The Holly chieftain., 1905-04-21

arrange to convey the water TO his
land through lateral The lateral
systems vary under different canals
/ Under some canals each man takes Il
lateral for himself out. of the main
canal aud conveys the water independ-
emily to his own land. This is. the
/ poorest way Of accomplishing the re-
snlts, for the reason that there is CON
siderable los, in AN individual fateral
with a small amount of water. byboth
seepage and evaporation. ass
Under the more advanced canals.
main laierals covering from one 70 i've
Thousand acres of land are built from
the canal. and stock, in evidence of
the right to use Of the lateral. is is
sued. and il is then the duty Of the
users Of water from the lateral to
elect a board of directors for the di-
vi-inE OF the water under their lateral
| In this way a large body of water is
kept together and Community Of
interest is built up where each ma.l
has AN interest M the proper opera
ion OF his lateral.
WATER RIGHTS.
| The term water righ,' has grown
to be 50 ambiguous as to be practically
meaningless. The purchaser should
always havc the amount Of water he
is entitled to expressed in secoi.dfce'.
A second-foot mrans one cubic foot of
water per second of time. and is the
! term used for measuring lowing
water. In the early days Of irrigation
! it was the custom in some parts of the
country To use miners inch as Il
measure. Tnis meant the flow Of
water through an Gritice one inch In
size under certain pressure but be.
cause when the pressure or the depth
OF the inch below Ire surface of the
water varied. it was discarded by law
in most OF ,hc irrigation states and n
second foot as the legal measurement
was adopted
In Colorado 3S4 miners inches
equal one cubic foot per second, tneas-
nrcd under Il five inch pressure from
1 The top Of the oritice.
/ In California. Idaho. Nevada and
/ Utah 80 miners inches equal one Gu
bic foot per second, measured under a
| four inch pressure from the center Of
The oritice.
In Arizona and Montsna 40 miners
;,,.tac ornnl nno ,,,bio f,,ot of tvat %
per second, measured under six inch
pressure from the top of the oriiice.
AS IL matter Of fact, after the land
becomes we'll soaked np--that is, after
one or two years of farming by irrig;l-
tion-@the amount of water necessary
/ ~ produce the best crops is complr :
liyely small. While in the early days
| 1t was consid .red hat "A Second-tGel
Of waiter was necessary to irrg;tte 81
| acres Of land. the amount of water u
Iirrigate that much has decreased Sc
much by practical experience that Ill
many cases today only one half OF :;
second-foot is applied To eighty acres.
The ideal condition of irrigation is
to have canal which has direct
riversupply with Il supplemental res
ervoir supply. This giyesa Il practical
insurance to the crops and enables
water to be gotten at any time when
it is needed.
A good supplemental supply OF res
eryoir water is necessary 70 make alb
solutely certain a supply Of water al
such times as the more expensive and
valuable crops and intensive cultiya-
tion may demand.
This has been demonstrated inlthe
northern part Of Colorado, along the
Platt river. where nearly every ditch
has Il reservoir which was constructed
by its water right owners for thcil
use. The water in the reservoirs is
usually measured in acre-feet: one
acre foot of water is equal to one acre
J in area one f0otin depth.