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Show WHAT CONSTITUTES BENEFICIAL USE OF i WATER IN IRRIGATION 1'nder tho laws of water rights, as estnbllshed by legislation and court decrees In the arid stntea of tho west, thejlnal test "of a right to wuter for Irrigation Is that tho water claimed shall bo put to a beneficial use. As expressed by tho laws of several states "bcftcflclul use Is tho basis, tho measure, mea-sure, and tho limit" of rlghtB to wuter. Those taws, however, do not nttempt to deflno "beneficial use." At a conference of tho project malingers mali-ngers of tho United States rteclama-I rteclama-I tlon Service nnd representatives of the Department of Agriculture, held nt Salt Lako City, November 12-15, n resolution attempting such n definition was adopted. This definition Is somewhat some-what long and detailed, but in sub-Btnuco sub-Btnuco Is aB follows: A water user Ib entitled to that "amount of water that will render him a rcusonnblo maximum amount of good with n reasonable, economic handling of tho water." Ho Is entitled to the protection of tho state In this right, but In return the state has a right to demand thnt ho use reasonable care and judgment lu conveying nnd using wiitor und cultivating his crops. Tho conference adopted also a definition defi-nition of "economical ubo," which was In substance as follows: ""Since tho water supply available for Irrigation In tho western states Is ado-ijuatu-for only n relatively small percentage per-centage of the entire Irrigable acreage, tho fundamental standnrd of economical economi-cal use must bo tho financial results accomplished per nere-foot of water applied, rather than tho yield per acre Irrigated, lu future development the doctrluo or beneficial use must lu mnny cases merge Into or bo supplanted supplant-ed by thut of economic uho. Tho doc-trlno doc-trlno of henonclal uso looks to Individual Indi-vidual Intel est; that of economic uso to tho general welfare of Boclety ns a whole. So far as possible water charges, systems of distribution nnd regulations should bo so adjusted nB to mako tho Interest or tho Individual water user qolncldo with this public Interest. |