DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

WATER-SUPPLY

IEEIGATION PAPEES

OF THE

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

No. 9

IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. BOYD

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1897
Printed as Part II of the Twelfth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1890-91. Contains a report upon the location and survey of reservoir sites during the 

fiscal year ending June 30,1891, by A. H. Thompson; "Hydrography of the arid regions," 

by F. H. Newell; "Irrigation in In" "

IRRIGATION REPORTS.

The following list contains the titles and brief descriptions of the principal reports 

relating to water supply and irrigation prepared by the United States Geological

Survey since 1890:

1890.

First Annual Report of the United States Irrigation Survey, 1890, octavo, 123 pp.

Printed as Part II, Irrigation, of the Tenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1888-89. Contains a statement of the origin of the Irrigation Survey, a preliminary report on the organization and prosecution of the survey of the arid lands for 

purposes of irrigation, and report of work done during 1890.

1891.

Second Annual Report of the United States Irrigation Survey, 1891, octavo, 395 pp.

Published as Part II, Irrigation, of the Eleventh Annual Report of the United States 

" "1-90. Contains a description of the hydrography of the arid region 

; operations carried on by the Irrigation Survey during 1890; also 

_ Hrector of the Survey to the House Committee on Irrigation, and 

other papers, including a bibliography of irrigation literature. Illustrated by 29 plates and 

4 figures.

Third Annual Report of the United States Irrigation Survey, 1891, octavo, 576 pp.

bh Annual Report of the United States Geological Su 

pon the location and survey of reservoir sites during tl 

y A. H. Thompson; "Hydrography of the arid regions. 

India," by Herbert M. Wilson. Illustrated by 93 plates 

and 190 figures.

Bulletins of the Eleventh Census of the United States upon irrigation, prepared 

by F. H. Newell, quarto.

No. 35, Irrigation in Arizona; No. 60, Irrigation in New Mexico; No. 85, 

Irrigation in Utah; No. 107, Irrigation in Wyoming; No. 153, Irrigation in 

Montana; No. 157, Irrigation in Idaho; No. 163, Irrigation in Nevada; No. 

178, Irrigation in Oregon; No. 193, Artesian wells for irrigation; No. 198, 

Irrigation in Washington.

1893.

Irrigation of western United States, by F. H. Newell; extra census bulletin No. 

23, September 9, 1892, quarto, 22 pp.

Contains tabulations showing the total uumber, average size, etc., of irrigated holdings, 

the total area and average size of irrigated farms in the subhumid regions, the percentage 

of number of farms irrigated, character of crops, value of irrigated lands, the average cost 

of irrigation, the investment and profits, together with a resume of the water supply and 

a description of irrigation by artesian wells. Illustrated by colored maps showing the 

location and relative extent of the irrigated areas.

1893.

Thirteenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1891-92, Part 

III, Irrigation, 1893, octavo, 486 pp.

Consists of three papers: "Water supply for irrigation," by F. H. Newell; "American 

engineering and engineering results of the Irrigation Survey," by Herbert M. Wilson; 

" Construction of topographic maps and selection and survey of reservoir sites," by A. H. 

Thompson. Illustrated by 77 plates and 119 figures.

A geological reconnoissance in central Washington, by Israel Cook Russell, 1893, 

octavo, 108 pp., 15 plates. Bulletin No. 108 of the United States Geological 

Survey; price, 15 cents.

Contains a description of the examination of the geologic structure in and adjacent to 

the drainage basin of Yakima River and the great plains of the Columbia to the east of 

this area, with special reference to the occurrence of artesian waters.

1894.

Report on agriculture by irrigation in the western part of the United States at the 

Eleventh Census, 1890, by F. H. Newell, 1894, quarto, 283 pp.

Consists of a general description of the condition of irrigation in the United States, the 

area irrigated, cost of works, their value and profits; also describes the water supply, the 

value of water, of artesian wells, reservoirs, and other details; then takes up each State 

and Territory in order, giving a general description of the condition of agriculture by irrigation, and discusses the physical condition and local peculiarities in each county.

Fourteenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1892-93, in two 

parts, Part II, Accompanying papers, 1894, octavo, 597 pp.

Contains papers on "Potable waters of the eastern United States," by W J McGee; 

"Natural mineral waters of the United States," by A. C. Peale; "Results of stream 

measurements," by F. H. Newell. Illustrated by maps and diagrams.

(Continued on third page of cover.)
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

WATER-SUPPLY

IRRIGATION PAPEES

OF THE

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

ISTo. 9

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1897
UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

CHARLES D. WALCOTT, DIRECTOR

IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO

BY

DAVID BOYD

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1897
CONTENTS.

Page.

Letter of transmittal___-__.._-----_.-_-.----.___--....___-.--_- --------- 7

'ntroduction, by F. H. Newell,---...___-._-__.___..___.__----------.----. 9

Location and topography__.____._..__-_. .__--______._-___._-_------- 10

Rainfall...................__--......__..._.._._. _._...__.._.-...---.. 13

Water supply _._____-...,___..___._--....___----._-_----_..-..-..-..- 16

Daily mean discharge of Cache la Poudre Creek ____._.._______.----_.- 19

Settlement in Cache la Poudre Valley ___..________.-..___.-_.-.-___---.--- 27

Union colony. ........_........._._._........*._.-....--.-.-.-.-.....- 27

IJanal and reservoir systems _____________________ ..............--.....--- 29

Cache la Poudre Canal _______-....._.-__._..___._-__.___..__--.--- 29

Cache la Poudre Reservoir,. --...-..-_........-.-._.......-.-.-------- 33

Larimer and Weld Canal ...........--.-.....-.-,.....~.........-...^. 35

Larimer and Weld Reservoir.____.__.________--_..___._.------_------- 36

Lake Lee__..___..___.______.___._._._ _-_____-_.._.____--__-__-_-----.- 39

Windsor Reservoir _____________.__.______._.-_.-______._-_---_._-_.-- 40

Larimer County Canal.____-----_.._-.-.-____.----_.._--._--_-----_--. 41

Chambers Lake Reservoir...___._.____,__.-__.______._---..__.__-.----- 41

Sky Line Ditch............................-...-......... ...... ...- 42

Appropriations from Cache la Poudre Creek_.._.........--...-......-- 43

Extravagant claims to water........ ..___.___._________..___._--.--.-- 49

Cache la Poudre Creek,..........--......-........------...-.-..-. 49

Conservation of water supply..-..--....-_--.-..--..--.-...--.-------...-- 50

Crop area .L.......................................................... 51

Amount of water used........................_..........-.......--... 53

Quantity available for storage .........-.....--...........---..-.-...- 54

Reservoirs...................._.........-......--..--. .._-_.---..------ 56

North Poudre Land, Canal and Reservoir Company _..__-__.__.--. 58

Exchanges of water. ........................._-....._..---._.-.--. --- 60

"legislative and judicial control of water-..... _____.__..__-_ _______.---. 60

Origin of the Colorado system ............... -.....-.---...-.--.-..-- 61

Irrigation convention of 1878 ..._........--....._...--..._.--.---. 61

Division into districts ..._..........--.._..__-...........---..._--..-- 62

Superintendents.. .................................................... 64

Construction and operation of canals.......... .....^...................... 66

Control by telephone .................................................. 68

Laterals ---.--.-...--..........._..............---.--...-........--.-. 69

Measuring and dividing water from canals... -.._---.-.-....----.--... 69

Cost of irrigation-.---.---,----..-------...--.---------...---,.---.-... 71

Agricultural practice .-.-.._...--..--...-.---.....---.---..-.--....------- 72

Applying water .................. .^..................^............... 73

Alfalfa............................................................... 75

Potatoes........._.................................................... 76

"Tndergroundwaters...... ....... ..................^...................... 79

Alkalinity of seepage waters -.-_____--_-____--_-_ .................... 79

Pumping underground waters ................^................ ... - - 81

Artesian water..,._........._.._..........--............,.._,-_.._ 86

5
ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page. 

PLATE I. View of Sky Line Canal. _..._...__.._._,___..____._..._.-_-.._-_- 9

II. Diagram of monthly rainfall at Fort Collins, Colorado __..._..__ 14

III. Diagrams of daily discharge of Cache la Poudre Creek for 1881,

1883,1884, and 1885...-.-_.------ .---- _----.--_-----. 20

IV. Diagrams of daily discharge of Cache la Poudre Creek for 1886,

1887, 1888, and 1888..........-.............._................. 22

V. Diagrams of daily discharge of Cache la Poudre Creek for 1890,

1891, 1892, and 1893 __.____________..______._..-___._._._-__..__ 24

VI. View of Greeley Canal No. 2...................... ... ..... 33

VII. View of dam and headgates of Larimer and Weld Canal......... 34

VIII. View of headgates of Larimer and Weld Canal and of the canal

below thein__._..___.___.__._..____.._._-_._._.._.-._..-_...__. 36

IX. View of outlet and embankment of Larimer and Weld Reservoir. 38

X. View of lower side of outlet of Larimer and Weld Reservoir...... 40

XI. View of outlet canal of Larimer and Weld Reservoir where it goes

. over the weir ___,___.____._____.-_--.____.-_-..-_.-_-----_--- 42

XII. View of Larimer and Weld Canal at Lake Lee gates ____._.____. 44

XIII. View of outlet of Windsor Reservoir from the inside _...-....-.. 46

XIV. Another view of Sky Line Canal................................ 48

XV. View of diversion dam of North Poudre Canal.................. 58

XVI. View of North Poudre Flume 300 feet below the dam ........... 60

XVII. View of division flume in lateral under the Greeley No. 2 canal-. 72

XVIII. Irrigating a young alfalfa field ..........--..-_----.-..-.-...-.. 74

XIX. Irrigating a wheat field.________.___.-..___--_.............._._. 76

XX. View in a potato field near Greeley-----.-.---. .---..-._..-.- 78

XXI.% View in a potato dugout._..____.___--___-.--_."_-.--__--_.-.._-- 80 

Fig. 1. Map of water divisions and districts of Colorado ................ 11

2. Mapof Cache laPoudre Valley ....---..._--.-.-...--.- ........ 12

3. Diagram showing annual rainfall at Cheyenne, Wyoming, from

1870 to 1895 __.____ _______.___._.-...-....__..-__.__.._..--. 14

4. Diagram showing daily discharge of Cache la Poudre Creek for

1894.._.__._____..___._..___-..___-._._-_._.--.____....--.--.. 18

5. Map of canals near Greeley, Colorado....._......_......-.....-. 28

6. Map of Cache la Poudre Reservoir.......... ......_-...-...-_.- 30

7. Vertical section on drop of North Poudre Canal..---....---.-.-. 59

8. Plan of device for dividing water ....-....-.---...-..------..--. 70

6
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, 

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,

DIVISION OF HYDROGRAPHY,

Washington,, April 13, 1897.

SIR : I have the honor to transmit herewith a manuscript entitled, 

"Irrigation near Greeley, Colorado," and to recommend that it be 

published in the series of water-supply and irrigation papers. The 

statements therein contained have been compiled from a report prepared by Hon. David Boyd, of Greeley, Colorado, one of the early 

members of Union Colony, which was led by Nathan C. Meeker and 

given encouragement and prominence by Horace Greeley. In a.short 

paper of this kind it is impossible to go into the details of the struggles of this colony for existence and of the development of agriculture and of a system of water control whose leading features have 

been widely copied. The attempt has been made, however, to present 

the more prominent facts and those of most interest and value to the 

citizens of the West who are now following in similar paths and seeking to lay the foundations for broad and lasting systems of water utilization and control by which the rights of all may be determined and 

protected.

The paper by Mr. Boyd is prefaced by an introduction, compiled 

from the records of this division and from other sources, to illustrate 

the climatic and topographic conditions of Cache la Poudre Valley, in 

which Greeley is situated, and also the limitations of water supply, 

since it is upon the latter that the question of growth and development must rest. The evolution of systems for obtaining and applying 

water to the agricultural lands and of the complicated laws and regulations are in striking contrast to the quiet, almost imperceptible 

development of irrigation in southern New Mexico, to be described in 

the next paper of this series. A comparison of the two illustrates the 

great differences existing between various portions of our Western 

country and the impossibility of transferring local practices from one 

point to another irrespective of natural conditions. 

Very respectfully,

F. H. NEWELL,

Hydrographer in Charge. 

Hon.. CHARLES D. WALCOTT,

Director United States Geological Survey.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL.

VIEW OF SKY LINE CANAL.

Taking water from the upper sources of the Big Laramie River and diverting it into the Poudre above Chamber: 

Lake at the height or 8,000 feet.
IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO.

BY DAVID BOYD.

INTRODUCTION. 

BY F. H. NEWELL.

In the following paper by Mr. Boyd, a description is given of the 

growth and development of irrigation in the valley of Cache la Poudre 

Creek, in the northern part of Colorado. In this valley the best 

known town is Greeley, and hence this paper has been entitled "Irrigation near Greeley," as being most expressive of the location and 

character of the irrigation system and methods described.

Omitting the great Pacific Coast State of California, which lies for 

the most part outside of the strictly arid region, it may be safely 

claimed that Colorado stands preeminent in the extent and high 

degree of development of agriculture by irrigation. Here what may 

be termed American methods and devices for diverting and applying 

water to the fields have grown up, and the success attained has stimulated attempts elsewhere throughout the Western third of the United 

States. The same relation that Colorado holds to the rest of the arid 

region is borne by the Cache la Poudre Valley to the State of Colorado. It has for many years led in the construction and extension 

of irrigation systems, and its history may be said to epitomize the 

record of struggles and successes throughout the State. '

The development of irrigation is not merely the result of a succession of victories over physical or material obstacles. In our country 

these form but a part and, unfortunately, often a relatively small 

part of the difficulties encountered by the irrigator. By far the 

most vexatious and expensive impediments to be removed have been 

those arising from the inapplicability of our laws and customs to the 

conditions prevailing within the arid region. Every instinct acquired 

through generations of life in a humid country seems to rebel against 

the methods of the irrigator, and every tradition of law is in direct 

opposition to the pr < oi* employment of the natural waters. These 

instincts and traditions have had to be laboriously demolished, usually after severe struggle, and the series of contests appears a neverending one. There is little doubt that if it were possible to sum up

9
10 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO.9.

in one column the total expense incurred in the irrigation and reclamation of the West, and in another column the costs due to defective 

legislation, and especially to controversies over conflicting water 

rights, the latter would prove to be far the larger.

As in the development of her water resources Colorado has led the 

greater part of the West, so in the attempts to effect a suitable judicial and executive system having to do with water has this State been 

the pioneer. It can not be said that Colorado has been the most successful, for newer States, notably Wyoming, profiting by her experience, have achieved what seem to be more perfect systems; but their 

happiness in this regard is due largely to exertions of citizens of 

Colorado.

In the same way that Colorado has led in improvements in legislation have the citizens of Greeley and vicinity been the leaders in Colorado. First to experience the necessities, they have been at the 

front in urging needed reforms, and in these they have been notably 

successful. Thus it is appropriate in a series of papers devoted 

mainly to irrigation to review at some length the conditions near 

Greeley, for from here have come many initiatives to a proper state 

of affairs.

Considerable space is devoted in this paper to matter which at' first 

sight may seem to be more peculiar to the lawyer than to the farmer, 

but, as above stated, the irrigator is called upon probably more than any 

other agriculturist to consider his legal environment. Although a 

beginning has been made, yet many years must elapse before the 

laws relating to irrigation, both State and national, fully recognize 

the necessities of the irrigator or permit such a development that the 

greatest good shall come to the greatest number. In a government by 

the people and for the people it is essential that every man become to 

a certain extent familiar with such defects before they can be remedied, as well as with the physical possibilities and limitations of his 

country.

There is no way in which these matters can be brought more clearly 

to the attention of the voter and farmer than by relating the experiences of other men in their struggles for existence. In nearly every 

State there are still to be made great and even fundamental changes 

in the laws relating to the control of water before the water resources 

can be fully utilized. The perplexities and even the mistakes of the 

pioneers teach most valuable lessons, for in many other States these 

conditions are not yet outgrown. Happy will their citizens be if they 

can utilize the costly experience of others without paving the high 

price.

LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY.

The State of Colorado comprises within its limits the headwaters of 

both the North and South Platte, the Arkansas, Rio Grande, San 

Juan, Grand, and White rivers. For convenience of water adminis-
BO YD.] LOCATION AND TOPOGEAPHY. 11

tration, the State has been divided, as described on a later page, into 

six great divisions, corresponding to these large drainage basins indicated on the map (fig. 1) by roman numerals. These in turn have 

been divided into districts, and numbers have been arbitrarily assigned 

to these, as shown by the map. Of these districts, the one discussed 

in this paper is numbered 3, and includes Cache la Poudre Creek, 

one of the principal tributaries of South Platte River.

On the map the outlines of the water districts are indicated by 

light broken lines and those of the large divisions by heavy dotted 

lines. These latter follow the mountain summits or main divides, 

the line between divisions Nos. I and II and those to the west being

FIG. 1. Map of water divisions and districts of Colorado.

along the continental watershed. This line thus marks the higher 

mountain ranges, which rise to altitudes of from 9,000 to over 13,000 

feet. From these high crests the streams flow in all directions, those 

upon the east uniting to form the Arkansas, or, north of this, the 

South Platte. The latter stream, after debouching from its canyon 

some 12 miles south of Denver, pursues a nearly northerly course 

until it reaches Cache la Poudre Creek, some 52 miles by rail north 

of Denver and 4 miles east of Greeley. Near Denver it receives, 

from the mountains to the west, Clear Creek; 30 miles farther down, 

the St. Vrain; and 10 miles still farther, the Big Thompson. Cache 

la Poudre Creek is the last perennial tributary received by South 

Platte River before it joins the North Platte in Nebraska. The name,
12 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

originally Cache a la Poudre, signifies hiding place for the powder. 

In local usage it is often still further shortened to Poudre Creek.

These tributary streams above named head some 75 or 100 miles 

back of the foothills among mountain peaks many of which are over 

14,000 feet high. Their flow is small during the seven months of the 

year commencing with September and ending with March. The discharge of the larger ones during these months rarely exceeds 100 

second-feet or falls much below 50.

FIG. 2. Map of Cache la Poudre Valley.

A small map, fig. 2, shows the principal streams and drainage 

channels tributary to Cache la Poudre Creek, and also exhibits the 

relative position of the towns. On the west the drainage basin extends 

well into the high mountains, from which a considerable proportion 

of the rain and snow falling upon the steeper slopes escapes to the 

stream. In the center of the basin is the belt of foothill .region, and 

in the eastern third the undulating area, neither plain nor foothill. 

