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Abstract
Excerpts: The importance of the discussion of water contracts arises from the fact that the rights to this river have not been obtained from the public by the farmers directly, but from some company which has built a canal and thus secured title to a part of the stream's flow. The rights of these companies are defined by law, and the rights which they have sold to farmers are, in a measure, determined by law, but to a much larger extent by the conditions imposed in the contracts with the companies or prescribed by the regulations of their by-laws. The water laws of Colorado make water personal property, or give to appropriators such large control over the volume appropriated as to amount in effect to private ownership. This gives to companies holding these rights large latitude in fixing the conditions under which water shall be delivered to irrigators, and makes the influence of these contracts on the well-being of users a much larger factor than has generally been recognized.