Water rights on the Missouri River and its tributaries . o obtain the advantage of the full amount decreed, forspeculative jmrposes. There are two objections to making appropriations for irrigation ariglit to a perpetual flow of any definite volume of water. Such rightsdo not conform to the necessities of users or to the fluctuations in theflow of streams. No irrigator uses water all the time. In the Statesunder consideration he does not use it one-half the time. Even duringthe irrigation season the use is intermittent, and much greater in somemonths than in others. The holder of a right to a
Water rights on the Missouri River and its tributaries . o obtain the advantage of the full amount decreed, forspeculative jmrposes. There are two objections to making appropriations for irrigation ariglit to a perpetual flow of any definite volume of water. Such rightsdo not conform to the necessities of users or to the fluctuations in theflow of streams. No irrigator uses water all the time. In the Statesunder consideration he does not use it one-half the time. Even duringthe irrigation season the use is intermittent, and much greater in somemonths than in others. The holder of a right to a continuous flow notneeding it during the greater part of the year is continuously tempted10477—No. 58 3 34 to convert it into a speculative commodity by selling the surplus. Thediagram (fig. 3), showing the discharge in second feet of the LaramieEiver, is a typical example both of the fluctuation in the volume ofstreams during the irrigation season and of their variation in dischargefrom year to year. It will be observed that in 1897 the maximum dis-. FlG. 4.—Diagram showing variation in tlie flow of streams and in the use of water iu irrigation for thedifferent months of the irrigation period, and the relation between tlie available supply and theneeds of agriculture. A. Discharge of the Laramie Eiver at Woods, Wyo. Scale, 1 inch equals30,000 acre feet. 13, Use of water, from measurements at Wheatland, Wyo. charge reached 3,400 cubic feet per second, while in 1898 it was nothalf that volume. In 1897 its run ofi would have covered 248,000 acres1 foot deep, while in 1898 the run off was only 111,000 acre-feet. In1897 the maximum discharge of over 3,000 feet in May had fallen to USDA
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