From this come a considerable number of drainage lines, the principal of which are Boxelder and Lone Tree creeks. These and other
BOYD.] RAINFALL. 13

channels rarely receive water. For the greater part of the year their 

beds, though well-marked features, are dry; but after heavy rains or 

unusual rain storms locally known as "cloud-bursts" they become 

filled with raging torrents, which destroy everything in their paths. 

The configuration of the country is such that the canals from the 

perennial streams must cross these, necessitating considerable expenditure in the construction of flumes or in annual outlay for repairs. 

A glance at the map of these channels and of the canal lines crossing 

them shows the well-marked trend toward the southeast and indicates 

that any excess or seepage water brought by the canals or by torrents, 

whether flowing above ground or percolating beneath, must ultimately 

reach Cache la Poudre Creek at points not far from its mouth.

The streams on the western side of the basin flow with rapid fall 

through narrow valleys. At the point marked on the small map (fig. 2) 

with a dot and the initials G. S. (gaging station) the river leaves the 

canyon and enters upon a comparatively broad valley. To the north 

of the stream the lands below this point are low, the bottoms varying 

in width from half a mile to 2 miles. Above these are in succession 

two or three well-defined terraces or benches, as they are sometimes 

called. The soil and subsoil of these are, as a rule, coarse and pervious, 

being composed largely of sands and gravels. On the south of the 

river the valley lands are narrow and restricted, comparatively small 

areas being available for agriculture.

The distance from La Porte, where Cache la Poudre Creek enters 

the foothills, to its junction with the Platte is about 32 miles as the 

railroad runs. It is some 8 miles from La Porte to the gaging station 

at the mouth of the canyon. From the canyon to Chambers Lake it 

is about 70 miles by the road as it winds among the mountains. This 

lake is near the head of the Middle Fork and is fed by a number of 

small streams, the altitude of the lake being about 9,000 feet.

RAINFALL.

The soils of the valley lands are, as a rule, fertile and adapted to 

the production of crops of the temperate zone; but the rainfall is 

usually deficient in amount, and can not be relied upon to supply 

sufficient moisture to the fields. Agriculture is therefore possible 

only by means of irrigation, which has been developed to a high 

degree of efficiency, although falling far short of ideal conditions. 

The amount of rainfall within the basin of Cache la Poudre Creek 

has been measured for only a comparatively short time and at a few 

places, these being at the towns in the lower part of the valley. To 

the northeast of the basin a series of measurements have been carried 

on at Cheyenne, Wyoming, and to the south observations have been 

had at a considerable number of points, these being mainly at the 

foothill towns.

The principal rainfall stations in geographic order from north to
14 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

south are as follows: Cheyenne, Wyoming; and Boxelder, Livermore, 

Fort Collins, and Loveland, Colorado. To the east of these latter is 

Greeley, at the lowest point in the valley. The locations of these 

places are shown on the small map (fig. 2). The mean annual rainfall at Cheyenne, the elevation of which is about 6,100 feet, has.been 

from 1870 to 1896 a trifle over 12^ inches; the minimum rainfall, that 

of 1876, was 5.03 inches, and the maximum, that for 1883, was 19.24 

inches. The distribution by years is shown on the accompanying 

diagram (fig. 3), which exhibits by the height of the black columns 

the quantity of rain for each year from 1870 to 1895, inclusive.

The record of precipitation at Boxekler is comparatively short, 

extending only from 1890. The average annual precipitation since 

that time has been a little less than 16 inches. At Livermore the 

record is fragmentary, the average from 1889 to 1893 being about 14 

inches. At Fort Collins the record is longer, beginning in 1872, but

16' 

12" 

B" iimmii iiinim 4" iiiiniiii 

Fia. 3. Diagram showing 

INI 

annual rainfall at minimCheyenne, Wyoming.

is greatly broken until about 1887. The annual average has been 14 

inches. The irregularity of distribution of the precipitation is well 

illustrated by the diagram in PI. II, showing the monthly precipitation 

for the years 1887 to 1896, inclusive. This exhibits, by the height of 

each column, the total amount of rain occurring during the month, 

shown by the lettering at the top of the diagram. The greatest rainfall in any one month was that of May, 1892 4.83 inches. This diagram exhibits the usually heavy rainfall during the early summer and 

the prevailing winter drouths.

The record of rainfall at Loveland begins in 1887, being fragmentary 

until 1891. The average annual precipitation has been about 12 inches. 

At Greeley a less amount of rain is indicated, the average from 1887 

being under 11 inches.

The following table allows a comparison since 1887 of the annual 

rainfall at the five points where the record is longest. The figures 

included in parentheses are those for which an interpolated value has
INCHES INCHES
BOTD.] EAINFALL. 15

been used for one or two missing months. The means given at the 

bottom of the table are not the averages of the figures above, but are 

the total of the monthly means, including thus portions of years otherwise defective:

Annual rainfall, in indies, within or near Cache la Poudre Basin.

Year.

1887....................

1888....................

1889....................

1890....................

1891...................

1892....................

1893....................

1894....................

1895.....................

1896....................

Cheyenne,

M1 8*>>

14.51

14.65

14.47

18.97

13.50

9 22

12.98

14.76

20. 73

12.63

Boxelder.

(11.71)

20.45

13.37

19.83

17.83

15. 88

Fort 

Collins.

12 12

9.79

14.48

11.41

17.50

15. 45

7.08

12.36

18.07

15. 76

14.09

Loveland.

15. 08

7.03

10.77

16.17

13.18

G-reeley.

14.58

5.04

5.93

13. 52

10.71

The distribution of the rainfall by seasons is somewhat irregular, 

the greatest amount occurring during the months from April to 

August inclusive, nearly two-thirds of the total amount for the year 

falling at that time. This fact is illustrated by the following table 

showing the mean monthly precipitation at six important stations, the 

figures being obtained by averaging the records for all of the months 

during which observations were kept. In the column on the right 

these have again been averaged and computed in parts per hundred 

to still further illustrate the distribution by months; for example, the 

average of these records for the month of May, assuming that they 

all have equal weights, shows that 19.98 per cent of the total precipitation for the year has occurred during that month, or, in other words, 

one-fifth of the total amount of rain fell at that time. Next to this 

comes July with 13.08 per cent of the total precipitation of the year. 

Next in quantity of rain stand April and June, these being approximately equal.
16 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [No.9. 

Mean monthly precipitation at specified stations in Colorado.

Month.

January ...

February _-

April ------

May ...-.-.

July.......

August ....

September .

October ....

November -

December . _

Total ..

Cheyenne.

Inches.

0.49

0.42

0.78

1.47

2.32

1.55

1.90

1.54

0.97

0.69

0.32

0.27

12.62

Boxelder.

Inches.

0.84

0.54

1.33

1.26

3.30

1.77

2.22

2.14

1.06

0.64

0.41

0.37

15.88

Livermore.

Inches.

0.92

0.56

0.72

1.86

2.86

1.80

1.03

1.34

0.64

1.92

0.41

0.17

14.23

Fort 

Collins.

Inches.

0.70

0.56

0.80

1.73

2.92

1.67

1.85

1.32

0.92

0.90

0.42

0.30

14.09

Loveland.

Inches.

0.29

1.04

0.88

1.43

2.75

1.12

1.83

0.29

1.09

0.82

0.28

0.36

12.18

Greeley.

Inches.

0.20

0.41

0.50

1.57

1.88

1.38

1.59

1.04

0.54

0.68

0.76

0.16

10.71

Per cent.

4.32

4.43

6.28

11.69

19.98

11.66

13.08

9.62

6.55

7.09

3.26

2.04

100.00

WATER SUPPLY.

The principal source of water supply for the agricultural lands 

near Greeley is Cache la Poudre Creek, a comparatively small amount 

being derived from wells and from the impounded storm waters of 

intermittent tributaries. The main stream has been measured at the 

point where it leaves the canyon above Laporte, the observations 

having been continued for a longer number of years here than on 

any other stream in the arid region. The record therefore has a 

peculiar value, giving the fluctuations of discharge through a series 

of years. The position of the gaging station is shown on the small 

map (fig. 2) by the dot marked G. S. (gaging station). This is above 

nearly all of the irrigating canals and ditches, the principal exception 

being the North Poudre Canal, which irrigates about 4,000 acres, 

mainly in the valley of Boxelder Creek. The drainage area above the 

gaging station, as measured by planimeter on the Land Office maps 

of Colorado and Wyoming, is 1,060 square miles, * a region mainly 

mountainous in character.

By one of the provisions of an act of the general assembly of the 

State of Colorado, approved March 5,1881, the office of State hydraulic 

engineer was created, and this officer was empowered to make measurements of the-waters of streams used in irrigation. Under this act 

Mr. J. S. Greene was employed to make measurements of Cache la 

Poudre Creek, a station being established in Marsh Canyon. 3 From

JThe area given in the second biennial report of the State engineer of Colorado, p. 91, is 973 

square miles, as measured on Hayden's drainage map of Colorado.

a First report of the State engineer, Eugene K. Stimson, of Colorado, for the years 1881 and 

1883. Denver, 1883, p. 16.
BOTO.] . WATER SUPPLY. 17

his measurements computations were made of the daily discharge 

from June 20 to August 5. It was found, however, that the act was 

defective, and further measurements could not be made until a 

remedy was provided. During 1882, therefore, no further attempt 

was made to ascertain the flow of the stream.

Early in 1883 a site for a gaging station was selected on what was 

known as McBride's preemption, about one-half mile above the mouth 

of the canyon and 12 miles above Fort -Collins. The bowlders were 

removed by blasting, and the channel was cleared out and straightened 

as well as was found possible with small expenditure. Gage readings were continued during the irrigation season, and occasional 

measurements were made of the velocity by means of an eight-vaned 

Fteley meter, manufactured by Buff & Berger,.the instrument being 

provided with an electrical registering device. After the completion 

of work at the river station all of the ditches taking water from Cache 

la Poudre Creek in which measuring flumes had been built were 

examined and computations were made as to their capacities at various heights of water.

In the fall of 1883, after the rivet had subsided, a remeasurement 

was made of the cross section of the channel, and it was found that 

this had changed so greatly as to vitiate the original computations, 

although these had value as approximations. Propositions were 

made to the ditch owners taking water from this river that they furnish the necessary funds to build a permanent measuring flume where 

a self-recording nilometer could be installed. By volunteer contributions the sum of 11,650 was obtained and used in the construction 

of a measuring flume and small house for sheltering the instrument. 

These preparations were completed in November, 1883. In March of 

the following year the nilometer was placed in position and measurements of velocity were begun. It was found necessary to use for this 

purpose a stouter instrument, as the stream was of the character of a 

torrent, carrying at times a considerable amount of drift. The instrument devised, known as the Colorado current meter, has been in successful operation for many years in the turbulent waters of that State. 1

The record was continued through the season of 1885 and 1886. 2 It 

was noted at that time that the river has, in common with all moun- 

'tain streams, a daily variation quite marked from the first of May to 

the last of October. This is due to the rapid melting of the snow in 

mountains under the influence of the sun during the daytime and 

the cessation of such melting at night. The greatest variation 

amounted to about 8 inches, or a difference of 1,500 second-feet.

1 Second Biennial Eeport of the State Engineer of Colorado (E. S. Nettleton), for the years 

1883 and 1884, pp. 6-8. The daily discharge was computed from March 15 to October 16,1884. 

The results are shown on pp. 84-91. Those for 1883 were not printed.

2 Third Biennial Eeport of the State Engineer of Colorado (E. S. Nettleton), for the years 

1885 and 1886, pp. 55-57. The daily discharge was computed from April 14 to October 10,1885, 

and from April 27 to October 17,1886, pp. 63-68. 

v .-.-«... ^j
18 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

During May the point of maximum discharge was reached about 4 

a. in. and the minimum about 7 p. m., the time becoming later as the 

season advanced. By the last of July the maximum flow was at 1 

p. m. and the minimum at 3 a. m. Occasional storms also increase 

the volume of the stream rapidly, that on the night of May 20, 1884, 

causing it to increase in volume from 3,153 second-feet to 6,848 secondfeet in eight hours. On August 18, 1884, the river rose a height of 

nearly 5£ feet in thirty minutes, subsiding almost as quickly.

The results of the measurements and computations made during 1887 

and 1888 were not given numerically, but are expressed graphically. 1 

For the succeeding years, 1889 and 1890, the station was maintained 

in part by the Division of Hydrography of the United States Geological Survey. About that time the station was found to be in poor condition, the plank flooring, resting on piling, having become bulged and

3000

2000

1000

FIG. 4. Diagram showing daily discharge of Cache la Poudre Creek for 1894 .

rotted, so as to necessitate its removal. The*walls of timber and plank 

gave way, resulting in gradual change of the cross section. Thus the 

results did not possess the accuracy possible while the section was in 

good order. 2

On June 9,1891, a heavy flood in the river, occasioned by the breaking of Chambers Lake dam, destroyed the registering apparatus belonging to the State of Colorado, and another instrument was substituted 

by Prof. L. G. Carpenter, of the Agricultural College at Fort Collins. 3

1 Fourth Biennial Report of the State Engineer of Colorado (J. S. Greene) for the years 1887 and 

1888, in two parts; PI. XV.

2 Fifth Biennial Report of the State Engineer of Colorado (J. P. Maxwell) for the years 1889 and 

1890. The results of computations of daily discharge for 1889 are given on page 33 and those for 

1890 on page 33.

3 Sixth Biennial Report of the State Engineer of Colorado (J. P. Maxwell) for the years 1891 and 

1893, p. 18. Results of the computations of daily discharge for 1891 are given on page 33, and 

those for 1893 on page 33. Also, see Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin No. 23, 

Preliminary report on the duty of water, L. G. Carpenter, p. 33.
BOYD.] DISCHARGE OF CACHE LA POUDRE CREEK. 19

During 1893 and 1894 the flow of water was reported at the weir in 

the canyon by the automatic register. The results are given in the 

progress report of the Division of Hydrography. l

During the succeeding years, 1895-96, occasional measurements 

were made under the direction of Professor Carpenter, but the results 

have .not been made public.

DAILY MEAN DISCHARGE OF CACHE LA POUDRE CREEK.

The following tables of daily mean discharge of Cache la Poudre 

Creek have been arranged by months for convenience of comparison 

of the amount flowing in different years. The figures have been 

obtained from the following sources:

1881. First Biennial Report of the State Engineer, p. 16. Discharge computed 

from June 20 to August 5, 1881.

1882. No measurements were made during this year.

1883. Figures not published, but found in manuscript in the office of the State 

engineer. The discharges from March 23 to May 3, 1883, are only approximate, 

being obtained by interpolation, assuming that the cross section did not change. 

From May 4 to July 4, 1883, the discharges are deduced from gage reading and 

are claimed to be close approximations. From July 4 to August 30 the amount 

of decrease was assumed to be two-thirds of the amount of decrease per day from 

July 20 to August 20.

1884. Second Biennial Report of the State Engineer of Colorado, pp. 6-8, 84-91. 

Discharge computed from March 15 to October 16, 1884. Figures are also given 

in the Third Biennial Report, on pages 61 to 67.

1885. Third Biennial Report of the State Ejigineer, pp. ©3-68. Discharge computed from April 14 to October 10, 1885.

1886. Third Biennial Report of the State Engineer, pp. 63-68. Discharge computed from April 27 to October 17, 1886.

1887. Fourth Biennial Report of the State Engineer. Figures not published. 

Diagram on PI. XV. Discharges shown from March 18 to October 23, 1887.

1888. Fourth Biennial Report of the State Engineer. Figures not published. 

Diagram on PL XV. Discharges shown from March 14 to October 23, 1888.

1889. Fifth Biennial Report of the State Engineer, p. 22. Discharge computed 

from January 1 to December 31. 1889.

1890. Fifth Biennial Report of the State Engineer, p. 23. Discharge computed 

from January 1 to December 31, 1890.

1891. Sixth Biennial Report of the State Engineer. Discharge computed from 

January 1 to December 31, 1891.

1893. Sixth Biennial Report of the State Engineer, p. 23. Discharge computed 

from January 1 to April 17, and from May 18 to August 16, 1892.

1893. Progress Report, Bulletin United States Geological Survey. No. 131, p. 31. 

Computations from May 11 to August 31, 1893.

1894. Progress Report, Bulletin United States Geological Survey, No. 131, p. 31. 

Computations from May 2 to November 30, 1894.

1895. Progress Report, Bulletin United Stalls Geological Survey, No. 140, p. 112. 

Mean monthly discharge only.

1896. Preliminary figures for May and June. By L. G. Carpenter.

1 United States Geological Survey Bulletin No, 131, "Report of progress of the Division of 

Hydrography for the calendar years 1893 and 1894, p. 31.
20 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO.

Estimated daily discharge, in second-feet, of Cache la Poudre Creek for the months 

of January and February.

Day.

1...........................................

3 .- --.- -- -- 

4 .....

5 -------- -- - -.- --..--.-......

6 -- - .- ------ ----.---- ---- 

7 - - - -- --- --- -

8....---. --- .-- -- . .. .--

10 . - . 

11 -_.....- ..... .- - ...-

13 --- - -- - -

U - --- - -- - ~-

if;

16..-- .. - -- ------ --------

17. --- - -..-- 

18_- -.. -- -- 

1Q

20.. .........................................

31

33

33

34

35

26... .....................................

37

38--.-------. . -.-. - - ---.

39 . _. _ . ...

30 ------------------------

31.-.--------------- ---------------

January.

1889.

n

130 

130 

89 

111 

115 

98 

83 

108 

98 

134 

173 

193 

193 

183 

173 

164 

168 

343 

306 

334 

343 

355 

164 

146 

118 

89 

118 

108 

98 

73

155

1890.

45

65 

69 

78 

101 

101 

83 

75 

59 

78 

86 

98 

104 

101 

101 

101 

78 

78 

81 

78 

75 

78

a3

93 

73 

73 

78 

83 

89 

87 

78

83

1891.

86 

83 

61 

50 

50 

46 

44 

46 

53 

53 

66 

76 

76 

78 

86 

109 

109 

113 

145 

131 

131 

131 

145 

131 

131 

141 

115 

83 

88 

88 

109

93

1893.

70 

65 

54 

50 

53 

53 

50 

54 

60 

60 

60 

60 

58 

58 

54 

50 

50 

54 

56 

63 

73 

73 

73 

73 

73 

73 

73 

73 

83 

93 

98

64

February.

1889.

73 

75 

86 

101 

98 

92 

92 

133 

133 

130 

108 

111 

101 

75 

69 

71 

83 

108 

75 

89 

101 

101 

134 

150 

198 

198 

173 

142

110

1890.

104 

133 

137

133 

104 

78 

75 

75 

89 

107 

104 

98 

86 

78 

73 

85 

75 

73 

69 

49 

43 

53 

49 

37 

49 

44 

53 

69

79

1891.

