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Show Chapter 5 Irrigation Irrigation is the artificial application of water to soil for the purpose of supplying the water essential to plant growth.1 Both streams and other surface waters are used by direct diver- sion and by storage in reservoirs. Artesian flow and pumping from natural and artificially recharged underground supplies are also employed. In addition, scientific research seeks still other supplies, including artificial development of precipitation through nuclear process and conversion of sea and other saline waters to fresh water.2 Purification of water contaminated by sewage and industrial waste is also under study.3 Irrigation is practiced in some areas of the United States having a relatively large annual but poorly distributed sea- sonal rainfall.4 It is essential to sustain plant life in a sub- stantial portion of the West.6 Lands west of the one-hun- dredth meridian were apparently considered to comprise the western area concerned with irrigation in relation to public lands when Congress in 1890 required that patents to those lands reserve a right-of-way for canals or ditches constructed by authority of the United States.6 Moreover, a recent re- 1Israelsen, Irrigation Principles and Practices, p. 1 (1932). 'A recent bill would provide for research and demonstration in these matters. S. 1300, 81st Cong., 1st sess. (1949). * See, e. g., The Scientific Monthly, Vol. LXXI, No. 2, p. vi (August 1950); Canadian River Project in Texas, H. Doc. No. 678, 81st Cong., 2d sess., pp. IV, 11, 14 (1950). * See 1 Kinney, Irrigation and Water Eights, § 588, p. 1011 (2d ed. 1912) ; Statistical Abstract of the United States, Table 179, p. 150 (1949). " California Oregon Power Co. v. Beaver Portland Cement Co., 295 U. S. 142,157-158 (1935) ; see supra, p. 34, and infra, n. 9, p. 152. 6 Act of August 30,1890, § 1, 26 Stat. 371, 391, 43 U. S. C. 945. Neither the Act of 1866 nor the Act of 1870 specifies the geographic area to which they shall apply, although the title of the former refers to rights- of-way "on the public lands." See supra, pp. 35-37. 151 |