SEC. 22. If any ditch (acequia) shall be newly worked, or made for the first time, and it should become necessary to infringe upon the land of any private individual or individuals, the consent of the owners shall first be obtained; and, if they should demand it, they shall be maid by the persons owning said ditch (acequia) a just compensation for the lands so used, to be valued by the owners at a reasonable rate.

SEC. 24. All plants, of any description, growing on the banks of said ditches (acequias) shall belong to the owners of the land through which said ditches (acequias) run.

[Act of January 29, 1861.]

SEC. 27. From and after the passage of this Act, every person or persons, being tillers of irrigated lands, who shall have commenced the work on any public acequia in common labor, are and shall be by the present Act obligated to continue on that work until the completion of the clearing of said acequia. SEC. 28.

If any number of laborers, or any person thereof, having their fields above on such acequias, and having reached them, shall pretend, from any cause or causes, reason or pretext, to abandon their co-laborers, he or they shall not be permitted to leave said work of the laborers in common until the completion of the cleansing of the said acequia so commenced to be worked; provided, that, touching the repairs and excavations to be made to said acequias, the proportion of the people, or the number of laborers for such purpose, shall be furnished by the owners, and it shall be the duty of the majordomos to superintend such work, and as provided in section thirteen of an Act of January 7, 1852, relative to acequias, passed by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of New Mexico; provided, further, that if any acequias already constructed there shall be included any of the dikes and dams which may have been destroyed, and the parties interested therein shall have entered into any agreement or contract with the owners to work said acequia, then, by this Act, they shall so remain and fulfill their engagements.

SEC. 29. As the excavations of such acequias, and in the first cleansing of some of them, the work sometimes continues for thirty days, more or less, the different majordomos shall take into consideration the small amount of land tilled by some, and not compel these to furnish an equal amount of labor in the cleansing.

SRC. 30. If any owners of lands, or lessees thereof, shall attempt to abandon their co-laborers without complying with the first and second sections of this Act, they shall pay for each of such offenses a fine of not less than five dollars nor exceeding ten dollars, one half of which shall be paid into the Territorial treasury, and the other half shall go to the county treasury of the county in which the offense was committed.

SEC. 31. This Act shall be considered jointly with the Act passed January 7, 1852.

[Act of January 28, 1863.]

SEC. 33. It shall be the duty of all overseers of ditches in this Territory, to see that the water currents run so that no injury may result to the proprietors of lands or tenements or to the public convenience; and in case danger is anywhere threatened by said ditches, either from increase of water or by inundation, from which damage might result; in such case said overseers are required, if the expected damage might result to but one precinct, to report the fact to the Justice of the Peace thereof, and if to two or more precincts, then they shall so report to the Judge of Probate of the county.

Sec. 34. It shall be the duty of the Judge of Probate, or of the Justice of the Peace, on receiving a report such as mentioned in the foregoing section, to appoint a committee of three suitable persons to go and examine whether such report is well founded, and should said committee sustain the report made by the overseer, the Judge of Probate, or Justice of the Peace shall, in such case, issue his order that all persons owning real estate within the limits considered in danger meet together, and either under direction of the overseer, or of such person as the Judge of Probate, or the Justice of the Peace, may appoint, set about the prevention of such damage, by the construction of breakwaters, barriers, or any other work that the person in charge deems prudent to avert the expected injury; provided, such labor shall be performed proportion to the property of each person interested in the same.

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SEC. 35. In all cases that it becomes necessary to undertake any of the steps mentioned in the foregoing section, it shall be the duty of the person in charge to direct such labor, notify person interested in the same of the number of laborers he shall have to furnish, and of what part is assigned to him of the work in hand, and informing him of the place and day the same will be commenced; provided, that if after receiving such notice, any person or persons fail comply, the person so in charge may report to the Judge or Justice by whom he was appointed, and said Judge or Justice shall cause the delinquent to appear, and shall fine him in any sum not less than five dollars.

