reservoir is supplied with water from Merced river by a canal twentyseven miles long, which is 100 feet wide at the top, 70 feet at the bottom, and 10 feet deep. Several long tunnels are on the route of the canal, some of them for great distances through rock. These are so large that a four-horse team has been driven through them. When on Feb. 1, 1888, it was "ready for business," the reservoir had cost $1,500,000. It has an average depth of thirty feet of water, holding about 5,500,000 gallons. This can hardly be called a storage reservoir, since it is more to facilitate distribution. It is not expected to hold enough water to last for any great length of time without addition. The canal carries a flow sufficient in itself, without the distributing reservoir, to irrigate thousands of acres.

In Colorado reservoirs have been built upon the head waters of tributaries of the Platte which are supposed able to hold in the aggregate more than 500,000,000 cubic feet of water. In the southern and western part of the State others have been built. That an enormous quantity of water was wasted in the spring floods before it was needed by farms, and that a very much wider area could be cultivated than now, should the spring surplus, or a part of it, be saved so as to be available when needed, were self-evident propositions. The director of the United States Geological Survey, Major John W. Powell, had long perceived this, and studied the matter scientifically. He believed it was necessary that the Government should undertake the construction of storage reservoirs in the highlands overlooking irrigable tracts, and do so upon a scale large, scientific, and comprehensive enough to be effective for all time. In 1887 Congress authorized an expenditure of $100,000" for the purpose of investigating the extent to which the arid region of the United States can be redeemed by irrigation, and for the selection of sites for reservoirs and other hydraulic works necessary for the storage and utilization of water for irrigation, and the prevention of floods and overflows, and to make the necessary maps," the work to be performed by the Geological Survey. It was further enacted that

All the lands which may hereafter be designated or selected by such United State surveys for sites for reservoirs, ditches, or canals for irrigation purposes, and all the lands made susceptible of irrigation by such reservoirs, ditches, or canals, are from this time henceforth hereby reserved from sale, as the property of the United States, and shall not be subject, after the passage of this act, to entry, settlement, or occupation until further provided by law; Provided, That the President may, at any time in his discretion, by proclamation, open any portion or all of the lands reserved by this provision to settlement under the homestead laws.

The first appropriation was expended in a careful survey of the Jemez valley or basin in New Mexico, under the supervision of Capt. C. E. Dutton, U. S. A., who is still in charge of the work. So well were Congress and the people satisfied with the matter, that a year later another appropriation of $250,000 was given to

Major Powell, and he was able to undertake a preliminary survey of nearly all the arid region, by placing several engineer and hydrographical parties at work simultaneously.

The general instructions issued by Major Powell detailing the methods to be followed in carrying on the work are full of information. He says:

these problems: What are the available sources of In each hydrographic basin it is desired to attack water supply, and by what means may the water be most fully utilized? A hydrographic basin may mean the watershed of a large stream or a small one-of a great river or of one of its tributaries. But whether it means a trunk stream or a branch of it, it is assumed that there is some form of development and construction of works which may be adjudged to be the best take no account of works which are already constructthat the engineer can devise. The engineers should ed, neither should their judgment be swayed by any opinion on their part as to what works private enterprise and capital are likely to undertake in the next few years. They should rather address themselves to the question already propounded: What is the best system? the one which will utilize the greatest amount of water and produce the greatest amount of irrigation? His project should be practical, involving no extravagance of engineering, nor transcending the possibilities of attainment, and maintenance after attainment. The plans should have also a certain unity, and should contemplate a single system of works for each irrigation district. If both reservoirs and canals jected as adjuncts of the canals. are required, the reservoirs should be, if possible, pro

Not enough examination has yet been made to warrant the publication of definite conclusions. The question of reservoirs is not ability to hold back a little water by a large dam, i. e., the stoppage of a high, steep gulch, but to hold back a great deal of water by a small dam, i. e., the stoppage of the narrow outlet of a broad, shallow, and nearly level basin, which would contain a great expanse of water. The configuration of the Western mountains presents steep and narrow gulches rather than broad and nearly inclosed basins. Still, many suitable reservoir sites of this kind have been discovered and carefully surveyed in all the region affected. A dam must not cost more than the water it holds is worth. Into the calculation, moreover, must be taken, besides the cost of the structure, the interest on the money, the maintenance, the service, repairs, and deterioration (by silting up, etc.). One of the foremost ways in which such reservoirs will be made of service is maintaining the supply of water in the larger rivers during the summer droughts. After the melting mountain snows have been carried down in the June rise there follows a period of depression, which overtakes the farmer who draws his irrigation from these rivers just when he needs the water most. Not all the streams can be so assisted; the Fontaine que Bouille, in Colorado has no basins near its head available for reservoirs. A better example is the Arkansas, yet it is said by engineers that there are only three places where this river can be helped. By stopping the outlet of Twin lakes with a 1,000 foot dam nearly 5,000 acres of water can be saved. In Lake Park, east of Leadville, another great expanse, indicated by the area of beaver dams, can be flooded, and a third at the eastern foot of Tennessee Pass. The ultimate destiny, by direct flow, or through seepage, would be