131 

118 

109 

100 

89 

83 

66 

63 

66 

66 

68 

68 

68 

66 

66 

57 

57 

57 

57 

59 

66 

71 

73 

68 

83 

86 

86 

83

76

1893.

98 

 98 

98 

104 

104 

104 

112 

104 

113 

112 

133 

123 

115 

138 

138 

128 

138 

128 

134 

135 

112 

109 

109 

112 

112 

138 

128 

134 

128

116

Estimated daily discharge, in second-feet, of Cache la Poudre Creek for the month

of March.

Day.

1...... ...... ----. --. .- --....------....

2 . .... . _ ...... __ . __ .. . _ ....

3 - .-- - -- - -- - .- 

4.. __ .. - -- - - 

K

6. -. - --- -- - --- 

8. .--. --- --- - - -- 

9 4h

10- ...... ... --.- . --- .-.-.

11......................--...... .. .......... ....

13. ................-... ... . ............

13 ...... -- .- - - 

14. ...... ...... .. .... ...--. 

15...... ................- \. ......... ... ......

1883. 1884.

73

1888.

110

100

1889.

135

104

86

78

73

58

55

55

53

53

40

41

41

41

41

1890.

89

104

101

93

78

71

67

65

71

58

49

47

52

53

60

1891.

70

63

59

53

50

50

55

71

73

68

66

66

61

55

52

1893.

128

134

134

128

122

106

98

93

94

60

60

62

72

73

73
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEV WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL. Ill

2,000

1,000

6,000

5,000

4.000

2,000

1,000

5,000

4,000

3,000

2,000

1,003

3,000

2,000

1,000

1881

1884

DIAGRAMS OF DAILY DISCHARGE OF CACHE LA POUDRE CREEK FOR 1881, 1883, 1884, AND 1885.
BO YD.] DISCHARGE OF CACHE LA POUDKE CREEK. 21

Estimated daily discharge, in second-feet, of Cache la Poudre Creek for the month

of March Continued.

Day.

16.. ................................................

17..................................................

18................................................ .

19................................... .............

30-.. ............................................

31 '

32

S3.... ........................................ ......

^.... ..............................................

^&..... .............................................

38.... ..............................................

37

SS........ ..........................................

on

30. ......................... . -.. . - - . si....... ..I.................... ....................

1883.

107

133

159

185

311

337

363

389

315

311

1884.

71

67

63

64

78

93

48

64

70

73

76

67

55

50

63

75

68

1888.

100

110

130

150

110

110

130

130

150

140

130

90

110

150

130

130

130

1889.

43

44

47

44

43

43

47

48

46

46

43

43

43

44

47

55

54

1890.

85

104

101

101

101

101

lor

185

114

104

101

98

98

85

78

78

85

1891.

53

54

54

57

63

73

76

73

70

66

57

52

46

43

40

33

59

1893.

73

40

60

73

73

73

73

72

72

67

50

50

50

50

50

56

78

Estimated daily discharge, in second-feet, of Cache la Poudre Greek for the month of

April.

Day.

1- ................... .--.--- .

2

3.,.. .............................. ..

4................ ....... ............

5.. .............................. ....

6....... ._____..___...-.-. - -- ..

7..... ........................... ....

8. ..............................._...

» 

9. ......i.. ................. .........

10.,................, ...... ........

11 .. :.-- - 

13--..-..-..........----- .........

13. ....._. _. ..........................

14....................................

15 .. ............................ ...

16.... ............................... .

18.......... ..........................

19...... ..............................

30.... ..................... ...........

21

23

33. ................................

34................... ................

2a.... ...............................

36 . -.. .. ........... ........

37

38..... ...............................

SS. ...................................

30............................... ...

1883.

341

367

393

419

445

471

497

533

549

576

601

627

653

678

705

731

757

783

809

835

861

887

913

941

967

993

1,019

1,045

1,071

1,097

718

1884.

92

76

74

71

70

68

65

71

78

78

83

93

125

115

130

139

132

189

176

174

177

301

186

379

439

535

708

703

666

603

»TIQ

1885.

341

350

374

384

314

336

358

447

410

441

398

505

559

609

634

733

833

447

1886.

447

416

387

369

405

1888.

120

110

100

100

110

100

100

110

110

100

110

100

100

100

110

130

130

160

170

190

330

330

350

330

340

350

330

310

370

260

181

1889.

48

48

53

57

58

65

71

78

75

68

59

59

65

70

68

73

88

139

133

101

101

1|>1

101

107

146

1)8

337

388

342

312

113

1890.

73

71

69

71

73

93

107

101

98

89

98

107

133

137

137

133

133

141

178

337

243

271

300

336

455

474

481

435

372

366

300

1891.

39

50

59

48

48

54

59

75

86

97

109

109

103

81

71

68

78

134

166

166

159

159

194

314

358

396

SW

333

333

344

144

1892.

60

67

60

60

72

72

73

73

84

93

98

98

98

98

98

113

113

84
22 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9

Estimated daily discJiqrge, in second-feet, of Cache la Poudre Creek for the month

of May.

Day.

1......

3......

4----.

5-. -

6-...-

7---.-.

8_ 

9......

10.-...

11-...-

12

13......

14......

15......

16......

n ......

18. -

10

9f)

21

22....- 

33......

35 ......

36 ...... 

37

39...... 

30 .....

31 ......

Av.

1883.

1,111

1 11Q

1,174

1 049

1,043

1,353

1,580

1,848

1,839

1,707

1,716

1,776

2,193

1,988

1,848

1,943

3,173

3,399

3 335

o oni

3,104

3,389 

3,339

3,355

3,093 

1,914 

1,776 

1,838 

1,997 

1,803

1,938

1,833

1884.

Vrt

453

Ana

531

477

508

531

671

965

1 387

1,845

3,067

1,978

1,793

1,897

3,491

3,738

3,576

3,033

3,375

5,393

4,389 

3,933

3,695

3,609 

3,838 

4,383 

4,610 

4,315 

3,757

3,637

3,536

1885.

954

1 rvxi

1 (¥>7

1,165

1,186

1,337

1 97Q

1,358

1 465

1 488

1,593

1 533

1 533

1 533

1,534

1,557

1,499

1,430

1,379

1,390

1,333

1,465 

1,545

1,593

1,533 

1,534 

1,476 

1,533 

1,498 

1 664

1,965

1,419

1886.

404

466

535

181

617

654

704.

773

873

900

873

937

908

883

848

805

816

937

1,186

1,465

1,534

1,836 

1,914

3,045

3,195 

3,407 

3,378 

3,599 

3,660 

3,584

3,350

1,308

1887.

i lift

1,630

1,910

1,950

1,910 

1,680

1,840

1,810 

1,830 

3,000 

3,100 

3,380

1,847

1888.

of;n

370

390

350

380

370

390

310

aso

390

400

350

360

460

550

740

790

650

610

550

540

490 

530

530

550 

560 

560 

530 

610 

750

770

484

1889.

383

ixjy

314

337

383

348

334

337

337

300

354

354

397

736

903

947

888

851

807

736

833

1,055 

1,063

1,086

1,147 

1,380 

1,364 

1,643 

1,486 

1,477

1,886

770

1890.

435

494

553

666

764

733

633

666

739

743

800

836

800

700

736

807

888

1,078

1,109

1,186

1,388

1,593 

1,461

1,405

1,469 

1,583 

1,651 

1,710 

1,650 

1,510

1,575

1,044

1891.

355

394

441

565

806

1,053

1,160

1,339

1,179

1,044

833

908

710

766

710

970

1,092

1,130

1,308

1,350

1,313

1,355 

1,409

1,858

3,499

3,273 

3,173 

1,979 

3,018

o ftAA

1,334

1893.

376

383

378

370

393 

388

570

618 

847 

1,067 

1,084 

1,067 

1,075

873

643

1893.

217

344

378

308

1,047

1,043 

930

841

870 

974 

876 

813 

878 

1,107

9^9

763

1894.

493

481

483

573

663

793

1,057

1,399

1 308

1,346

1,331

1,453

1,538

1,839

1,838

1,355

1,315

1,697

1,843

3,051

1,779 

1,585

1,303

1,483 

1,650 

1,817 

1,984 

3,151 

3,318

3,485

1,390

Estimated daily discharge, in second-feet, of Cache la Poudre Creek for the month

of June.

Day.

1.. ........

2

3.. .....

4

5

6 ....... .

"i. .........

8-.. ......

9 ..

10.. ....... .

11..........

13. ......

13..........

14.. ........

15..........

16.... ......

1881. 1883.

3,035

3,091

3 373

3,400

3,468

3,803

3,050

3,386

3,050

3,880

3,067

4,143

3,771

3,688

4,183

5,006

1884.

3,474

3,598

3,996

4,493

4,835

5,064

4,914

4.785

4,854

5.196

5,177

4,894

5,135

5,459

1 «U8

4,730

1885.

3,378

3,a55

3.815

3,815

3,858

3,390

.3,706

3,335

2,238

3,336

3,614

3 989

3,935

3,799

3 534

3,393

1886.

3,349

3,307

3,349

3 433

3,393

2,364

3,393

3,407

3,509

3,584

2,509

2,378

3,278

3,378

1 QQS

1,784

1887.

1,970

1,970

1,770

1888.

880

1,090

1,350

1,490

1,370

1,250

1,350

1,410

1,170

1,330

1,300

1,310

1,190

1,360

1,430

1,450

1889.

1 960

1,608

1,503

1,333

1,383

1,559

1,583

1,486

1,503

1,388

1,298

1,358

1,398

1 307

1,559

1,608

1890.

1,736

1,804

1 635

1,510

1,339

1 235

1,139

1,178

1,193

1 217

1,301

1,186

1,243

1 335

1 383

1,315

1891.

3,005

1,979

1,790

1 KA1

1,634

1,840

1,903

2,436

5,060

3,600

3,065

2,635

2,190

1,860

1 738

1,634

1893.

750

786

1 113

1 111

1,003

960

1,084

1,360

1,468

1,636

1 533

1,360

1,114

1 300

1 457

1,360

1893.

1 330

1,108

1 041

1,197

1,767

3,198

3,667

3,913

3,949

2,252

......

1894.

3 653

2,830

3,046

3 OAK

3,461

3,673

3,514

2,783

3,094

1,908

2,067

3 236

3,346

2,291

2,104

3,027
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEV WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL. IV

2,000

1,000

2,000

1,000

JAN. FEB. MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUG. SEPT. OCT. NOV. DEC. 

,000 10 20 10 2O IP 2O IP 2O IP 2O I IP 2O IP 2O IP 20 IP 2O 10 2O IP 2O IP 2O

2,000

1,000

2,000

1,000

1886

1888

DIAGRAMS OF DAILY DISCHARGE OF CACHE LA POUDRE CREEK FOR 1886, 1887, 1888, AND 1889.
BO YD.] DISCHARGE OF CACHE LA P.OUDRE CREEK. 23

Estimated daily discharge, in seconds-feet, of Cache la Poiidre Creek for the month

of June Continued.

i>ay.

17 . ......

18.."........

19... . ......

30____ .

33

33..........

34__________

35

36_. ....____

37

38. .........

39

30 __._. ..

Average __

1881.

1,104

1.053

1,053

1,037

1,078

1,095

1,093

1,074

1,737

1,681

1,640

1,339

1883.

4,783

4,798

5,097

6,008

6,393

7,393

7,393

6,748

6,403

5,893

6,934

6,586

6,058

5,733

4,539

1884.

4,553

4,318

4,431

4,730

4,833

4 733

4 359

4,838

5,159

5,404

5,530

5,611

5,415

4,747

4,813

1885.

331

,599

,675

.907

,a38

41)7

,539

,387

,055

,675

,799

989

,799

,675

,911

1886.

1,704

1,580

1,454

1,430

1,376

1,333

1 337

1,337

1,350

1,387

1,398

1,311

1 358

1,876

1887.

1,590

1,530

1,480

1,430

1,360

1,360

1,350

1,350

1,190

1,350

1,350

1,080

1.050

1,050

1,401

1888.

1 330

1 360

1,550

1,390

1,050

930

650

730

780

750

750

680

690

680

1,114

1889.

1,486

1,518

1,534

1,486

1,315

1,307

1,343

1,178

1,063

1,016

948

874

837

837

1,339

1890.

1.331

1,339

1,398

1,366

1 366

1,358

1 383

1,335

1,301

1,163

1,155

1,139

1,063

1,016

1,380

1891.

1,501

1,373

1,753

1,579

1,545

1,479

1,534

1,545

1,848

1,579

1,360

1.049

1,076

985

1,900

1893.

1,658

1,444

1,645

1,579

3,535

3,450

3,385

3,313

2,178

3,165

1,564

1,445

1,393

1,333

1,513

1893.

3,386

3,483

3 437

3 374

1,905

1,758

1,616

1 423

1,354

1,346

1,344

1,177

1,133

1,815

1894.

1,791

1,915

1,717

1,586

1,453

1,458

1,437

1,375

1,350

1,316

1,338

1,130

1,065

1,067

3,063

Estimated daily discharge, in second-feet, of Cache la Poudre Creek for the month

of July.

Day.

1.. .... 

0

3. .....__._

4_, __._..

6 . ......

r... . ......

8..........

9

10. ....__._.

11.-.. .

12 .....-

13- ......

14.... ... ...

15.. . ...

16..........

17.. ________

18.. _.....__

19.... ...... 

30 .......

31

00

33

34_. ...... .

35..........

30- ......

38_... ......

39

an..........

31..........

Average _

1881.

1,633

1,600

1,600

1,583

1,510

1,507

1,393

1,303

1,084

963

853

786

740

680

635

673

845

833

814 

713

715

585

533

547

481

564

538

484

396

376

361

877

1883.

5,083

4,447

3,988

3,395

3,344

3,394

3,343

3,193

3,143

3,093

3,043

3,993

3,941

3,891

3,840

3,790

3,689

3,639 

3,588

3,513

3,438

2 363

2,387

3,311

2,136

3,061

1,985

1,910

1,834

1,759

3,834

1884.

3,853

3,970

3,845

3,848

3,459

3,309

3,581

3,573

3,180

3,575

3,360

3,318

3,305

3,458

1,933

1,753

1,755

1 633

1,533 

1,438

1 463

1,198

1,194

1,145

1,133

982

955

903

863

1,036

1,063

2,144

1885.

3,055

3,186

3,878

3,830

3,830

3,331

3,349

3.378

3,308

3,181

3,019

1,939

1.888

1,784

1,688

1,713

1 763

1,676

1,653 

1,557

1,532

1,476

1,398

1,358

1,176

1 306

1.176

1,076

1.155

1,145

1,076

1,860

1886.

1,176

1,136

1,057

1,038

1,038

973

937

873

839

831

764

700

685

639

609

603

609

693

707 

669

764

566

553

545

588

539

466

441

410

404

393

T17

1887.

980

900

930

880

730

700

700

880

700

1,360

890

830

7/1

710

940

960

960

1 060

890 

810

710

580

510

490

430

430

410

490

450

440

450

735

1888.

670

690

610

560

550

540

490

560

510

490

470

450

510

430

410

a50

330

G30

310 

390

380

300

350

390

380

340

330

310

310

380

370

431

1889.

844

844

779

732

633

579

680

757

757

736

653

599

546

513

461

435

416

397

385 

366

354

394

378

360

336

365

371

306

416

448

511

1890.

970

963

957

896

853

833

764

736

857

770

713

601

590

546

613

533

481

515

559 

559

1,000

1,033

613

503

448

403

403

380

348

336

366

648

1891.

784

849

864

834

768

833

1,003

907

768

699

636

558

531

534

513

493

462

433

436 

415

393

381

354

333

303

383

378

288

307

307

398

543

1893.

1,393

1,340

870

1,030

993

950

908

984

1,084

1,000

960

857

784

736

'698

648

639

564 

530

584

558

513

538

493

443

403

396

380

348

343

735

1893.

1,144

1,038

996

997

947

795

840

833

744

693

663

678

661

603

608

576

536

511

476 

454

401

384

359

348

353

444

483

406

383

354

343

614

1894.

1,109

1,083

1,109

1,373

1,334

1,158

1,078

956

935

925

933

936

1,177

878

983

899

783

817

830

738

696.

647

603

567

561

567

553-

523

497

461

444

836
24 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO.

Estimated daily discharge, in second-feet, of Cache la Poudre Creek for the month

of August.

Day.

1____ ......

2

3. ........ -

4. ____.....

G. .........

7. ...... ...

8.... ......

9..........

10 .........

11... .......

12

13..........

14..........

15...........

16..........

17..........

18..........

19..........

30

31

33

23.. ........

34..........

35

36..........

37..........

38..........

39..........

30..........

31..........

Average

1881.

343

360

337

319

303

330

1883.

1,683

1,608

1,533

1,457

1 383

1,306

1 331

1,157

1,081

1,006

930

855

780

704

fi<>Q

553

478

403

337

350

968

1884.

1,068

1,033

1,120

1,331

863

849

830

773

860

934

860

804

780

796

788

827

833

916

935

923

800

683

590

635

653

603

635

594

511

443

433

792

1885.

1,057

1,029

973

918

937

1,116

1,019

856

788

77°

740

685

634

IMS

w>

518

17Q

466

460

441

559

Kaa

559

545

518

491

466

441

416

398

389

657

1886.

369

309

399

389

379

364

355

355

355

250

341

237

232

233

237

237

389

1,476

479

416

343

314

394

274

416

387

343

347

335

379

264

338

1887.

430

410

400

380

aw

330

330

260

350

220

230

360

370

380

380

350

320

380

250

240

350

330

220

35U

320

280

260

250

330

320

320

307

1888.

390

500

380

310

300

380

340

330

190

180

180

190

180

170

150

230

350

210

230

210

160

Tin

160

150

110

150

140

140

140

140

140

213

1889.

455

435

403

306

349

209

159

146

183

331

237

230

188

146

137

137

133

154

325

193

178

i^n

146

141

141

111

98

86

81

67

71

188

1890.

360

343

324

294

355

233

183

173

198

336

403

348

354

403

397 385"

385

306

383

366

348

394

271

283

351

338

234

183

178

159

150

290

1891.

292

384

273

369

269

251

233

212

300

200

192

184

180

173

308

335

330

233

238

238

242

369

288

273

229

229

220

217

192

173

155

228

1892.

327

322

307

293

272

368

288

271

302

288

251

233

203

228

202

192

265

1893.

386

343

321

283

256

251

251

393

327

298

239

189

236

218

248

219

191

161

155

158

158

141

151

335

1894.

479

494

512

440

379

396

513

487

477

464

427

393

362

365

369

347

319

298

395

283

278

271

274

240

229

212

304

179

182

165

163

175

Estimated daily discharge, in second-feat, of Cache la Poudre Creek for the montJi

of September.

Day.

1. ...................................

2

3....................................