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Bsc. 36. If any person or persons intentionally make lagoons of water, whether on their
wn or on other land, after the gathering of the crops, from which lagoons damage results to
houses, common or private grounds, or public roads, the person so offending shall, on convic-
tion, be fined by the Judge of Probate of the county wherein such injury is caused, or by any
Justice of the Peace of the county, in any sum not less than five nor more than ten dollars.
Any person convicted of having committed injuries mentioned in the last foregoing

C. 37.

section shall pay to the party injured the damages, after having been assessed by three persons

of known integrity, appointed for that purpose by the Judge or Justice in whose jurisdiction
the complaint is made.
All fines arising from the provisions of this Act shall be applied to the repain
herein mentioned, and in case of not being so expended they shall go into the treasury of the
county wherein they were collected.

SEC. 38.

[Act of January 18, 1866.]

SEC. 39. When any public ditch or part thereof shall be destroyed by rain or in any other manner, and it shall be absolutely impossible to reconstruct it where it usually ran before it was destroyed, the majordomo of such ditch, with the consent of a majority of the common laborers of the same, should they deem it necessary, may cut through the lands of any person or persons, by first obtaining their consent, by the community of such ditch offering to pay a compensation to be agreed upon between the owner or owners of the lands through which the ditch is to be opened, and the parties interested in the said ditch.

SEC. 40. If the owner or owners who shall be solicited to permit their lands to be ditched for the purpose of opening a new ditch, in the cases mentioned in the first section of this Act should improperly refuse or decline to accept the compensation offered by the parties interested in such ditch, or ask a compensation which the parties interested do not agree to on account of its cxorbitance, in such case the majordomo of said ditch shall lay the case before the Justice of the Peace of the precinct in which such ditch may be situated, and it shall be the duty of the Justice of the Peace to whom the case is presented, to appoint three men, experts, of known integrity, to establish a just compensation to be paid to the owner or owners solicited to permit their lands to be ditched through in the cases above mentioned.

SEC. 41. Whenever three experts shall be appointed as appraisers, before they enter upon their duties as such appraisers, they shall file in the office of the Justice of the Peace whe appointed them, an oath to faithfully, legally, and impartially, discharge the duties for which they were appointed, and they shall, as soon as possible, proceed to the place where the land or lands they were appointed to appraise are situated; and before appraising the same, they shall ascertain whether or not the ditch, for which a new channel is solicited, is entirely destroyed, and that the exorbitant labor or costs required to build it, renders its reconstruction absolutely impossible; and if in their opinion, the injury done to such ditch may be repaired, they will so report to the Justice of the Peace, and in such case the land solicited for the purpose of opening the ditch shall in no manner be touched; but if they should be of the opinion that a part of the ditch is irreparably destroyed, they shall then proceed to examine the land or lands over which the new ditch should be opened, and the place where the said ditch should properly run.

SEC. 42. Whenever any land or lands of any person or persons are to be appraised, as in the cases above mentioned, the experts who shall make such appraisement shall make a repor which shall be filed in the office of the Justice of the Peace who appointed them, setting forth therein the name of the person whose land was appraised, and the sum to be paid him by the parties interested in the public diten for which the opening on the land is solicited; they shall also state in said report, in the most distinct manner possible, the direction and the place and point where the opening for such ditch shall be made upon said land.

SEC. 43. The parties interested shall possess the right of property in the land or lands to them assigned under the provisions of this Act, and in case of legal resistance being made t the possession of the parties interested in a public ditch of the land, they may compel the person or persons who interpose such resistance to desist therefrom, by an action of forcible entry and detainer, as provided by law; but the parties interested shall first pay the value of such land or lands; provided, that said appraisers shall be impartial persons.

[Act of 1880, Chapter 30.]

SECTION 1. In each precinct of this Territory, where public necessity requires it, an erection shall be ordered and held on the third Monday of February, 1880, for the respective directin of acequias, for each one of such acequias as shall irrigate different places, as hereinafie provided.

