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Show YOU CANNOT OWN MORE THAN JYOU USE IRRIGATION LAWYER TALKS OX VESTED WATER RIGHTS IN UTAH The determination of vested water wa-ter rights was discussed by President Mathonihah Thomas, recently elected elect-ed president of the newly formed Utah Irrigation and Drainage Congress Con-gress before that body at its annual convention, just held at the Utah Agricultural College. Mr. Thomas is well known in Beaver Bea-ver county where he attended court last week at Beaver as attorney for litigants. "The pioneers established three things in their settlement of the water wa-ter question in Utah," said Mr. Thomas. "They established the ideas of the state ownership of water wa-ter and state control of water. And insisted on the beneficial and economic econ-omic use of water. All rational irrigation ir-rigation legislation must be based upon these three principles, and we must come back to them before we can expect any permanent solution of the water question In Utah. The farmer cannot own a certain amount of water in an irrigation ditch," said Mr. Thomas. "Not until un-til that water is actually being applied ap-plied on his land does he own it. The farmer really owns the use of the water, rather than a specified amount of water. He is entitled to only so much water as is necessary to grow successfully the particular kind of crops he is raising on the particular kind of land he owns. The use of any more water is a criminal crim-inal waste. The important question is "How much use have you made of your water?" The duty of water wa-ter must be determined in Utah at great expense, possibly by a complete survey of all kinds of soils in the state and the varying amounts of water they need. "The average irrigation company in Utah today is not efficiently organized," or-ganized," stated Mr. Thomas. "Business "Busi-ness principles applied to canal management, man-agement, and the proper co-operation on the part of the farmers will do much to clear the way for a solu tion of irrigation problems here. |