Bennett

This is an action in equity, brought by the United States in the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Washington, to restrain the defendants from diverting from the waters of the Salmon river, in that state, an amount of water in excess of 2% acre feet per acre for certain lands owned by the defendants and described in the complaint, amounting to 62.82 acres.

The substance of the complaint is that in the year 1905 the complainant, proceeding under the provisions of the Reclamation Act of June 17, 1.902, c. 1093, 32 Stat. 388 (U. S. Comp. St. Supp. 1911, p. 662), and the act of the Legislature of the state of Washington of March 4, 1905 (Laws of Washington 1905, p. 180), appropriated all of the unappropriated waters of Salmon river in the county of Okanogan, in the state of Washington, for the Okanogan irrigation project; that the works necessary for the utilization of the water so appropriated have been constructed, and the said waters have been put and devoted to beneficial uses in accordance with law to a large number of persons occupying adjacent land which, without such water, would be valueless and incapable of cultivation; that the amount of water…