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Sac. 2. In acequias of extended irrigation, and where the lands which they irrigate are unequal, and some persons have at once several sections and parts in other sections, there shall be elected as directors of said acequias, a chief majordomo, an assistant majordomo, and thre acequia commissioners; the duties of said commissioners shall be to regulate the number laborers to the respective acequias, for which they have been elected, that shall be performed each owner or tenant of irrigable lands to be irrigated by said acequia or acequias. And shou it be necessary, or should any three persons, owners or tenants, require it under the same, commission shall measure the lands in order better to apportion the number of laborers the each owner or tenant of the lands to be irrigated shall supply under the same for the cleani up of said acequias, and for any subsequent work which may be demanded during the year public necessity; the care of which is charged unto the majordomos and assistant majordoms the chief majordomo being always the superior officer, and he, conjointly with the assistant shall take care that the acequias under their control shall be kept running in all their i from the time the water is let therein for the first time after cleansing said acequias as long * the crops may require the same.

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SEC. 3.

Whenever a list has been made by the acequia commissioners, as provided in the foregoing section, at any of such acequias in this Territory, or by any majordomo and his assistant, where such commission is not elected, said officers shall make another identical list, and deliver the same to the Justice of the Peace of their precinct, who shall record it in his book of records for the reference of all the interested parties, and in order that the work may be so ordered, and not otherwise.

SEC. 4. The penalties on those who shall fail to supply the amount of work due by them, according to the provisions of this Act, or the number of laborers on them apportioned, or for any violation of existing laws on this subject, and those penalties that are applicable under existing laws, to majordomos, shall be the same that shall be applied in these cases, and they shall be executed and shall be disbursed in the same manner; provided, that when any chief majordomo shall have, in person, given notice to any person who is liable and owes work to the acequia of which he is majordomo, and such person fails, then and in such case the majordomo shall impose on the person so failing the penalty or fine which the law authorizes; and if it is not paid, he shall sue them before the Justice of the Peace for the same; and there it shall be finally decided and executed, if the defendant does not offer credible witnesses to disprove and combat the charge; in which case an examination of the whole subject shall be made by said Justice of the Peace, and he shall decide accordingly, or shall grant a change of venue to the nearest precinct, should the defendant so desire.

SEC. 5. The chief majordomos of all such acequias shall be the receivers and disbursers of all the fines resulting from their respective acequias, and on the tenth of October in each year they shall give to the Justice of the Peace of their respective precincts an exact account of the fines received by them, and the manner in which they have disbursed any part of them.

SEC. 6. The commissioners mentioned in the second section of this Act, should they be charged with the duty of measuring the lands, shall be paid at the rate of two dollars per diem to each, during the time they may necessarily be so occupied; which sum shall be paid from the respective funds belonging to the acequias for which they are commissioners.

SEC. 7. In the elections provided by this Act, every owner or tenant of irrigable lands, irrigated by any of such acequias, shall be entitled to vote and be voted for. Said election shall be without informing the chief majordomo of the respective acequia about the persons remaining in his stead to comply with his or their duty regarding said acequia, and he shall even present them, so that in his presence they may assume the responsibilities during the time of absence of such person or persons that are to be absent. And all the responsibilities of such absentees, regarding said acequias, shall fall upon the substitutes left, and no other persons but those assuming the responsibility of the person by whom they are presented shall be admitted as substitutes. And if any of such owners or tenants of irrigable lands, irrigated under any of such acequias in this Territory, should absent himself from the precinct during the time the acequias are in operation, without complying with the duty upon liim imposed by this Act, besides suffering the penalty fixed by the majordomo, he shall be responsible to the public where he belongs for a just and common estimate per diem of the time he was absent, conducted as heretofore provided by law; and the persons receiving the greatest number of votes shall be declared elected to their respective offices, and shall receive a certificate to that effect from the respective Justices of the Peace-making before said Justices of the Peace, previous to entering on the discharge of their duties, an oath that they shall faithfully perform them in the office to which they have been elected. And all such elections shall be held, by general rule, from and after year 1881, on the first Monday of January in each year.

