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Show TERMS OF IRRIGATION System Made Plain by Idaho Agricultural Professor. Farmer Must Not Only be Student of Water Distribution, But Must Understand Un-derstand Soil, Seed, Climate and Crop Pests. Characterizing the intelligent, painstaking pains-taking farmer aa the most essential Element of crop success in Idaho and the irrigated West, W. H. Olin, director direc-tor of the agricultural extension of the University of Idaho, gives out a lot of interesting information and comment about irrigation in his eighth lecture of the Idaho 'teachers' correspondence corres-pondence course. Copies of the lecture lec-ture have just been sent from the office of-fice of Grace M. Shepherd, state superintendent su-perintendent of public Instruction, to teachers in all the schools throughout the state, who will in turn acquaint the pupils 'vith their contents. "Irrigation calls , for the highest class of intelligent farming," says Prof. Olin. "The farmer here must not only be a student of water distribution distrib-ution and control, but he must also understand the soil, the seed, his climatic cli-matic environment and market essentials. essen-tials. He must also study the habits of crop pests and learn the most effective ef-fective means of combating them. "The first irrigators gave no thought in the beginning to their right to use creeks and rivers. Water was running run-ning to waste and they put it to use In the same way as they enjoyed the sunshine and breathed the pure air of the West. There seemed no more need at that time of' recording data of ditch construction and. capacity of same, than there was for them to keep record of elk and deer, grouse and duck, which they shot for food. All represented unused natural resources re-sources ' and they could not foresee the great future, of irrigation and what it should accomplish. "As far back as 1S46, the Kearney code provided that the laws previously previous-ly in forcp concerning water courses, should be continued. The Spanish conquerors in the sixteenth century found the Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande practicing irrigation farming and cropping the valley in a most creditable manner. "In defining the fundamental terms common in irrigation practice, Prof. Olin says, in effect: "A -water right is a legal right to divert water from a stream, reservoir or canal, to crop land for irrigation purposes. "All water rights possess appropriation appropria-tion in order of date of decree and the right of priority is the right with the first decree and must be recognized recog-nized as first claim to irrigation water from the source stream, canal or reservoir, res-ervoir, when adjudicated, as its decree shall name for full amount of said decree. - i "There are two kinds of watet rights, direct and storage. A direct water right gives the owner authority for 'direct use' of water from soured, stream or canal, and a storage right gives legal authority for impounding water in reservoirs as a storage supply sup-ply for use as may be desired. "The custom of opening headgates of all ditches leading to reservoirs during a period of heavy rains is quite generally practiced. This excess of water is known as 'flood water,' and unless stored in reservoirs not only often causes damages to crops and property in the lower rivers, but it is also of no economic use. Therefore, It Is the custom for reservoir owners to figure on flood waters for their reservoirs. res-ervoirs. For this reason flood water rights have grown to have a commercial commer-cial value in connection with reservoir reser-voir construction. When the run-off of any given stream is above normal, it is called flood, or excess water. It may be caused by the rapid melting of mountain snows feeding the stream, or excessive rains within the watershed, water-shed, or both. The regularity of the flood, or high water, run-off of a given stream usually determines the commercial com-mercial value of thece flood water rights." |