4....................................

5....................................

6....................................

7

8..................... ..............

9 ...................................

10...................................

11....................................

12....................................

13....................................

U-. ..................................

1884.

446

390

369

350

361

364

397

410

360

318

303

314

394

371

1885.

347

325

309

299

394

299

337

387

358

343

325

314

374

1886.

364

274

274

284

255

232

233

215

215

215

210

210

198

177

1887.

300

290

250

230

320

200

330

270

190

180

170

170

160

150

1888.

160

180

140

130

120

120

120

130

150

140

120

110

110

110

1889,

73

73

73

69

67

67

67

71

65

59

58

56

58

60

1890.

159

173

183

159

150

138

130

130

122

111

108

101

98

89

1891.

148

151

155

158

' 151

134

131

138

138

138

138

138

138

138

1894.

171

183

178

179

161

152

140

327

396

281

276

246

219

178 I
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL. V

IL MAY JUNE JULY AUG. SEPT. OCT. NOV. DEC. 

2 000 '? 20 '0 20 JO 20 10 20 10 20 10 20 IP 20 10 70 1020 10 2O 1020 IP 20

1890

1891

1892

1893

DIAGRAMS OF DAILY DISCHARGE OF CACHE LA POUDRE CREEK FOR 1890, 1891, 1892, AND 1893.
BOYD.] DISCHARGE OP CACHE LA POUDRE CREEK. 25 

Estimated daily discharge, in second-feet, of Cache la Poudre Creek, etc. Cont'd.

Day.

15....................................

16....................................

17..... ........ ._...................

18....................................

19....................................

30

21

33-. ...... ........ ................ ....

33.... ........................... .....

34. ................................. ..

35.... ............................ ....

36....................................

28.... ................................

29

30.. ..................................

1884.

313

375

319

280

255

339

333

231

237

369

260

246

245

240

235

230

305

1885.

255

246

241

332

333

218

318

218

218

818

218

210

310

218

318

215

272

1886.

169

162

158

163

177

143

136

132

115

132

130

136

147

143

140

136

185

1887.

140

140

130

120

130

140

130

110

120

140

180

170

160

150

150

140

175

1888.

110

130

110

90

80

80

80

80

90

90

80

80

70

80

100

110

103

1889.

69

73

73

71

73

73

73

73

73

70

68

71

71

69

67

69

1890.

85

85

85

81

81

86

89

93

78

73

73

73

73

73

 65

58

103

1891.

125

125

135

132

118

115

138

138

138

141

141

141

141

148

151

151

138

1894.

165

155

157

152

146

135

118

113

108

105

108

107

101

99

132

145

164

Estimated daily discharge, in second-feet, of Cache la Poudre Creek for the month,

of October.

Day.

1.... -.-__..-..-.- - ..-.-. 

2... -_... .. .. .-.- --

3 .................................

i.. .............. ..^..,.. ........ ....

5

6-.-._.... -..-... - . -

7............ .......... ........

8.......-.... ................ ....

0

10.. .......................... ........

11... ............................. ....

12........................ ............

13... .................................

14.... ................................

15..... ...........-....._.............

16....................................

17....................................

18....................................

19.....................................

30. ........ ......... ..................

21

23

33....................................

34....................................

35........................ ......

36............... .... .. ... .... .

(JIT

28........................ ...........

39_. ........ ... .... ...

30.................................. .

31....................................

1884,

335

312

303

197

203

199

199

312

309

215

302

202

197

300

300

196

"ftt

1885.

310

306

303

202

202

302

302

203

203

206

204

1886.

133

133

140

130

133

133

130

133

133

130

127

132

120

120

130

133

130

139

1887.

130

150

150

140

130

110

110

120

130

120

130

120

120

110

120

130

150

140

150

150

140

140

150

130

1888.

100

110

90

100

110

100

100

110

100

100

110

100

100

110

130

100

130

130

130

130

100

120

130

109

1889.

71

73

69

69

71

71

67

61

56

55

56

60

69

68

69

65

65

67

69

75

73

71

69

69

69

71

73

75

86

85

92

70

1890.

57

55

55

58

60

73

73

73

73

73

67

89

118

118

118

101

80

81

81

83

83

71

73

78

78

78

89

89

89

. 89

93

80

1891.

151

148

145

138

131

134

141

134

123

115

112

113

112

113

112

113

115

123

113

112

113

113

115

113

109

106

107

106

104

104

104

118

1894.

144

158

135

141

118

146

151

143

138

131

130

107

99

94

93

93

93

93

89

97

82

85

87

84

84

84

78

74

71

71

78

105
26 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

Estimated daily discharge, in second-feet, of Cache la Poudre Creek for the months 

of November and December.

Day.

I...-.. -. ._ _. ... -.... ---.

0

3... ...._ . ... ........................

4 . ._ .......... .. .. _' .. .

5. ...............................................

6......... .......................................

7--- ............... .........................

8 ...... _.. .........................

9... . _.....__.... - - .. .

10---.. ..-.-.........._ .......... .............. .-.

11................................................

13.................................... ...........

is................:.......-.......................

14............ ..................... .. ..__._

15................................................

16................................................

17------........------.-.....--.--.... ............

18..... ............... ................ .--......._.

19. ____________ _._____ .__.______.

30. ....... . ,. . .... ..

31

33

33

24........... ....._ -..._ _ __ .__.

25-... .......... .................. ______________

36. . ._....... ........ ................

37

38. ...... .._- ..- _..._.....__ ........

39...........

30..................... . - ...- .. .___..

31......................... ....... ... ..-___ .

November 

1889.

93 

71

75 

86 

69 

71 

73

gO

111 

133 

133

as

85 

86 

101 

98 

107 

107 

111 

101 

101

fjO

(W 

89 

67 

58 

45

r»6

65 

73

87

1890.

89 

83 

81 

78 

69 

67 

71 

73 

71 

68 

58 

55 

49

OFV

44

39 

41 

43 

43 

53 

55 

61 

63 

69 

61 

65 

73 

55 

53 

63

61

1891.

100 

98 

98 

95

84

84

77

r-.-)

77 

83 

83 

87 

84 

79 

67 

73 

73 

70 

83 

100 

95 

84 

84 

83 

87 

84 

84 

83 

84

83

1894.

79 

91 

96

91 

95 

96 

93 

89 

94 

85 

80 

85 

77 

43 

116 

150 

146 

115 

107 

60 

57 

103 

90 

93 

91 

89 

93

83

December 

1889.

69

78 

67 

55 

56 

60 

60 

65 

65 

60 

48 

73 

73 

78 

89 

86 

33 

89 

73 

67 

61 

55 

58 

73 

61 

71 

81 

67 

43 

41 

39

64

1890.

67 

60 

61 

55 

53 

07 

46 

53 

48 

50 

107 

80 

71 

65 

58 

60 

63 

67 

53 

55 

44 

67 

67 

58 

55 

60 

71 

83 

101 

86 

101

65

Ih91.

84 

95 

(3 

54 

60

77 

77 

83 

109 

100 

100 

100 

98 

100 

93 

74 

73 

73 

73

i rJ

74 

93 

87 

56 

56

73 

73

79
BOYD.] SETTLEMENT IN CACHE LA POUDEE VALLEY. 27

Estimated mean monthly discharge of Cache la Poudre Creek from 1SS1 to 1S94.

Year.

1881.....

1883.....

1884. ....

1885.....

'1886_..._

1887 

1888.-.-

1889..... 

1890.-... 

1891--- 

1893.-..

1893..-.

1894-. 

Jan.

155

83 

92 

64

Feb.

110 

79 

76 

116

Mar.

c211

e68

?i 120

54 

85 

59

78

Apr.

718

219

0447

*405

181

113 

200 

144 

p84

May.

1,833

9 KQR

1 .11 Q

1,308

k 1,847

484

770 

1,044 

1,324 

q 642

1,390

June.

a 1,239

4,539

4,813

O Oil

1,876

1 1,401

1,114

I,a39 

1,280 

1,900 

1,512

* 1,815

2,063

July.

877

2 834

2,144

1 860

717

735

431

511 

648 

543 

735

614

836

Aug.

6330

d9t>8

7Q°

657

338

307

213

188 

290 

228 

?-365

M235

175

Sept.

305

*}?fc>

185

175

103

69 

103 

138

164

Oct.

f304

A204

i 1OQ

ml 30

o!09

70 

80 

118

105

Nov.

87 

01 

83

83

Dec.

64 

65 

79

a June 20-30,1881. 

6 August 1-5,1881. 

c March 23-31,1883. 

d August 1-20,1883. 

e March 15-31,1884. 

/October 1-16,1884. 

0 April 14-30,1885.

A October 1-10, 1885. 

/April 27-30, 1886. 

j October 1-17,1886. 

fc May 18-29,1887. 

I June 14-30,1887. 

TO October 1-23,1887. 

n March 14-31,1888.

o October 1-23,1888. 

p April 1-17,1892. 

q May 18-31, 1892.

r August 1-16, 1892.

s May 11-14 and 21-31,1893.

t June 4-13 and 18-30, 1893. 

u August 1-10 and 19-31,1893.

SETTLEMENT IN CACHE LA POUDRE VALLEY.

During his tour in Colorado, in 1859, Horace Greeley was impressed 

with the belief that the higher lands were adapted to cultivation if 

irrigated. On his return to New York he discussed the matter, and 

with the cooperation of N. C. Meeker gave the proposition great publicity. The colony plan presented through the columns of the Tribune culminated in 1870 in the formation of Union Colony, which, 

settling in Cache la Poudre Valley, gave to their town the name of 

Greeley. 1

When the colony arrived, it found a few settlers in the valley, who 

had occupied the bottom land mostly for the pasture and wild hay it 

offered. They had taken out from the Cache la Poudre Creek a number of small canals, which had in cultivation under them, as near as 

can be ascertained, about 1,000 acres. They generally believed that 

the higher bench land lacked fertility, and that it was extremely 

unwise on the part of the colony people to construct canals for its irrigation.

UNION COLONY.

Union Colony, under the leadership of 1ST. C. Meeker and the auspices 

of Horace Greeley, undertook, in the spring of 1870, the settlement of 

the lower end of Cache la Poudre Valley, the headquarters being 

upon the site of Greeley. The leaders of the colony constructed, as 

quickly as possible after their arrival, a ditch on the south side of the 

creek, on the site of the one that now irrigates the lots in town and

1 Second Biennial Report of the State Engineer of Colorado for the years 1883-84, p. 20.
28 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

the lands in its vicinity. There were only some 200 acres put into 

crops, but the ditch was small and poorly constructed, and without a 

dam at its head in the river to divert the low water into it, so that not 

enough water could be obtained for this small area.

This first ditch demonstrated the great fertility of the soil when 

sufficiently moist to enable vegetation to avail itself of its plant food. 

The original cost was $6,333. It was enlarged three times, in 1871, 

1872, and 1873, and then cost in all, with dam, about $25,000. It has

FIG. 5. Map of canals near Greeley, Colorado.

a capacity, by the decree of the court, of 173 second-feet. In 1894, 

as shown by a table in the State engineer's report, it is credited with 

having only 1,275 acres under irrigation, of which 480 are reported as 

pasture and waste land. This, no doubt, leaves out of account the 

town lots irrigated from this canal, which have a probable area of 300 

acres. The insignificance of the area thus reported as under cultivation shows that if this had been all the colony would have been a failure as an agricultural community, and there was no other industry 

for it in this locality to pursue.
BOYD.] CANALS AND EESEEVOIES. 29 

CANAL AND RESERVOIR SYSTEMS.

A number of canal systems were projected by Union Colony, the 

first of these, or No. 1, never begun, being planned to head in the canyon 

above La Porte and terminate at Crow Creek, covering nearly all of 

the lands later watered by the two canals known as the Larmier County 

and the Larimer and Weld County canals. Canal No. 2, later known 

as Cache la Poudre Canal, was begun during the fall of 1870. 1 Canal 

No. 3 was the town ditch described above. No. 4 was to come out of Big 

Thompson Creek and water the lands on the bluff south of Greeley, 

now irrigated by the Loveland and Greeley Canal. Thus canals Nos. 

2 and 3 were the only ones constructed under the original plans of 

the colonists.

A list of the most important canals and ditches is given on page 51 

in connection with the crop statistics of this district. The location of 

the three largest is shown on the accompanying map (fig. 5) and a 

general description of them is given below. These, in geographic 

order, are Cache la Poudre Canal, immediately north of the city of 

Greeley; above this Larimer and Weld Canal; and still above, and in 

a general way parallel, Larimer County Canal. Still further to the 

northwest is also shown on this small map the lower end of North 

Poudre Canal, belonging to the North Poudre Land, Canal, and Reservoir Company, and described on page 58.

CACHE LA POUDRE CANAL.

The survey of what was originally known as Canal No. 2 was prosecuted during the summer of 1870, and the construction of its whole 

length 35 miles was practically completed diiring the autumn of 

that year and the spring of 1871. It was supposed to be in shape to 

deliver an abundance of water to all the crops that could be got in 

under it for irrigation during the summer of 1872. Some 2,000 acres 

were put in crops, but most of them were burned up for want of water. 

It was a year of scarce supply, there was no dam in the river, and the 

head of the canal ran for a mile and a half along the -edge of a slough 

upon which its lower bank rested, and this bank soon settled so that 

it could not hold the passing water. This loss of crops by the most 

enterprising and courageous colonists men of moderate means came 

near paralyzing the whole enterprise.

During the fall of 1871 and spring of 1872 an enlargement was 

made and a dam put in the river. The cost of the first construction 

was about $27,000 and of the enlargement $20,000 more. This year 

the river had an ample supply, and the spring was moist, and hence 

favorable fou plowing and the germination of seeds. The result was 

an area planted of some 6,000 acres and fine crops. However, the 

canal was yet quite too small for the 25,000 acres of land under it

1 History of Greeley and the Union Colony of Colorado, by David Boyd, 1890.
30 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO.

owned by colonists, and two other enlargements were made in 1874 

and 1877, making the total cost up to that date about $87,000.

The Cache la Poudre Canal originally Union Colony Canal No. 2 

was the earliest of the large systems. It was for a long time deemed 

unnecessary to supplement its river supply by a reservoir. However,; 

it was found that in more than one-half the years the river water 

gave out before the potato crop was made, and that the farmers 

under it were at a. disadvantage as compared with those who had

Fiu. 6. Map of Cache la Poudre Reservoir.

water from the Larimer and Weld Reservoir, the contents of which 

were used for the potato crop in 1891. In 1892 the farmers under the 

Cache la Poudre Canal commenced to take steps toward building a 

resei'Yoir. They found a site (shown in fig. 6) about 4 miles above 

their canal, the contents of which could be emptied into it about 2 

miles below its head, and could be filled by constructing a feeding 

canal some 8 miles long and heading in the river just below the tailrace of the Linden Flouring Mills, which enters the river at Fort 

Collins.
BOTD.] CA.NALS AND RESERVOIRS. 31

These mills have an early appropriation from the river, dating back 

to 1867, for 93 cubic feet per second. As this claim antedates the 

adoption .of the constitution of the State by 9 years, the courts have 

decided that the provision in that instrument giving claims for water 

for irrigation purposes a superior right to those for mechanical purposes does not apply in this and similar cases. Hence the water of the 

river must be run to the head-gates of the mill canal, however low 

the river is, except for the use of the few canals that antedate it and 

whose heads are above the mill tailrace. Since none of the water is 

consumed in furnishing power to the mills, it does not affect canals 

below it. There is nominally a claim for 401 second-feet prior to its 

claim, but the heads of more than half of the ditches making the claim 

are below its tailrace and many of the others have been abandoned. 

The most important claim above its tailrace is that of 19 second-feet 

by the Larmier and Weld Canal, but this only antedates it for irrigation purposes; for storage purposes its reservoirs rest on their own 

date, which is 25 years later than that of the mills. The Pleasant 

Valley and Lake Canal also has a claim of 40 feet antedating that of 

the mills, and this heads above the mill power canal, and hence as long 

as irrigation lasts can take the water, and does in the autumn, when 

it is scarce, to the detriment of the mills. The same is true of Dry 

Creek Ditch to the extent of an appropriation of 12 second-feet.

While irrigation lasts these three claims greatly disturb the mill 

supply when the river is low, early in spring and late in autumn, and 

hence its proprietors put in steam power to use when water is scarce. 

Should they abandon the use of the water altogether, an interesting 

question will be raised concerning the legal rights of the Cache la 

Poudre Reservoir to the water which the position of its head-gates in 

the river just below the tailrace now allows it to store to the extent of 

what runs through the mill race, in spite of the fact that its claims to 

water for storage purposes postdate nearly all the other important 

reservoirs. These are all supplied by canals that head above the tailrace, and nearly all and at times all the winter supply of the river 

must be allowed to flow by for the mill, and hence for the sole benefit 

of the reservoir we are considering. The main reason for locating the 

head of their reservoir supply canal where it is was to obtain this 

very water, and now, if the mill should abandon its use, who would 

have the right to it? Should it be turned back into the river and be 

subject to the appropriation already made, or should this reservoir 

continue to enjoy the privilege?

Cache la Poudre Canal has been conveyed by Union Colony for a 

nominal sum to a new company, composed of the farmers owning the 

land and water rights under the canal. The new owners have expended about $25,000 in straightening the course of the canal (shown 

in PL VI), constructing permanent dam and head works, and putting in checks at the head of nearly every lateral. These were 

needed because the slope of 3.2 feet per mile was too steep for a canal
32 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

of this size and resulted in erosion of the bed and lowering of the 

channel. The head works are of stone masonry laid in cement. The 

gates are of iron, and each is constructed of an upper and lower section, only one of which is moved when the head at the gates is high, 

less power being thus required for lifting.

The duty of water under Cache la Poudre Canal has been computed 

by Prof. L. G. Carpenter. 1 The length of time during which this canal 

has been in operation and the consequent long experience of farmers 

render the measurements of considerable value for comparative purposes. The amount of water taken into the canal was measured daily' 

or estimated from a record kept by an automatic register. The 

results given in the following table show a comparatively large duty 

if a long season is taken, but, on the contrary, for the month of June 

alone, when water is in abundance, the average duty drops off rapidly, 

falling to from 65 to 95 acres per second-foot.

D^uty of water under Cache la Poudre Canal in acres per second-foot.

Period.

May 1 to November 1 ........_.......

June alone _._. .._.-_....._...--.-..

Days.

123

153

184

30

1890.

132

164

198

73

1891.

153-

193

233

95

1893.

113

146

176

65

The total cost of the canal has been $112,000. There are some 300 

80-acre water rights held in the canal and represented by a share of 

stock for every 10 acres. Each is entitled to a proportionate share of 

the water in the canal at all stages. It will be seen that the average 

cost of an 80-acre right in the canal was $373^. Such rights, when 

the land under them has become so wet as not to need irrigation, have 

been selling to parties owning lands lately taken up at the lower 

end of the canal for $2,000 apiece. This price does not include a right 

to water from the reservoir, which is owned by another company, 

although most of its stock is held by the parties who own the canal. 

Rights to 80 acres in this reservoir were sold in 1896 for $800 apiece. 

Placing the cost of the reservoir at $120,000 and the number of rights 

at 300, the cost per right would .be $400, apparently giving a profit of 

100 per cent on the investment. Of course in all such enterprises for 

a while the capital invested is unproductive. In this case the period 

was not long, since the work was prosecuted with vigor, the reservoir 

being fit for use one year after its commencement. Those not owning land have generally been able to rent their reservoir rights at a 

fair interest on the investment.

1 Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin No. 33, Preliminary Report on the Duty 

of Water, pp. 18-21.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL. VI

VIEW OF GREELEY CANAL NO. 2; NEARLY EMPTY.

BOYD.] CANALS AND RESERVOIRS. 33

CACHE LA^POUDRE RESERVOIR.

This is the most expensive of all the reservoirs in the valley. In 

the argument before the court the cost is placed at 1125,000. The 

statement obtained from the company gives $28,643 for real estate 

for site of reservoir and right of way of supply canal, 8 miles long 

(capacity, 150 second-feet), and outlet canal, 4 miles long (capacity, 

200 feet per second); also 181,623 for construction, making a total cost 

of 1110,266. It has by far the longest and highest embankment of any 

of the reservoirs in the valley. At the outlet this embankment is 38 

feet high, the height of water above the bottom being 30 feet. The 

breadth of the base at this place is 300 feet. The inside face has a 

slope of more than 3 to 1, and still the riprapping slides down each 

year on account of the action of the waves. When first laid it had 

a uniform slope from top. to bottom, but now the slope is quite 

irregular, through the action of the waves moving the rocks and 

washing away the embankment under them. This is of good material, being largely composed of coarse gravel brought from a hill 

near one end by- wheel scrapers. The rock for riprapping was 

brought from the foothills by rail to the nearest point, which is 2 

miles off, and thence by wagon. It cost per ton, laid down, 1110. 

It is medium-sized, flat sandstone, the refuse of the quarries where 

building and flagging stones are taken out.

The conduit is but a few feet deep below the level of the natural 

surface, the material of its foundation being a tenacious clay. The 

base is of wide flagstone laid on a grout bedding of gravel, sand, and 

Portland cement. The width is 5 feet inside, walls 2-J feet high, 

spanned by an arch 2^ feet high in center. There are two collar 

walls extending from the masonry of the conduit into the embankment, to prevent the water from working its way along the connection 

of the earth and masonry. It has shown no signs of weakness at this 

place, but when the reservoir is full the embankment gets quite soft 

throughout. However, it yearly gets less so. It settled 4 to 5 feet 

the flrst year after the water was turned in, although the teams had 

traversed it back and forth with wheel scrapers bringing the gravel 

and earth from the ends of the fill.

The gates and means of raising them are a novelty, the invention 

of Mr. Gordon Land. The front of the inlet of the conduit is a steep 

inclined plane, some 20° from the vertical. The aperture is divided 

into two sections by a timber running midway up and down in the 

plane of the incline, and on the outer edges of it are fastened iron 

plates of about the weight of wagon tire. A similar timber and tire 

are on each side of the aperture, thus forming a double track for two 

iron gates. These latter are each, attached, to two axletrees which 

ESR9 3
34 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO.9.

have wheels at their extremities and are brought to bear upon the 

track when the gates are being raised.

This is done by means of a wire rope, one end of which is attached 

to a cog-geared windlass placed on the top of the embankment and 

the other end to a lever attached to the axle of the gate, which axle is 

eccentric, so that the movement of the lever causes the wheels to bear 

on the tracks and to roll along it, instead of having the edges of the 

gate drag over the edges of the supports behind it, as in raising the 

ordinary gate. Each rope passes over a pulley placed at the top of 

the incline. It should be further said that the axle and wheels are 

attached to the upper and outer sides of the gates, and the front and 

rear axles are yoked together so that the rope acts on both and presses 

their attached wheels against the tracks in lifting the gates.

The cost of this reservoir equals that of the canal of which it is an 

adjunct. It furnishes only 5,654 acre-feet, while during the irrigation 

season of 1894 the canal drew from the river 70,610 acre-feet, or more 

than twelve times as much. Hence it is to be said that reservoir water 

is costly.

At present prices of farm produce it certainly does not pay to store 

water at this cost. Storage reservoirs, even of the most economical 

location, can not as a general rule be profitably employed in irrigation, except as adjuncts to canals that have for the most part their 

supply from a fairly permanent source during the irrigation season. 

None of the streams in this State except those of the western slope 

hold out in the latter part of the season so as to furnish water enough 

to complete the growth of certain crops, save for a few claimants of 

early rights. The one crop in this valley for which there is need 

of later water than the streams afford is potatoes. Up to 1895 this 

crop has been on an average profitable, even though we have been 

forced to seek a wider market than that of the plains and Rocky Mountain region. Hence the late development of reservoir construction in 

this valley.

It will be further noted that when a canal is already built, with all 

its laterals and means of distribution, and a reservoir can be constructed so as to deliver its water into it near enough to the head to 

supply the greater part of its customers, the case is very different 

from that of building a reservoir that has to provide all the means 

necessary for the distribution of its contents. This is the case of 

nearly all of the reservoirs in this valley. When that can not be 

done, the exchanges noted on another page effect the same economy 

so far as they can be brought into practice. When, however, the 

relation of the reservoir to the canal is like that of the one we are 

considering, it gives" an independence and certainty not to be found 

where the use of the water by its owners depends upon so many 

contingencies.

As stated on a preceding page, the feeding canal for this reservoir
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL. VII

VIEW OF DAM AND HEAD GATES OF LARIMER AND WELD CANAL, POUDRE VALLEY.

BOTD.] CANALS AND RESERVOIRS. 35

heads in the river immediately below the tailrace of the Linden Mills, 

at Fort Collins. This location was made for the purpose of securing 

the water from this mill, as intimated above. The destruction of the 

mill has given rise to one of the most perplexing questions in regard 

to water rights. The mill in its use of water power has proved a great 

detriment to the irrigation of the valley, since in order to turn its 

wheels it has been necessary to allow the water to pass the head gates 

of all the canals feeding reservoirs except this one. The other parties 

in interest would undoubtedly have purchased the rights of the mill 

and turned the water back into the river to be used for storage in the 

order of its appropriation were it not for the claim of vested rights 

made by this lower reservoir.

Recurring to the value of this reservoir as an investment, it may be 

said that in spite of the comparatively early appropriation of water by 

the canal it would not be possible without it to obtain in two years out 

of three sufficient water for the potato crop. The number of sacks of 

potatoes produced under this canal in 1894 was 602,485. During that 

year the crop sacked was worth, on an average, 70 cents per hundredweight. Deducting 5 cents for the cost of the sack and 10 cents for 

harvesting, the net value is 55 cents. The seed and labor cost the 

same amount for a half as for a whole crop. We may set down to the 

credit of the reservoir one-half of this crop, which at 55 cents per 

hundredweight amounts to 1165,683, or a third more than the cost of 

the reservoir. That, however, was an exceptional year, both as to 

product and price. It would be fair to estimate the average crop 

under this canal at 500,000 hundredweight, and the average price at 

40 cents per hundredweight. Allowing one-half the crop as due to 

the reservoir water, this would amount to $62,500, or one-half the cost 

of the reservoir.

LAKIMER AND WELD CANAL.

The Larimer and Weld Canal takes water from Cache la Poudre 

Creek above Fort Collins and about 12 miles above the head of Cache 

la Poudre Canal. The total length is stated to be 50 miles, and the 

average bottom width 25 feet. Water is diverted by a wing-crib dam 

177 feet long and 4 feet above the bed of the stream. 1 The dam and 

head gates are shown in PL VII. This canal has under it one-third 

of all the land under ditch in the valley and has a capacity greater by 

one-fourth than that of any other. It can take in the average flow of 

the whole river except during the 60 days commencing with the middle 

of May. In PI. VIII is given a view looking up the canal to the headgates. Before its final enlargement, which was, in'fact, its real construction, there was nominally appropriated 2,735.87 cubic feet per 

second, this being more than the average flow of the river for any one 

month. The older canals could not use so much water as this, but

1 Report on Agriculture by Irrigation at the Eleventh Census. F. H. Newell, 1894, p. 135-
36 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO.9.

could take so much that during years of scarcity this canal could at 

no time receive a full head. Every year the supply fell to its second 

appropriation of 19 feet before the time to irrigate potatoes, which 

up to 1895 was the best-paying crop.

LARIMER AND WELD RESERVOIR.

An excellent site for a reservoir was found at a point a mile and a 

half north of Fort Collins, about a quarter of a mile above the canal 

and only 2 miles from its head. This could be supplied from two 

small canals above the Larimer and Weld, the bottom of the reservoir being only 2 feet above that of the canal. This site is a natural 

basin, in which, when filled to the lip of the lower rim, the surface of 

the water would be 25 feet above the bottom of the outletr and which, 

it is estimated, would contain 350,000,000 cubic feet or 7,700 acre-feet. 

The canal company did not wish to undertake this work, but permitted the farmers who held contracts for water from it to take the 

site which it had surveyed. These farmers represented water rights 

covering 15,000 acres. They formed a company known as the Larinier and Weld Reservoir Company, proceeded to condemn the site 

and procure the means of feeding it.

The following are the principal items of expense and relate to construction to hold a depth of 25 feet:

Surveying and engineering.._..__-____-._-_.__-___.___.._.___ $2,870

Land and rights for water,.._......._..-_........_-...._.... 13,768.

' Construction .........................^...^..-......^..--.... 21,796

Attorneys' fees.._._-_.__._,____.____-_._--__-.-_ _--.__.-._-_ 5,796

Court expenses_-___.____--.___-__._-_._--___-_-__.___---_-.- 2,312

Miscellaneous .____...___-______,---._---------_--..-_--.. 18,240

Total.........."...-..............._.._................. 64,782

It will be seen that only about one-third the expenses was for construction, not including surveying and engineering. In fact, no 

considerable embankment had to be made for that depth. An inlet 

canal was of necessity built from Dry Creek, which was its feeder, 

this in turn being supplied by two small canals in which a right of 

carriage had been purchased. The expenses of construction were 

increased from the fact that a wooden conduit was put in at first. 

The parties living under the reservoir deemed it unsafe. This necessitated its removal and the substitution of a cement and rock conduit, 

costing about $5,000. The quantity of land originally purchased was 

some 700 acres. This, with the right to run water through the inlet 

ditches, cost about one-fifth of the whole.

In 1895 the company resolved to increase the capacity to a depth of 

30 feet. This required the construction of a bank over 2,000 feet long 

on the top, and this, with the additional land to be purchased, added 

to the cost $25,000 more, making the total cost about $90,000. This
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL. VII!

VIEW OF HEAD GATES OF LARIMER AND WELD CANAL AND OF THE CANAL BELOW THEM.

BOYD.] CANALS AND EESERVOIRS. 37

addition of 5 feet to the upper surface increased the cubic contents 

by one-half. However, in being measured out over a weir, the reservoir does not come up to the estimated capacity by one-third. In 

fact, on drawing the water down from a depth of 29^ feet to 4 feet a 

content of only 325,000,000 cubic feet was given. This discrepancy 

between the capacity estimated from depth and contour, and measured 

as above, is true of all other reservoirs in this valley that have been 

tested in the same way. The weirs are not constructed so that the 

Francis formula will apply to them, but they are rated by a current 

meter at different depths, just as the weirs in the canals are measured 

to find their intake from the river.

The accompanying views, Pis. IX, X, XI, illustrate the embankment and outlet of this reservoir. The first (PI. IX) is a view from 

the inside of the reservoir after the water has been drawn off. The 

rectangular mass of masonry in the center is the wall of the well 

which surrounds the space where the gates are placed. Its interior 

dimensions are 6 feet by 10 feet. The wall is 3 feet thick and is composed of heavy rubble masonry laid in Portland cement and connected 

with flanking walls.

The next view (PL X) shows the lowersideof the outlet of the reservoir. In the middle is the heavy lower retaining wall, extending only 

a portion of the way up the embankment. The latter was constructed 

of earth, with a slope of 1/J to 1. At the right are posts standing at 

various angles. These were driven into the ground to keep the earth 

from slipping into the canal below the masonry, as it was tending to 

do after becoming moistened by percolation from the water in the 

reservoir. The next view (PI. XI) is at the lower end of the outlet 

canal of the reservoir where it discharges over the weir into the Larimer and Weld Canal.

On account of the exchanges which are being made for river water 

it will be apparent that a high degree of accuracy of measurement is 

desirable, or at least that the same system of measurement should 

obtain in measuring the outflow of the reservoirs and the intake of 

canals, and this is attempted; but those who have studied and experimented most on measuring water under ordinary and diverse conditions best know how difficult it is to obtain accurate results.

The large expenditure in litigation 'was brought about by the fact 

that after the reservoir had been constructed by the farmers the 

canal company refused to allow them to run the reservoir water in 

the canal. The farmers had contracts with the company to furnish 

them so much water, but they were not stockholders in the company. 

The contracts also provided that the holders of these contracts should 

become stockholders after the company had sold water rights to the estimated capacity of the canal to furnish water. But this limit, which 

was 500 eighty-acre water rights, had not been reached, and moreover these same farmers had gone into the courts asking an injunction
38 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO.9.

prohibiting the company from selling any more than the 370 rights 

that then had been sold, since there was a provision in the contracts 

that in times of scarcity the water was to be prorated with all the 

rights sold and in force. It was contended that the company had sold 

more than it could furnish, this word applying equally to the water 

to be obtained from the river and to the capacity of the canal to carry.

This case has been in court some five years. The company won in 

the district court and in the court of appeals, while these decisions 

were reversed in the State supreme court, which sent the case back 

for trial again in district court, which gave the farmers their case, as 

instructed by the upper court. However, there seemed to be another 

appeal to the supreme court, the company meantime being restrained 

from selling anymore water rights until the case is finally adjudicated. 

The expenses of this case, as well as that concerning the reservoir's 

own suit, were paid by the reservoir company, and hence swells the 

account on this score.

As regards its own suit to compel the company to carry the water, 

an order to this effect was obtained from the county court of Weld 

County, which was, nearly as soon as given, countermanded by a 

judge of Arapahoe district court in the absence of the judge of this 

district; but upon hearing before this same judge, he reversed his own 

decision, and the farmers were allowed to carry their reservoir water 

in the canal of the company.

This was allowed partly on account of a statute of the State providing that a canal already in existence, and having the capacity and 

proper location to carry the water of a party not an owner of the 

canal, must carry it, and so prevent, burdening the real estate with 

parallel canals, which were becoming a nuisance before the enactment of this law. In the present instance, if the farmers had been 

forced to build a canal to distribute their water, it must have been 

either immediately above or below a canal some 40 feet wide, and if 

above, they would have to flume across this canal wherever there was 

a lateral, the laterals being the property, in part at least, of the 

farmers who had lands under them. These laterals were as frequent 

as one a mile. On the other hand, if below, they would have to flume 

the reservoir's canal over each of these laterals, in fact, making a monstrosity of construction, a monument of human perversity and folly.

Of course, although the canal in an equitable sense belonged to 

each farmer in proportion to the quantity of water he had purchased 

to be delivered through it to his land, still legally the canal belonged 

to the canal company, and what the reservoir people got was a temporary easement for the use of the canal when there was but little or 

no water in the river to which the canal was entitled, and for this 

temporary use they were expected to pay. Another suit in court fixed 

the amount, which was made low by the jury, no doubt on account of 

the virtual part ownership of the farmers in the canal.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL. IX

VIEW OF OUTLET AND EMBANKMENT OF LARIMER AND WELD RESERVOIR, FROM THE INSIDE, 1 AFTER THE WATER IS DRAWN OFF.

BOYD.] CANALS AND RESERVOIRS. 39

They had paid, on an average, $1,000 apiece for each 80-acre water 

right, which was to be 1.44 cubic feet per second when there was water 

enough in the river. Taking out some 30 preferred rights granted 

the owners of the old ditch, there were in force some 340 of these 

rights, for which the company had received $340,000, while the construction of the canal had not cost more than $150,000. It was a part 

of the contracts with the farmers that they should become shareholders 

in the company as soon as the estimated capacity of the canal had 

been reached. But this question was in court, and, ag we saw above, 

has been decided in favor of the farmers, namely, that it had been 

reached at the time they enjoined the company from further sales of 

water rights, because the deficiency of water in the river during the 

ordinary irrigation season prevented the company from being able to 

furnish. The ambiguous phrase '' capacity to furnish " was at last, 

and by the highest court, construed against the company, which was 

the drawer of the instrument, in accordance with the general practice 

of the courts.

LAKE LEE.

At the time the order of the county court was issued to allow the 

reservoir people to take possession of the canal and run their water 

through to those entitled to receive it, there was running in the canal 

some 19 cubic feet of water per second belonging to its old appropriation. This was being stored in a reservoir named "Lake Lee," an 

expansion of the canal some 15 miles below its head. Its area is 

about 90 acres, and a depth of 9 feet can be drawn off when it is filled 

to the limit of height. When the water of the reservoir was turned 

into the canal, it mixed with that carried by the canal for the benefit 

of all consumers, while those owning and entitled to reservoir water 

were about one-half of the consumers. The order of the court therefore put the canal for certain-named days wholly in the hands of the 

reservoir people, under the penalty of damages to the other consumers. 

The writer was put in charge of the reservoir and canal at these times 

and until more amicable relations were restored. The plan adopted 

was to carefully measure the height of water in Lake Lee at the time 

the reservoir water reached it, and then to make an estimate as to the 

height to which the quantity in the canal would fill it during the days 

the reservoir water was being run. When the run was about finished, 

the outlet gates of Lake Lee were shut, so that there would be in it 

for all consumers what it was estimated would have been in it if the 

reservoir water had not been run. The instructions of the reservoir 

managers were to be sure and err on the side of leaving enough in 

Lake Lee, and the result was that no damages were claimed by the 

other consumers for loss of water by the operation of the canal by 

the reservoir company. PI. XII shows the Larimer and Weld Canal 

at Lake Lee gates.
40 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. l*ro.9.

WINDSOR RESERVOIR.

It will be observed that this reservoir water was the property of 

about one-half of the consumers under the Larimer and "Weld, and 

hence that only in the few cases where the others rented did they 

enjoy the use of the water. As a consequence, only those having 

reservoir water made a potato crop. Those outside of the reservoir, 

of whom the leader was B. H. Eaton, the owner of some 15,000 acres 

under the cana.1, undertook the construction of a reservoir for themselves. There is an excellent site for a reservoir some 25 miles from 

the head of the canal and close to it. The bottom of the canal at 

this point is about 50 feet above that of the reservoir. It has been 

filled to the depth of 28 feet and the water stored in it has been used 

for three years by means of the system of exchange before described. 

The cost of the reservoir up to date has been, as itemized by Mr. Eaton, 

as follows:

Land....................................................... $20,000

Condemnation and attorneys' fees............... -......-..-- 5,000

Outlet and inlet, the latter consisting mostly in enlarging the 

Larimer and Weld Canal from river to reservoir inlet_.... 10,000

Surveying..-_-..-._----_._.__--_--.-.___---.-.---.---.-.--- 1,000

Conduit and embankment............. ................-_-. 16,000

Total................................................. 52,000

The owners expect to expend 123,000 more to make it hold 12 feet 

more, or a depth of 40 feet of water at the conduit. This will be 

expended partly on the main canal, to enable it to take in flood water 

from the river for storage, arid partly on the embankment. "When 

the water is raised to the height of 40 feet, it is estimated the reservoir will hold 1,000,000,000 cubic feet.

The work on the embankment near the outlet conduit is in a Very 

incomplete state, as will be seen from the accompanying view, PI. 

XIII, taken from the inside of the reservoir when the water w#,s drawn 

off. This shows the masonry in front and over the stone arch which 

forms the outlet. The gate, which is about 4 feet by 5 feet, is raised 

by a screw and lever. There is no flank masonry nor rock riprapping 

to protect the earth embankment. Such protective works were 

attempted by use of posts, poles, wire, and straw, but, as seen in the 

view, these were wrecked by the waves.

The conduit is of masonry laid in Portland cement; the bottom is of 

large, thick flagging stones procured in the foothills; the sides, 3 

feet high and 4 apart, are crowned with an arch 2 feet high in the 

center; the walls of sides and arch, 2 feet thick, are of rubble 

masonry, resting upon the soft shale rock, which has between it and 

the flagging that forms the bottom some 6 inches of concrete made 

of gravel, sand, and Portland cement. There have been no signs of 

leakage along the surface of the conduit, but there is a tendency to
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY P4PER NO. 9 PL. X

VIEW OF LOWER SIDE OF OUTLET OF THE LARIMER AND WELD RESERVOIR.

CANALS AND EESERVOIES. 41

leak just above the shale into the outlet ditch below the end of the 

masonry of the conduit.

After the water has been raised in this and similar reservoirs the 

overlying clay becomes softened and sloughs off into the outlet canal. 

This was the occasion for great fear on the part of the people living 

under the Larimer and Weld Reservoir during 1895. A score or more 

of families abandoned their houses one rainy night when the reservoir 

was full and looked threatening. It is now proposed to wall up the 

outlet canals below the masonry conduits with a dry stone wall filled 

behind with gravel, which will allow the water to leak through while 

it prevents sloughing off.

When the Windsor Reservoir is complete it is planned to draw off 

the water at two levels, the one at the bottom, now in use, and another 

at a level 20 feet higher and distant 200 feet. The water from the 

upper outlet will be dropped into the same canal that is now used for 

the bottom level. The reason given for this is ease of management of 

the gates, which would be hard to raise under a pressure of 40 feet,

LARIMER COUNTY CANAL.

Larimer County Canal is to the north of and in general parallel 

with the Larimer and Weld Canal, covering a strip of land above the 

latter. It heads on Cache la Poudre Creek, about 8 miles higher up, 

but for its water supply this canal has for the most part been dependent upon a system of reservoirs, since it is the latest of those of large 

size in the valley, being preceded by 99 claims, aggregating 4,082.65 

second-feet. In order of priority it follows third after the North 

Poudre Canal and Reservoir Company, there being two claims of 

157.40 feet between. By its head in the main river, however, it obtains 

late water whenever, at rare intervals, there is any.

This canal was built by residents of the valley, who, though having 

the evidence of a deficiency of water before them, yet hoped that the 

unusually large supply of previous years would prevail in the future. 

They overestimated not only the supply obtainable for storage in reservoirs, but also the land that could be sufficiently irrigated from a 

given amount of water. Hence it may be said that until the last two 

years farming under this canal has been a series of failures. This 

company has on the plains six reservoirs fed by the canal. Of these 

two are important, Long Pond and Rocky Ridge. These have a 

united capacity of 340,000,000 cubic feet, or 7,500 acre-feet. The total 

storage capacity of all its reservoirs claimed is 480,000,000 cubic feet, 

or 10,560 acre-feet.

CHAMBERS LAKE RESERVOIR.

A company known as the Larimer County Reservoir Company placed 

a dam in the outlet of Chambers Lake, a natural storage basin near 

the head waters of the Middle Fork of Cache la Poudre Creek. The
42 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO.9.

irrigators interested in the waters of this stream, fearing a scarcity 

of snpply, commenced suit on the ground that the statute gave only 

the right to take water from a stream and store it, and not to place a 

storage dam in the stream itself. The dam, however, was constructed, 

but on June 9, 1891, it broke, letting the contents of the reservoir 

sweep down the channel of the river and inflicting much damage upon 

the farms situated in the narrow mountain valley. Passing through 

the canyon below the valley, it overspread the lower bottom lands, 

carrying away bridges, the force gradually diminishing as the mouth 

of the river was reached.

The parties injured sued and recovered damages, and as the reservoir company had no property but the destroyed dam, suits were 

brought against the Larimer Canal Company, on the ground that since 

it had been renting the water and was the controlling factor of the 

reservoir company it should be held responsible. It was held that 

any o'ne placing a dam in a natural stream was responsible for injury 

resulting from its destruction.

The irrigators of the valley as a rule were not displeased to have 

this dam destroyed, as it was generally believed that water was 

unjustly taken from the river. The dam being 70 miles above the 

gaging station, out of the reach of the river commissioner, and wholly 

in charge of employees of the canal company, it was impossible to 

verify this belief. The experience gained here justifies the statement 

that no structure of this kind should be built except under State 

supervision or in accordance with regulations prescribed by the State 

engineer, such as will insure absolute safety in the building and management of dams, especially those upon the main drainage lines.

SKY LINE DITCH.

In 1892 the company owning the Larimer County canal was reorganized under the name "Water Supply and Storage Company, "and 

during the next year undertook the work of building a ditch above 

Chambers Lake for the purpose of diverting into Cache la Poudre 

Valley water from the upper feeders of the Laramie River, a tributary 

of the North Platte. This ditch, shown in Pis. I and XIV, bears the 

graphic name of the "Sky Line," as it is about 10,000 feet in altitude. 

It is 5 miles long, has a capacity of about 100 second-feet, and cost 

$90,000. The work was practically all in rock, with but little fluming. In places it was necessary to build a bench of timber to support 

the lower bank, which is mostly of rock.

The Sky Line ditch takes water from streams so high up that it 

receives no supply until about the middle of June. The river commissioner estimates the amount delivered in 1895 at 650,000,000 cubic 

feet, or 14,300 acre-feet. During the season when water is being run 

the company keeps three men on this short canal to maintain it and 

to regulate the flow at the head so as to get as much water as possible.
U, S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL. XI

VIEW OF OUTLET CANAL OF LARIMER AND WELD RESERVOIR. WHERE IT GOES OVER THE WEIR INTO THE LARIME.R AND WELD CANAL.

BOYD.] CANALS AND EESERVOIES. 43

As it is 70 miles above the gaging station, the river commissioner can 

not visit this canal to ascertain how much it is furnishing the river, 

and must depend upon the reports made by mail three times a week 

by the party in charge. When it has a full supply it furnishes about 

100 feet, but later, by the 1st of September, it sinks to 25 feet. During 1894 and 1895 the water from the Sky Line ditch and that stored 

in the reservoirs has been practically all the supply the Larimer County 

Canal has had, and fair crops have been made. Tbe capacity of the 

canal on the plains is said to be 469 feet, but it is apparent that it has 

only a sure supply of 100 feet besides the reservoirs, the contents of 

which are now used before the water from the Sky Line is available.

Since the reservoirs belonging to this canal are filled from it, the 

water, being at a lower elevation, can not run back and be distributed 

by means of it. Hence other distributing canals would need to be 

built and could supply water only to the lower lands. Instead of 

this, a system of exchange with the river has been adopted through 

the consent of all parties and in accordance with a ruling by the State 

engineer. This may be effected either by dropping the water of the 

reservoirs back into the river for the use of canals below, which are 

all older, or it may be accomplished by running the reservoir water 

directly into either the Larimer and Weld or the Cache la Poudre 

Canal when either is entitled to water. An equal amount is then 

claimed from the river. Not only do the reservoirs of this canal make 

this exchange, but also those filled from the Larimer and Weld Canal 

next below. This receives the river water of the Cache la Poudre 

Canal, which is just below and also older. This exchange has worked 

well and is a great saving of expense in construction of distributing 

canals. It also renders the water available for all the lands that the 

canal can reach.

The reservoirs of the Larimer County Canal Company have not 

been very expensive to construct, as but little or no embankments 

have been made. The conduits from the two principal ones are made 

of rock, the bottom and cover of large, thick flagstones, with joints 

filled with cement mortar, and the sides are of rubble masonry laid in 

cement. The largest two can be filled to 30 feet, and the gates are 

raised by a screw. Each cost for construction about $10,000 and 

$2,000 for right of site.

APPROPRIATIONS FROM CACHE LA POFDRE CREEK.

In addition to the three canal systems described above there are 

in all about 25 other canals and ditches taking water from Cache la 

Poudre Creek, most of these being relatively small. Without describing these it will be recognized that the apportionment of water among 

all these canals and ditches must be a matter of extreme difficulty. 

It is further complicated by the fact that many of these have more 

than one appropriation, so that although a list of the ditches as given"
44 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

on pages 51-52 shows only 28, there have been up to 1888 as many as 

104 separate appropriations of water from Cache la Poudre Creek and 

its tributaries, these being due to the amount of water claimed at the 

original construction and by the several enlargements, especially of 

the older ditches. The matter is fully set forth iii the following table 

taken from the State Engineer's Report for 1888: 1

Appropriations from Cache la Poudre Creek.

Order of priority in district.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

ft

9

10

11

12 

13

14

15

16

17

18 

19

20 

21 

22

23

24

35

26

Name of ditch, canal, or reservoir.

Watrous, Wheclbee & Secord -_------_.--._----._

Dry Creek. ---_--_____..__.

Whitney ..._..----...-.-..

Yeager (upper branch),

B. H. Eaton. __.____.__.___

Pleasant Valley and Lake, 

first enlargement ______

Pioneer, first enlargement .

John R. Brown. _ ..........

Box Elder.. ............._.

Taylor & Gill..... ........

B. H. Eaton, first enl ...... 

Watrous, Whedbee & Secord, first enlargement . . 

Boyd & Freeman, first enl_ 

Larimer and Weld, first enl .

Box Elder, first enl _ _ ....

Date of appropriation.

June 1,1860

June 1,1861

June 10, 1861

Sept. 1,1861

Mar. 1,1862

Mar. 15,1862

Sept. 1,1863

June 1,1863

Apr. 1,1864

June 1,1864

June 10, 1864

Sept. 15, 1864 

Apr. 10,1865

May 1, 1865

Mar. 1,1866

Apr. 1,1866

Apr. 15,1866

June 1,1866

July 1,1866 

July 15,1866 

Apr. 1,1867 

Apr. 15,1867

May 25,1867

Sept. 1,1867

Oct. 1, 1867

Mar. 1, 1868

Cubic feet 

of water 

per second 

decreed to 

each priority.

24.80

1.44

11.67

10.97

12 92

66.05

48.23

8.70

29.10

3.00

29.63

16.67 

31.63

8.00

3S.50

14.83

18.48

3.33

4.33 

9.00 

16.67 

93.07

8.33

15.52

35. 92

15. 22

Summation 

of decree to 

each ditch, 

canal, or 

reservoir.

33.50

40.60

29.59

32. 43

5.77 

75.05 

19.67

40.83

-

Cubic feet 

of water 

previously 

appropriated in district.

24.80

26.24

37.91

48.88

61.80

127. 85

176. 08

184. 78

213. 88

216. 88

246.51 

263. 18

294.81

302. 81

335. 31

350. 14

368. 62

371. 95 

376. 28 

385. 28 

401. 95

495.02

503. 35

518. 87

554. 79

1 Fourth Biennial Report of the State Engineer of Colorado for the years 1887 and 1888, pp. 148, 

149,150. 

a Takes water from Boxelder Creek.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATFR-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL. XII

VIEW OF LARIMER AND WELD CANAL AT THE LAKE LEE GATES.

BOYD.] WATER TAKEN FROM CACHE LA POUDRE CREEK.

Appropriations from Cache la Poudre Creek Continued.

45

Order of priority in district.

27

38

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

 44

45

46

47

48

49

50 

51

53 

53

Name of ditch, canal, or reservoir.

Noah and Philo Bristol

flrvwpTl n

Watrous, Whedbee & SecFort Collins. --------------

New Mercer Ditch Co. . . . . -

Noah and Philo Bristol

Canal No. 3, Union Colony

Cache la Poudre Co --------

Fort Collins Irrigating, 

first enlargement -------

Burnham <fc Emerson b. . . _

Fletcher __-.-_--..-._.,..

Cache la Poudre Co., first

Larimer and Weld, second 

enlargement ...- -.-.. .

Canal No. 3, first enl _ . . .

New Mercer Ditch Co.,

J^ew Mercer Ditch Co. , secCanal No. 3, second enl.-.- 

Pleasant Valley and Lake, 

second enlargement --... 

Fort Collins Irrigating, 

second enlargement 

B. H. Eaton, second enl ...

Date of appropriation.

Mar. 10,1868

Mar. 15, 1868

June 1,1868

July 1, 1868

May 1, 1869

June 1,1869

Sept. 1,1869

Mar. 1, 1870

Apr. 1, 1870

Oct. 21,1870

Oct. 25,1870

Apr. 1, 1871

.....do ......

May 1, 1871

July 1,1871

Sept. 1,1871

Sept. 10. 1871

Sept. 15, 1871

Sept. 20, 1871

Oct. 1, 1871

Oct. 10,1871

Mar. 15/1872

July 1,1872

July 15, 1872 

July 19,1873

July 20, 1872 

July 25, 1872

Cubic feet 

of water 

per second 

decreed to 

each priority.

15.22

8.60

4.33

11.93

60.08

1.67

4.17

14.83

52.00

14.42

110. 00

31.66

26

21.05

160

63.16

12.95

170

75

41

8.33

22.38

15

63.13 

16. 50

33.33 

9.26

Summation 

of decree to 

each ditch, 

canal, or 

reservoir.

10.10

52.76

26.09

33.33

61.18

280

94.67

93

12.50

27.50

156. 13 

57.10

66.66 

41.69

Cubic feet 

of water 

previously 

appropriated in dis 

trict.

570.01

585.23

593. 83

598. 16

610. 09

672. 17

673. 84

678.01

692. 84

744. 84

759.26

869. 26

900. 92

926.92

947. 97

1,107.97

1,171.13

1,184.08

1,354.08

1,429.08

1,470.08

1,478.41

1,500.79

1,515.79 

1,578.92

1, 595. 42

1, 628. 75

a Takes water from Boselder Creek. 

6 Takes water from Lone Pine Creek. 

c Takes water from north fork of Cache la Poudre Creek.
46 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO.

Appropriations from Cache la Poudre Creek Continued.

[NO. 9

Order of priority in district.

54

55

56

57

58 

59 

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67 

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81 

82

Name of ditchj canal, or reservoir.

Lake Canal _........._--..

Wm. S. Taylor. ...........

Canon Canal Co., first enl . 

Larimer County Canal, 

No.3... .................

Irrigating Ditch, first enl._ 

Canal No. 3, third enl . . . . .

BrownNo. \b .............

Boyd & Freeman, second 

enlargement .... . . ....

Strudevant No. 2 c ........

Fort Collins Irrigating 

Ditch, third enl .........

Dry Creek, second enl ..... 

Vandewark _....._........

BrownNo. 3b. ...... ... .

Mitchell & Weymouth 

No. Id.. .'._..._.._ .......

Andrew Boyd et al. 6 ......

Cache la Poudre Co. Canal, 

second enlargement . . .

Larimer & Weld, third 

enlargement ...._._..._.

Wm. Galloway No. 2 a ....

Witzler etal. d... ........

Warren Lake Reservoir 

(see. 56) ................

Kitchel & Ladd.. ........

Brown, No. 5a. ...........

Witzler et al., first enl. d .. 

Brown, No. 7 a.. .... ..._.

Date of appropriation.

Nov. 1,1872

Mar. 15, 1873

Mar. 20, 1873 

Apr. 1,1873

May 1,1873 

May 15,1873 

July 1,1873

.....do......

Aug. 1,1873

Aug. 15, 1873

.....do ......

Aug. 20, 1873

Sept. 1,1873

Sept. 15,1873 

May 1,1874

May 15,1874

. do .

Nov. 1,1874

Nov. 10, 1874

Jan. 15,1875

Jan. 28,1875

Mar. 22,1875

Apr. 15,1875

May 1, 1875

Oct. 1, 1875

June 1,1876

.....do .....'.

Mar. 1, 1877 

June 1,1877

Cubic feet 

of water 

per second 

decreed to 

each priority.

J.58. 35

28.60

48.88 

175

20.42 

16.65 

17.65

9.38

24.23

3.32

10.66

10.66

63.28

12.13 

10.17

3.32

17.35

15.03

184

54.33

14.16

10.36

6.72

2.95

6.72

6.72

3

2.85

Summation 

of decree to 

each ditch, 

canal, or 

reservoir.

57.48

83.50 

172. 80

99.28

129.94

. 38.22

464

149

13.36

Cubic feet 

of water 

previously 'appropriated in district.

1, 638. 01

1,796.36

1,824.96

1,873.84

2, 048. 84 

2, 069. 26 

2, 085. 91

2, 103. 56

2, 112. 94

2, 137. 17

2, 140. 49

2,151.15

2,161.81

2, 225. 09 

2,237.22

2,247,39

2,250.71

2,268.06

2, 283. 09

2, 467. 09

2 521 42

2, 535. 58

2,545.94

2, 552. 66

2, 555. 61

2, 562. 33

2, 569. 05

2, 572. 05

a Takes water from north fork of Cache la Poudre Creek.

6 Takes water from Fish Creek.

c Takes water from Boxelder Creek.

4 Takes water fro mJ^pne Pioe Creek,
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL. Xlll

VIEW OF OUTLET OF WINDSOR RESERVOIR FROM THE INSIDE.

WATER TAKEN FEOM CACHE LA. POUDEE CREEK.

Appropriations from, Cache la Poudre Creek Continued.

47

Order of priority 

m district.

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

100

101

102

103

104

Name of ditch, canal, or reservoir.

Cache la Poudre Co. 's, third 

enlargement -..._.....

Abram Washburn, No. 1 .

Roberts, No. la.. .........

Boxelder Reservoir Co. 6

Larimer and Weld, fourth

Dry Creek, third enL ......

Pleasant Valley and Lake, 

third enlargement- ......

John McKay et al. a. ......

Fisk,No.2a. --_---_-_.____

Carter Cotton mill race, 

first enlargement .........

Mitchell & Weymouth, No. 

2c. ........ .............

North Poudre Land, Canal 

and Res. Co. a ..........

New Mercer Ditch Co..

Eagle Ranch a ............

Pleasant Valley and Lake,

Roberts, No. 1, first enla _.

Date of appropriation.

Sept. 15, 1877

Apr. 1, 1878

Apr. 15.1878

.....do ------

June 18, 1878

Sept. , 1878

Apr. 1, 1879

Apr. 15,1879

July 15,1879

Aug. 18,1879

Sept. 1,1879

Dec. 1,1879

Dec. 31,1879

Jan. 19,1880

Feb. 1,1880

Feb. 15,1880

July 7, 1880

Apr. 25,1881

Oct. 1, 1881

Oct. 10,1881

Apr. 15,1882

Sept. 1,1882

Cubic feet 

of water 

per second 

decreed to 

each priority.

121

7 23

9.57

5.76

17.50

571

127. 30

15.43

12.70

80.83

3.40

10.28

37.17

16.27

315

136

21.40

469. 80

5.02

29.88

<M.09

Summation 

of decree to 

each ditch, 

canal, or 

reservoir.

585

720

50.92

137. 93

164. 47

163. 50

Cubic feet 

of water 

previously 

appropriated in district.

2,574.90

2,695.90

2,703.13

2,712.70

2, 718. 37

2, 735. 87

3,306.87

3, 434. 17

3, 449. 60

3, 462. 30

3, 543. 13

3,546.53

3, 556. 81

3, 593. 98

3,610,25

3, 925. 25

4,061.25

4,082.65

4,552.45

4, 602. 65

4, 632. 53

a Takes water from north fork of Cache la Poudre Creek.

b Takes water from Boxelder Creek.

c Takes water from Lone Pine Creek.

d Up to 1897 only two changes have been made in this table. The first is in tlae reduction of 

No. 1, Yeager Ditch, from 34.80 cubic feet per second to 3 cubic feet per second. The second is a 

change in the order of priorities, by which No. 100, Larimer Couuty Canal, becomes 97 and old 

97,98, and 99, become, respectively, 98, 99, and 100.

The above table is worthy of especial notice, since it is the guide 

for the district water commissioner in his distribution of water. 

When an earlier appropriator of water has less at his head gate than
48 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

lie needs, and when he believes that some later appropriator farther 

up the stream is getting water to which he deems himself entitled, he 

notifies the water commissioner, usually by telephone, of the situation, 

and if the commissioner deems his complaint well grounded, No. 104 is 

shut off, then 103, and so on up the list until the deficiency is remedied.

It will be seen that some of the canals have several enlargements, 

each of which stands upon its date of construction, as decreed by the 

district court. Cache la Poudre Company's Canal original name, 

No. 2, of Union Colony is an example. The original construction, 

No. 37, dates back to October 25,1870. It is credited with a capacity 

of 110 second-feet, but there were 36 claims on the river preceding it, 

demanding in the aggregate 759.26 second-feet. The first enlargement, No. 44, dates from September 15, 1871, and is credited with 170 

second-feet, which at that date made its total capacity 280 secondfeet. At that time 43 claims preceded it, with an allowance of 1,184.08 

second-feet. The second enlargement, No. 72, dates from November 

10,1874, and is credited with 184 second-feet, making in all 464 secondfeet. This enlargement is preceded by claims for 2,283.09 second-feet. 

The third enlargement, No. 83, dates from September 15, 1877,.and 

calls for 121 second-feet, making in all 585 second-feet, being preceded 

by claims for 2,574.90 second-feet.

The capacity of the river is such that if all these claims were valid 

there would be scarcely enough water to allow this canal its last 

appropriation, much less the Larimer and Weld for its fourth enlargement, No. 88, or 571 second-feet, its principal appropriation, but which 

is preceded by claims for 2,735.87 second-feet, which exceeds even 

the average June supply for every year on record excepting 1883,1884, 

and 1885.

The third irrigating system in point of size is the Larimer County 

Canal. It is appropriation No. 100, and the canals preceding it call 

for 4,082.65 second-feet, a volume to which the river rarely ever rises, 

and which has been exceeded only in June 1883 and 1884.

To illustrate how excessive is the rating of these older ditches, take 

the Boyd and Freeman Ditch. It stands No. 6 on its original construction, and is granted 66.05 second-feet, dating March 15, 1862, or 

eight years before the settlement of Union Colony at Greeley. By 

reference to the table it may be seen that this ditch claims only 900 

acres under it, mostly grass. This would give a duty of only 13.7 

acres per cubic foot per second, even if it claimed only its first appropriation. In addition to this, however, it has two enlargements, bringing its claims up to 99.28 second-feet, or a duty of only 9 acres per 

second-foot. This matter is further discussed at length in the reports 

of the State engineer, notably in the Sixth Biennial Report, for 1891 

and 1892, pages 13 to 17.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL. XIV

ANOTHER VIEW OF SKY LINE CANAL.

BOYD.] EXCESSIVE EATING OP DITCHES. 49 

EXTEAVAGANT CLAIMS TO WATER.

This excessive adjudication was obtained largely by false testimony 

or was due to the ignorance of the witnesses, not even those who pretended to be engineers being able to compute the probable capacity 

of a canal from its slope and sectional area. Where formulas were 

used they were not applicable to small, crooked, poorly constructed 

ditches, such as were the early ones. Had there been water running 

in the river at the time the referee of the court took the testimony, 

the actual size of the ditches could have been approximated somewhat 

more closely; but it was late in the autumn of 1879 when this was being 

done, and the river was very low at the time. Moreover, there was no 

attempt made by the referee to have the ditches measured. This 

could have been done in the case of the smaller onesj which were also 

the ones whose capacity were the most excessively estimated. How 

much the capacity of the canals exceeds the supply can be seen by 

comparing the above decreed allowance with the table of estimated 

mean monthly flow given on page 27.

CACHE LA POTTDRE CREEK.

When, in 1870, the Union Colony settled in the lower end of the 

valley and founded the town of Greeley, there were only about 1,000 

acres in cultivation, all upon the bottom lands near the river, but the 

small canals then constructed claimed and had awarded them as 

appropriated 692.84 second-feet. There were in all some 23 small 

ditches taken out of Cache la Poudre Creek before 1870. If from this 

number are taken 4 small canals that were afterwards enlarged and at 

this time claimed only 42 second-feet, it is found that the 19 remaining ditches had under them, in crops, according to the report of the 

State engineer for 1888, only 5,660 acres. To water this area they had 

at this latter date claims awarded them to the amount of 650 secondfeet, or a cubic foot for every 10 acres. However, a provision in each 

decree restrains each ditch to so much of the quantity awarded as is 

needed for beneficial use and prohibits all waste. There are only 9 

canals shown in the State engineer's report for 1894 that have records 

of the water taken in at their head gates for that year. These had 

crops to the extent of 106,000 acres, while the remaining 19 had only 

about 10,000 acres under crops. The fact is that by means of the 

irrigation of the uplands under the later larger canals, the lands under 

these lower canals, for the most part, need no water, but are, on the 

contrary, in many instances transformed into swamps.

There has been an opinion prevalent among the owners of the 

bottom-land canals that they, in some way, owned the water awarded 

by the court to their ditches which they could sell to other ditches 

when they did not need to use it where originally located. Moreover, if they did not need all of the water, or if, in fact, their ditches
50 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO.

could not carry it, the owners thought that they had a right to sell or 

transfer the remainder to such persons or places as they might find 

convenient. While there might be some justice in allowing a person 

whose land was ruined by the irrigation of the uplands a right to use 

as much water as he had actually used upon these lands through some 

other canal, it would have been ruinous to later canals to allow a 

transfer of the excessive quantities erroneously decreed to the earlier. 

This situation is now well understood, and later decrees by the courts 

in other districts base grants to water to a canal only to the extent that 

it is proved that the water has been applied. These excessive claims 

allowed by the courts affect every district in the division of the Platte, 

and are even more extravagant in others than in Cache la Poudre district; so the people of Greeley engaged an attorney to cross-question 

witnesses and restrict claims as much as possible.

CONSERVATION OF WATER SUPPLY.

From a consideration of the appropriations of water from Cache la 

Poudre and a comparison of these with the amount actually flowing 

at the upper end of the valley, it is evident that there must be a 

deficiency in ordinary years. In years of scarcity the lands under all 

but the oldest canals do not have sufficient water to enable them to 

make a full crop. This is demonstrated by the fact that in 1894 the 

crops under all the later canals were more than double those of the 

averages of the preceding five years, these being periods of less than 

average flow. Even in 1894 the lands under the older canals, having 

all the water needed, produced better than those more stinted. This 

is shown by a comparison of the lands under the three largest canals 

of the valley. These are shown in the following table in the order of 

priority of appropriations:

Name.

Cache la Poudre Irrigation Company's canal _ _ 

Larimer and Weld Canal .--._-..-.-. -------

Total 

area in 

crop.

Acres. 

22, 045 

44, 384

16,714

Quantity 

of water.

Acrefeet.

70, 610

77, 225

27,830

Depth.

Feet.

3.2 

1.7

1.66

It is shown that the acreage under the first is about half that under 

the second, and, as can be seen from the table on page 52, there 

was half as much wheat, about as much oats, more than half as much 

barley and corn, and more potatoes. The latter is the most important 

crop, one-fourth of the land cultivated under each of these two canals 

being in potatoes. The showing under the Larimer County Ditch was 

still worse, as it had more than two-thirds as much land as the first
BO YD.] CEOP STATISTICS. 51

under crops, while it had less than two-thirds as much wheat, less 

than one-third as much oats, a trifle more than its ratio of barley, but 

less than one-fifth as many potatoes.

These three canals, it will be seen, have under them about twothirds of all the land in the valley. The rated capacities of these 

canals, for which the court has issued decrees, are 580, 720, and 480, 

the sum being 1,780 cubic feet per second. The total claimed by 

canals in this district at the end of 1888 and for which decrees had 

been granted them by the court, as shown on page 47, was 4,632.53 

second-feet; that is, three canals have set apart to them by .appropriation, as the decrees of the court stand, only about 38.4 per cent of 

the flow of the stream, while they have 66.6 per cent of the land irrigated. Many of the smaller ditches never could carry the quantities 

which were granted them by decree of the district court, and if they 

could carry them, they could not possibly use them.

CROP AREA. . ,

The following table gives the crop statistics of Cache la Poudre 

Valley as obtained from a house-to-house canvass of the entire district. l Although absolute accuracy is not attainable in such matters, 

it is more nearly complete than anything of the kind that has been 

heretofore attempted in this State. There is also appended in the 

right-hand column a statement of the water received in 1894 by the nine 

principal canals, these being the only ones concerning whose intake 

a record was kept by the district commissioner:

Crop statistics in district No. 3 1894.

Name of canal or 

ditch.

North Poudre- - 

Larimer County --

Larimer and 

Weld ............

Pleasant Valley

Larimer County, 

No.2_. ...........

Little Cache la

Taylor & GUI. . 

John R. Brown....

Canon ... ......

!H

Acret.

11,149

37,844

59,507

8,331 

4,356

8,633 

1,179 

3,160

1,300 

464 

390

497

3

Acres

843

4,010

7,438

1,750 

1,664

3,751 

493 

1,131

567 

159. 

60 

63 

160

Other grass.

Acres

795

......

878

470 

174

61

45 

333

61 

9 

75 

115 

5

Other crops.

Acres

2,430

13,847

33,183

3,334 

1,030

3,680 

387 

453

643 

174 

70 

433 

90

Pasture and

waste.

Acres

7,081

11,131

15,133

3,110

1,867

985 

374 

991

304 

164 

85 

450 

197

Wheat.

Bush.

41,731

89,774

383,998

7,338 

17,999

34,881 

730 

1,989

1,544

3,700 

350

i» 

I

Bush.

30,103

33,855

89,004

11,578 

31,941

14,190 

799 

3,357

3,033 

300 

' 490 

6,345 

130

>><s

1

m

Bush.

1,793

7,309

17,599

830 

8,075

7,130 

435

175

3,435 

57

0

0

Bush.

3,775

4,075

6,703

1,973 

2,033

380 

65

100

1,530 

300

Potatoes.

Sacks.

5,687

113,795

554,303

3,655

13,448

10,389 

860 

350

1,430 

1,350

8,050 

500

'3 

£

Acres

3

35}

53}

133

101*

70} 

33

41}

34*

38* 

5

4 

5

Water used.

Acreft.

18,306

37,803

77,335

17,387 

11,110

18,545

7,984

J Seventh Biennial Report of the State Engineer of Colorado, for the years 1893 and 1894, p.;
52 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. 

Crop statistics in district No. 3 1894 Continued.

NO. 9.]

Name of canal or 

ditch.

Watrous, Wheedbe & Secord----. 

Box Elder and

City... ............

Pioneer

Oache la Poudre

B. H. Eaton. ......

Cache la Poudre 

Irr. Co.'s, Xo. 3.. 

Wm. E. Jones. .... 

Boyd & Freeman. . 

Ogilvy. ..... .

Total ........

"3

1

Acres. 

120

1,280 

460 

26 

6,243 

300 

682 

1,735

33,173

2,080

1,275 

360 

900 

3,800

178,923

Alfalfa.

Acres 

20

50 

24 

3 

1,007 

60 

260 

270

5,032

358

147 

75 

90 

720

39,193

Other grass.

Acres

50

156 

80 

50 

144

704 

55

103 

119 

350

4,722

Other crops.

Acres 

35

100 

110 

3 

1,763 

45 

55

a5i

15,065 

653

517 

135 

300 

I,a57

76,119

and Pasture waste.

Acres 

75

1,000 

376 

2C 

2,076 

115 

443 

1,028

11,128 

683

480 

149 

158 

1,728

61,130

Wheat.

Bush.

900 

1,600

19,900 

260 

240 

1,077

144,324 

4,410

1,875 

300

13,290

671,000

1

o

Bush.

300 

516

15,516 

240 

1,700 

1,467

83,638 

6,051

1,140 

1,600 

1,575 

7,465

314,112

>>o>

1 M

Bush.

1,100

1,383

634 

9,837

1,575

60,146

g 

o

O

Bush.

35 

150

3,855 

75

95

3,670 

100

350 

300

29,351

Potatoes.

Sacks. 

600

200 

1,400

23,280 

620 

1,000 

3,184

602,485 

17,500

14,652

2,340 

7,000 

29,660

1,417,638

-»j

1 fa

Acres

m

f.

43i 

3f

1

59li

Water used.

Acreft.

11,262

70,610

360,232

From, the above table it will be noted that there are 61,120 acres 

recorded as waste and pasture land. Parts of this, perhaps not more 

than 2,000 acres, are above the levels of the canals, but the larger proportion is near the river and is kept so wet by the irrigation of the 

uplands that it needs no further application of water. Much of it has 

changed into cat-tail and rush-bearing swamps. This is true of certain basins and valleys among the uplands. Some of these basins have 

been utilized as reservoir sites. These are chiefly found in the upper 

end of the valley, on the north side. The surface of the country here 

is quite rolling. The soil is a somewhat stiff clay, resting upon a soft 

argillaceous shale which rises to near the brim of these basins, and 

thus renders them nearly water-tight.

Nearly all the land under cultivation, that is, under canals, is on the 

north side of the river, the only exception being a small area of about 

12,000 acres near Fort Collins. The reason is that below the point 

where the canals on the south side are seen to terminate the level of 

the land rises abruptly from the first bottom of the river to a height 

of from 50 to 100 feet. Near Greeley the bluffs lower and enable a 

small area in and near the town to be brought under a canal taken 

from Cache la Poudre Creek about 6 miles above the place. The hilly 

region to the south and west of Greeley is irrigated by the Loveland 

and Greeley Canal, which takes its water from Big Thompson Creek, 

the next tributary of the Platte above Cache la Poudre Creek.
BOTD.] WATER USED. 53

AMOUNT OF WATER USED.

. The mountain watershed of Cache la Poudre Creek above the gaging station is about 1,060 square miles, or 678,400 acres. The area 

actually irrigated by the water which passes this point was computed 

by Prof. L. G. Carpenter to be 135,000 acres, 1 this being less than 

one-fourth of the extent of the mountain gathering ground. The 

total discharge as measured by the intake of the canals in 1894 during 

the irrigating season is computed by Professor Carpenter at 284,000 

acre-feet. This would give a depth of run-off for that period of about 

four-tenths of a foot for the mountain watershed. This was a year of 

far more than average flow. It has been stated that the average for 

the four years ending 1892 was 227,302 acre-feet, which would give a 

depth of yearly run-off of about one-third of a foot.

The average discharge of all of the tributaries of South Platte River 

for the five winter months November to March, inclusive for four 

years, as given by the reports of the State engineer, was 472 secondfeet, or 141,364 acre-feet. As irrigation is carried enduring the other 

seven months, this amount is all that was available for storage except 

during times of flood.

The discharge" of Cache la Poudre Creek for the five winter months 

was, from an average of these four years, 24,858 acre-feet, a quantity 

much exceeded by the capacity of reservoirs now constructed. The 

total average flow of the tributaries of Platte River for the other seven 

months is approximately 1,900 cubic feet per second, which for 213 

days would be 34,966,000,000 cubic feet, or 769,252 acre-feet. The 

average for Cache la Poudre Creek for same months of the four years 

is about 500 cubic feet per second, or 9,202,000,000 cubic feet, or 

202,444 acre-feet.

The area irrigated in 1892, as given in the engineer's report for the 

Platte division, was 678,620 acres, while in Cache la Poudre district 

it was 162,239 acres for the same year. This would give a depth of 

1.13 feet over the area of the division of the Platte and of 1.24 feet 

for the Cache la Poudre district from the water received through the 

canyons of the respective streams. To this must be added the 

amount received from return seepage, or "underflow," which is used 

within the Platte division. The greater portion of the return from 

irrigation of Cache la Poudre district is also used within that district. 

As nearly as can be estimated, the return at that time was, for the 

whole division, about 1,000 second-feet, while that used in Cache la 

Poudre district is about 100 second-feet. This, added to the depths, 

respectively, would give for the division a depth of 1.70 feet of water 

applied, and for the Cache la Poudre district 1.49 feet.

The water flow during the four years under consideration, namely, 

1889-1892, was below the average. The amount of water taken into

1 Colorado Experiment Station Bulletin No. 33, January, 1893, p. 24.
54 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

all the canals during the irrigation season of 1894 in Cache la Poudre 

district, as measured by the commissioner of the district, was 260,232 

acre-feet. If the same number of acres are considered as irrigated as 

in the other period, these results for 1894 give a depth of 1.70 feet. 

If, however, the area stated to be under crops in the report of the 

commissioner is taken, including in this meadows and alfalfa fields 

and rejecting that included under the heading "Waste and pasture 

lands," which are scarcely at all irrigated, it is found that the water 

received by the canals would have covered the land to the depth of 

2.45 feet. This leaves out of account the waste by evaporation and percolation from some 332 miles of main canals and several times that 

length of laterals, which would be not less than 20 per cent. This 

amount, subtracted from the above, gives a depth of 1.96 feet.

QUANTITY AVAILABLE FOR STORAGE.

It has been found that the average flow through the canyon for the 

five months from November to March is about 84 second-feet. If to 

this is added the return underflow between the gaging station at 

the canyon and the head of the canal that feeds Cache la Poudre 

reservoir, there will be had the total winter wate^r available for 

storage.

The shrinkage in return underflow during the winter, when the 

lands draining into the Poudre are not being irrigated, is greater in 

the upper end of the valley, between Fort Collins and the gaging 

station, than between Fort Collins and the mouth of Cache la Poudre 

Creek on account of the narrowness of the upper irrigated belt compared with the lower. In other words, the return underflow will be 

more constant in proportion to the width of the belt irrigated, since 

lands adjacent to the stream soon drain back into it all their surplus 

water when the source of this is cut off.

The average gain from the canyon down to Fort Collins, as shown 

by the two autumn seepage measurements of 1893 and 1894, was 28 

second-feet, and by that of March, 1894, was 5 second-feet. The 

mean of these gives a little over 16 second-feet, which can be added 

to the winter flow through the canyon of 84 second-feet. 1 This gives 

an average total for storage purposes of 100 feet. All the underflow 

below this, out of the irrigation season, goes into the Platte and is not 

now stored, nor can it be stored for use on the lands of Cache la 

Poudre Valley. Suitable basins are found below on the north side of 

the Platte, in which can be stored the winter waste of the Platte and 

all its tributaries. These basins have been surveyed and articles of 

incorporation filed for their construction, but the enterprise is supposed to involve the expenditure of a million and a half dollars, and 

the capital to push it through is not yet forthcoming.

* Colorado Agricultural Experimental Station Bulletin No. 33, Seepage or return waters from 

irrigation, by L. G. Carpenter, pp. 30-33. Jan., 1896.
BOTD.] WATER AVAILABLE FOR STORAGE. 55

The total average winter supply of Cache la Poudre Creek for storage in reservoirs, all of which are now adjuncts of the four largest 

canals, may therefore be set down- at 100 feet per second for 150 days, 

1,296,000,000 cubic feet, or 29,750 acre-feet. Those under the North 

Fork canal do not come under this estimation, as the. water they have 

been storing comes from that tributary above the gaging station.

The reservoirs of the Larimer County Canal claim 458,000,000 cubic 

feet, the two largest ones of the Larimer and Weld 900,000,000, and 

the Cache la Poudre Reservoir claims 368,000,000, making in all 

1,726,000,000 cubic feet, and if this be reduced 30 per cent for overestimation, we have a corrected capacity of 1,208,000,000 cubic feet, 

or 88,000,000 cubic feet less than the average available winter supply. 

But this does not take into account evaporation and percolation that 

are taking place the year round from the reservoirs. The five main 

reservoirs have an average water surface for the year of about 1,200 

acres, the minimum being about 300 acres and the maximum 2,100. 

The evaporation from a water surface in this climate is found to be 

about 6 feet deep. This would give a loss from the surface of the 

reservoirs of 7,200 acre-feet, or 313,000,000 cubic feet.

The extent of percolation can be estimated with much less certainty; 

but from the character of the sites of all the storage basins, save that 

of the Cache la Poudre Reservoir, it can not be great, since they are 

underlain by an impervious shale rock which also rises to form their 

rims. A tenacious clay overlies this rock, and hence it would appear 

that percolation would be small except through the artificial embankment, where it may be large; but that part of the escaping water 

which gets into the channel of the outlet canal is inconsiderable. If 

the percolation from these reservoir sites, estimated at 2,000 acres, 

was equal to that through the surface of the irrigated land of the 

valley, it would amount to 2 feet per second, or to 63,000,000 cubic 

feet for the year. It is quite likely that it is as much as this owing 

to the great pressure during that part of the year in which the reservoirs are well filled, and the average for each reservoir would be 

only two-fifths foot per second. This would make a total waste of 

376,000,000 cubic feet, which is 288,000,000 cubic feet more than the 

river's estimated surplus. From the above estimates it is apparent 

that the average winter flow that can be utilized by the large reservoirs is inadequate to their needs. Besides this, it is not desirable, 

as a rule, to completely fill the reservoirs before the storms set in, as 

the spring winds drive heavy waves against the lower embankments, 

they being situated in the direction opposed to the prevailing northwest storms.
56 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO.9.

RESERVOIRS.

Besides the reservoirs mentioned there are a number of small ones, 

especially under the Larimer and Weld and the Cache la Poudre 

canals. Under the former the claimed storage capacity is about 

175,000,000 cubic feet, and under the latter about 110,000,000 cubic 

feet. These reservoirs are used by one or more parties for storing 

the water from the canals when it is not needed, and to catch as much 

as possible when water is plenty. They have no independent means 

of drawing directly from the rivers. A number of reservoirs are in 

use, and more are projected that will obtain their supply from seepage 

water. One very large concern, the corporate name of which is the 

Windsor Reservoir and Canal Company, proposes to store 510,000,000 

cubic feet in two reservoirs filled entirely from a ditch cut through a 

swamp made by irrigation.

Nearly all the reservoirs are connected with the four principal canals 

of the north side and are on the upper end of the canals. It happens 

that there is a series of depressions or basins naturally suited for this 

purpose in that part of the valley where they can be of most use. 

Farther east the land slopes gradually to the southeast or in the general direction of the dry creeks outlined on the map (fig. 2). In this 

lower end of the irrigated area the soil, though deep, is underlain by a 

heavy body of gravel, which gives good drainage and prevents waterlogging. Such a formation would be very undesirable under a reservoir, since, if not puddled, it would allow the water to waste by percolation.

In the reservoir region the soil, which is a stiff clay, lies directly 

on argillaceous shale. About 7 miles north of the river, near the lower 

end of the valley and on the ridges between the valleys of the dry 

creeks, the Laramie coal-bearing formation is found, and it extends 

thence northwest of Eaton, at which place alone it is mined. The 

depth to the coal is about 75 feet through clay, for the most part, the 

coal having a shale roof. The formation is dry here, but to the west 

is wet by the extensive irrigation practiced above.

The basins which have been utilized as reservoirs appear to have 

been formed by flexures or faults in the strata, and not by erosion, since in cutting the outlets the rock is found in the lower 

edge of the rim higher than it is toward the center of the basin. This 

rock is practically impervious to water. WTien the rock is wet, the 

water takes a lateral course over its upper layer, the clay next to it 

becoming quite soft and even disposed to slough off where a cut is 

made. This is the weak place in the structure of reservoirs on these 

sites, and has caused alarm on the part of people living under them.

There are now more reservoirs in the valley than can be filled with 

the available water. As a consequence the owners are asking that 

laws be passed fixing more definitely the time of year when water may 

be stored in preference to being used for irrigation. The regulations
EESERVOTES. 57

now require that water companies keep their canals running for the 

use of consumers from April 1 to November 1, except during the time 

taken for necessary cleaning and repairs. The reservoir law provides 

that any person shall have the right to take from natural streams of 

the State and store away unappropriated water not needed for immediate use, for domestic use, or for irrigating purposes. The general 

theory is that when growing crops need water for irrigation the person having such crops has a right to it superior to those wishing to 

store it for future use, even though the works constructed for storage 

purposes antedate the canal supplying such growing crops.

The superior rights for immediate irrigation is supposed to exist 

especially during the seven months that canals are required to be 

kept running, even though the water is being used only for moistening the soil for the mechanical purpose of enabling it to be more easily 

plowed or for storing up moisture for next year's use. The owners of 

a canal that has no reservoir constructed on purpose to store water for 

its use in times when it is not needed for irrigation may well claim 

that the soil on their farms answers such a purpose, and that they 

have as good a right to run water onto these farms whenever they can 

as the owners of canals with reservoirs have to run it into the latter. 

These parties insist that the only time when they can be prohibited 

from using water is the one in which nature withholds it from them, 

namely, when it freezes so hard that they can not run it onto the land. 

This time differs so much in different localities of the State and is also 

so dependent on the character and situation of the works of diversion 

that it precludes any rules being laid down by the legislature.

If the canals now^having reservoirs were without them, they would 

have a prior claim for use of the water after the crops were grown 

(provided they had a prior right for the irrigation of growing crops), 

and the fact that they have built reservoirs to store the water at times 

when it is not needed for growing crops should not, in the judgment 

of the writer, impair their rights to store the water instead of using it 

on the soil which is to play in part the purpose of a reservoir.

If such were the rule, every canal's right to water for storage for 

future use would have the' same date as the rights of the canals of 

which they are adjuncts. The rule, however, is that reservoirs have 

prior rights to water for storage among themselves according to date 

of filing claims with the State engineer, provided the work be prosecuted with due diligence, irrespective of the claims of the canals to 

which they are adjuncts.

All the reservoirs in the Poudre Valley are adjuncts of some canal 

previously built, and are constructed to furnish such canals at times 

of scarcity in the river during the season that growing crops need irrigation. This is usually in the latter part of the season and for the 

potato crop, which is grown extensively, especially in the lower end of 

the valley. The quantity of water available for this purpose is, as
58 IRRIGATION NEAR GKEELEY, COLORADO. [NO.9.

above stated, now exceeded by tlie capacities of the reservoirs, and 

parties are in court disputing one another's claims. It appears more 

likely that the courts will work out some generally recognized rule 

than that the legislature will be able to pass any law of general application, since the different irrigation localities hold diverse views and, 

indeed, have diverse conditions to be satisfied.

NORTH POUDRE LAND, CANAL, AND RESERVOIR COMPANY.

The North Poudre or uppermost of the canals, though among the 

latest in construction its appropriation being No. 97 in the district 

was the first to avail itself of reservoirs. The necessity for storing 

water which could not be used in the irrigation season early pressed 

itself upon the attention of the proprietors, not only because this canal 

was among the latest to appropriate water, but because the North 

Fork, from which it takes its supply, does not head back so far in the 

Snowy Range as do the other branches of the Poudre, and hence its 

water supply fails or becomes low early in the irrigation season. With 

perhaps the exception of the Larimer County Canal, these reservoirs 

are of more vital importance than those of any other canal in the 

district.

The number of reservoirs recorded in the reports of the State engineer up to 1894 is four. The date of the filing of these is December, 

1891, but it is claimed that work was begun in 1883, and contention 

is made that priority dates from the commencement of work rather 

than from the date of filing claim, provided the work has been prosecuted with due diligence and the water applied to beneficial use within 

a reasonable time. This question is still in the courts, but reasoning 

from the position taken in regard to canals, it maybe inferred that the 

contention will be sustained. Without these reservoirs the canal 

would be worthless.

The quantity claimed for these four reservoirs is 330,000,000 cubic 

feet, or 7,260 acre-feet. The proprietors of the canal report, in all, 

12 reservoirs, with a united capacity of 800,000,000 cubic feet, or 

17,600 acre-feet; but these later claims come after those of other 

important reservoirs, which may exhaust the ' supply available for 

storage.

A dam of considerable elevation was required at the point of diversion from the stream to raise the water into the head of the canal. 

This structure was made of timbers and loose rock, both obtained 

close by, and has proved so far safe and durable, in spite of the fact 

that the engineer, Patrick O'Meara, had but little faith in so loose a 

structure, built in part of perishable material. At its head the canal 

has also about a mile of fluming, a large portion of which rests on the 

rock prepared for it along the edge of the mountain. This flume has 

recently been replaced, and has needed much repairing. The dam 

and upper part of the flume are shown in the accompanying view 

(PL XV).
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL. XV

VIEW OF DIVERSION DAM OF NORTH POUDRE CANAL.

BOYD.] RESERVOIRS. 59

In proportion to its capacity, this canal is the most expensive in 

the district, having some tunneling besides the fluming. The cost is 

said to have been $150,000, which probably includes some work 011 

the reservoirs. This latter was mostly done by the '' Hartford Trust 

and Loan Company,"behind which stands the "Travellers' Insurance 

Company." This company furnished most of the funds, and soon 

came in possession of the work and the land under it, which is said 

to be 16,000 acres. The company has found it a most expensive 

investment. It is stated that for the twelve years the net expenditure over income has been at least $10,000 per annum, this including 

the work done on the reservoirs. The flumes rebuilt under the direction of Engineer J. C. Ulrich are said to be models in this line of 

construction. One of these 1 is 2,200 feet long and 25 feet wide at 

the upper end, gradually tapering to 15 feet at the place where the 

water acquires its maximum velocity. The side planks are bolted, 

instead of being nailed to posts, and at the lower end the flume is

A---

FIG. 7. Vertical section of drop on North Poudre Canal. A B, line of canal.

given a perpendicular drop to guard against moving out, a tendency 

in flumes ending on the level with the canal below them. This ending of the flume is illustrated by fig. 7. In the new flumes all the 

lumber used is well seasoned and tarred, and this, in the opinion of 

the engineer, will much increase its durability.

The outlets of the reservoirs are deemed among the best in the 

State. They consist of iron pipes laid. in Portland cement masonry 

and closed at the lower end by means of waterworks valves. In the 

larger reservoirs two pipes instead of one are used, to secure the easier 

operation of the valves. The fact that the means of opening and discharging the reservoir are at the lower end of the conduit pipes, and 

hence not covered by the water of the reservoir, as they are when 

either at the upper end or in the middle, is a great convenience and 

guards against numerous difficulties that attend operating under 

water. In the case of the North Fork Canal reservoir system a small 

discharge from each of its reservoirs into the canal will compensate 

for want of ample discharge in each separately.

1 Annual Eeport of Am. Society of Irrigation Engineers, 1893, p. 188.
60 IREIGATION NEAR GEEELEY, COLOEADO.

EXCHANGES OF WATER.

Besides the cases above mentioned, other friendly exchanges are 

made by the canals and reservoirs of different companies. During 

the season of 1895, Cache la Poudre Canal began to receive from the 

river widely fluctuating amounts, the quantity carried being on one 

day as high as 200 second-feet and on the next 25 second-feet. It is 

exceedingly difficult to distribute such a supply fairly to the consumers. In this emergency, the proprietor of the Windsor reservoir, just 

above the canal, allowed the water to flow through the Larimer and 

Weld Canal into his reservoir, and then to be drawn off in definite 

quantities for a definite time.

These civilities are the more worthy of notice, since all three of the 

parties have been and still are engaged in litigation as to their respective 

rights to storage water. Three suits have already gone through the 

district court and are now before the supreme court of this State. 

The claims of reservoirs to water for storage have never been subjected 

to a general judicial inquiry, like that given to claims of canals.

The law provides that when any party proposes to construct a reservoir he must send a notice, supported by affidavits, setting forth 

the name of the reservoir, the source of its supply, the name of its 

feeder, the time of commencing work on it, and its capacity in cubic 

feet. The data thus furnished is for the guidance of the river commissioner in allowing reservoirs to have water for storage, but may 

be attacked in court and claims there made good. In these investigations the time of commencing work gives precedence, provided 

work is prosecuted with due diligence, but the whole quantity that 

the reservoir can hold may not be granted as of date with the commencement of the work, provided some other party who began later 

has prosecuted work with superior diligence and has commenced to 

use before the first party was in a condition to store and use the whole 

of what he had claimed. Hence certain reservoirs in this district 

have a right to fill to a certain height and then fill to their full 

capacity after others are filled, or partly filled. A record of the rights 

of reservoirs is gradually being had similar to that of canals, but these 

rights are in an inchoate state until the supreme court passes on them.

LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIAL CONTROL OF WATER.

.From the preceding statements regarding the canals and reservoir 

systems of Cache la Poudre Valley, the attempts made at water storage, and the complications arising, it is apparent that a considerable 

body of laws and court decisions must have been developed. It has 

been from this district, in fact, that many of the most perplexing 

water questions have arisen, and its public men have been foremost 

in the presentation and discussioil of bills designed to protect irrigators 

in the enjoyment of the waters to which they are by use entitled.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURREY

WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL. XVI

VIEW OF NORTH POUDRE FLUME 300 FEET BELOW THE DAM.

Showing canal crossing the stream from which its waters are taken

BOYD.] LEGAL CONTROL OF WATER. 61 

ORIGIN OP THE COLORADO SYSTEM.

The canals irrigating the lands of Union Colony were among the 

lowest taken from Cache la Poudre Creek. In the years succeeding 

the founding of the colony new canals were built higher up the valley 

and old ones enlarged. As a consequence, in the latter part of the 

year 1874, a time of iinusual scarcity, the river was dry at the head of 

the canal that supplied the town, and there was great danger that 

trees, small fruits, and lawns would be ruined. A meeting was called, 

about 40 delegates representing the various irrigation interests being 

present. A proposition was offered to appoint a disinterested person 

to divide the water according to the necessities of the users, disregarding, for the present, priority of appropriation a doctrine which was 

generally recognized, but which under the conditions then existing 

was found impracticable.

The men upstream would not listen to compromise, relying upon their 

advantage of position, nor would most of the Greeley people accept 

it, as they were afraid that the concession woiild be used as a precedent, and that they would thereby lose an undoubted right. Debate 

ran high. Threats of appeals to arms were freely exchanged. But 

at last the men above agreed to let down some water to save the most 

valued trees and shrubs in the town. The promise was not kept, and 

violence would have been resorted to but for a timely heavy rain, 

which both raised fhe river and moistened the parched gardens and 

lawns of the town and the fields in the country. From that day forth 

the people of Union Colony set their hearts upon having a law enacted 

to enable them to have the water of the river distributed according 

to the vested rights of all concerned. Still for some time no, one 

outside could be led to take an interest in legislation of this kind, 

and the years 1875, .1876, and 1877 passed without anything being 

accomplished.

The constitution of the State, adopted in 1876, recognized in express 

terms the right of citizens to appropriate the waters of the State for 

beneficial uses, domestic, agricultural, and mechanical; but there was 

then no law to give this provision efficacy. