Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1920-04-18 | Page 2 | Communication

oo COMMUNICATION Editor Standard-Examiner. Kindly grant me a little space and answer mo a question. I received a i card a few days ago from the "Irriga-! tion district"' people, 'allotting me 5)5 1 acre feet of water to be used on 65 acres owned by me (giving location ofl said land), and asking if said allot- ment (which at their estimates womul cost somewhere from $ 1,000 to $5,0uu) i was satisfactory." Coming so early in April, this might bo taken as a fool Joke," but well informed people tell me that were 1 to troat it as such j or wcro I away from home and ghouia! miss my mail I might find It no joke,! hut a very serious reality, and would soon be made to realize that 1 had a' mortgage or an irrevocable and legal! tax of about the above dimensions fas- tened or. my property. Now, not ovor 10 or poss'-bly 12 acres of thi3 iana has value for irrigated crops, were! water a gift, and for that ten acres 1 now have a twelve-hour per week Irrigation Ir-rigation stream, which in ordinary seasons is ample, If the water is delivered de-livered as it is supposed to be, However, How-ever, to encourage any sane irrigation project. 1 have signified my willing-1 noas to use some (perhaps $400 orj $500 worth) more water While the, balance of this 80 acres (69 acres aside' from roads and railroads) is not ngrl-J cultural land, the space It occupies has to mc a value. Airplanes can alight on it, bath cottages, pipe lines, etc., can be, and to some extent already al-ready are installed on this land. However, How-ever, should this $5,000 worth, "more or tss, of water be turned on to it, it would be rendered almost valueless. . Since receiving my card I have seen cards similarly served on others which show Just about as little , sense as mine did. Now, If someone or ones, i have a "legal right" to "wish" a flood of unneeded, and even detrimental, water onto a land owner at an uncertain, uncer-tain, but certainly big enough price, which "wish" has the power to confls-; j cale his property if he is unable to use lor to pay for the flood, and if (hrs I person, or persons, makes haphazard guesses as to UoW much water some individual, whom he has found by searching the tax records owns land,, needs and this "gues3" is final providing provid-ing the land owner Is absent or too' bUBy attending to his own affairs to. realize, then other people can carelessly care-lessly put a big inorlgago on the prop-' crty. which Is- Mb and his family's j means of support.