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SEC. 8. Every owner or tenant of irrigable lands, irrigated by any of such acequias in this Territory, shall be compelled to hold at all times during the operations of the acequais to which they belong, the number of laborers to them assigned according to the provisions of this Act, at the disposal and order of the respective majordomo or his assistant. And it shall not be legal for any owner or tenant of irrigable lands, irrigated by any such acequias, to absent himself for a time exceeding three days, and the number of laborers that may have been assigned to him. Nor shall any proprietor, on account of having rented his lands, reserving a part for himself, be exempt from working on the acequias at any time of said work.

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GENERAL LAWS-STATE OF COLORADO--PAGE 515, CHAPTER L.

[Revised Statutes, Chapter XLV.]

1372. SECTION 1. All persons who claim, own, or hold a possessory right or title to any land or parcel of land within the boundary of the State of Colorado, as defined in the Constitution of said State, when those claims are on the bank, margin, or neighborhood of any stream of water, creek, or river, shall be entitled to the use of the water of said stream, creek, or river for the purposes of irrigation, and making said claims available to the full extent of the soil for agricultural

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purposes.

1873. SEC. 2. When any person owning claims in such locality has not sufficient length of
farm,
exposed to said stream to obtain a sufficient fall of water to irrigate his land, or that his
or land used by him for agricultural purposes, is too far removed from said stream, and
that he has no water facilities on those lands, he shall be entitled to the right of way through
the farms or tracts of lands which lie between him and said stream, or the farms or tracts of
land which lie above and below him on said stream, for the purposes herein before stated.

1374. SEC. 3. Such right of way shall extend only to a ditch, dike, or cutting, sufficient for the purpose required.

1375. SEC. 4. In case the volume of water in said stream or river shall not be sufficient to supply the continual wants of the entire country through which it passes, then the County Judge of the county shall appoint three commissioners as hereinafter provided, whose duty it shall be to apportion, in a just and equitable proportion, a certain amount of said water upon certain or alternate weekly days to different localities, as they may in their judgment think best for the interest of all parties concerned, and with due regard to the legal rights of all; provided, that this section shall not apply to persons occupying land on what is known as Hard scrabble Creek, a tributary of the Arkansas River, but upon said stream, the owners of the ranch known as the Hardscrabble Ranch, their successors and assigns, shall have the exclusive right to all the water in said Hardscrabble Creek, down said stream to the north line of said Hardscrabble Ranch; provided, there is not any more water in said stream, at the above named line, than would be required to irrigate one hundred and sixty acres of land.

1376. SEC. 5. Upon the refusal of the owners of tracts of land or lands, through which said ditch is proposed to run, to allow of its passage through their property, the person or persons desiring to open such ditch may proceed to condemn and take the right of way therefor, under the provisions of chapter thirty-one of these laws concerning eminent domain.

1377. SEC. 6. All persons on the margin, brink, neighborhood, or precinct of any stream of water, shall have the right and power to place upon the bank of said stream a wheel, or other machine for the purpose of raising water to the level required for the purpose of irrigation, and the right of way shall not be refused by the owner of any tract of land upon which it is required, subject of course to the like regulations, as required for ditches, and laid down in sections herein before enumerated.

1378. SEC. 7. The owner or owners of any ditch for irrigation or other purposes, shail carefully maintain the embankments thereof, so that the waters of such ditch may not flood or damage the premises of others.

1379. SEC. 8. Nothing in this chapter contained shall be so construed as to impair the prior vested rights of any mill or ditch owner, or other person, to use the waters of any such water

course.

1380. SEC. 9. The commissioners, provided for by section four of this chapter, shall not be appointed until at least six days previous notice shall have been given to parties in interest, by posting notices of the time and place when and where such appointment will be made, in at least five public places within the region watered by said stream.

1381. SEC. 10. Any ditch company constructing a ditch, or any individual having ditches for irrigation, or for other purposes, wherever the same be taken across any public highway, or public traveled road, shall put a good substantial bridge, not less than fourteen feet in breadth, over such watercourse where it crosses said road.

1382. SEC. 11. When any such ditch or watercourse shall be constructed across any public traveled road, and not bridged within three days thereafter, it shall be the duty of the supervisor of the road district to put a bridge over said ditch or watercourse, of the dimensions specified in section ten of this chapter, and call on the owner or owners of the ditch to pay the expenses of constructing such bridge.

1383. SEC. 12. If the owner or owners of such ditch refuse to pay the bill of expenses presented, the supervisor may go before any Justice of the Peace in the township or precinct, and make oath to the correctness of the bill, and that the owner or owners of the ditch refuse payment, and thereupon such Justice of the Peace shall issue a summons against such owner or owners, requiring him or them to appear and answer to the complaint of such supervisor, in an action of debt for the amount sworn to be due, such summons to be made returnable, and served, and proceedings to be had thereon, as in other cases; and in case judgment shall be given against such owner or owners, the Justice shall assess, in addition to the amount sworn to be due a aforesaid, the sum of ten dollars, as damages arising from the delay of such owner or owner such judgment to be collected as in other cases, and to be a fund in the hands of the supervisor of roads, for the repairs of roads in such precinct or district.

An Act to prevent the waste of water during the irrigating season.
[Session Laws, 1876.]

1385. SECTION 1. The owner of any irrigating or mill ditch shall carefully maintain and keep the embankment thereof in good repair, and prevent the water from wasting.

1386. SEc. 2. During the summer season it shall not be lawful for any person or persons to run through his or their irrigating ditch any greater quantity of water than is absolutely necessary for irrigating his or their said land, and for domestic and stock purposes; it being the intent and meaning of this section to prevent the wasting and useless discharge and running away of water.

1387. SEC. 3. Any person who shall willfully violate any of the provisions of this de shall, on conviction thereof before any Court having competent jurisdiction, be fined in a not less than one hundred ($100) dollars. Suits for penalties under this Act shall be brought in the name of the people of the State of Colorado.

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SYNOPSES OF ACTS

Passed by the Legislature of California, relating to watercourses and their use for irrigation by the people and by corporations.

[May 15, 1854. Statutes 1854, p. 76.]

This Act creates a Board of Water Commissioners and the office of Overseer in each township of the several counties of this State, to regulate watercourses within their respective limits.

Section 1. Specifies the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Napa, Los Angeles, Solano, Contra Costa, Colusa, and Tulare.

Section 3. The duties of the Commissioners shall be to examine and direct such watercourses and apportion the water thereof among the inhabitants of their district, determine the time for using the same, and upon petition of a majority of the persons liable to work upon ditches, lay out and construct ditches, as set forth in such petitions. No authority is given in this Act for diversion or appropriation of water for irrigation by individuals or corporations independent of the action of the Boards of Water Commissioners, and it has no reference to the use of water for mining purposes. See Section 15.

[February 19, 1857. Statutes 1857, p. 29.]

This Act amends the law of 1854 as to the counties in which it shall operate, adding San Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz Counties and excluding San Bernardino.

[April 28, 1860. Statutes 1860, p. 335.]

This Act amends Section 15 of the Act of May 15, 1854.

[February 21, 1861. Statutes 1861, p. 31.]

This Act also adds Tehama and Sonoma Counties.

[April 10, 1862. Statutes 1862, p. 235.]

This Act amends Sections 2, 3, and 14 of the Act of May 15, 1854.

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY.

[May 15, 1854. First Act.]

[March 6, 1857. Statutes 1857, p. 63.]

By the law of March 6, 1857, San Bernardino County was excepted from the operation of the law of May 15, 1854. This law, however, differs but little from the former law, either in form or principle.

[April 12, 1859. Statutes 1859, p. 217.]

The law of April 12, 1859, amended Section 11 of the previous Act so as to prevent an unequal distribution of water and prevent fraud therein.

[February 18, 1864. Statutes 1863-4, p. 87.]

This law of February 18, 1864, repealed the previous laws and became a substitute therefor, providing for greater efficiency in the management of the ditches and distribution of water.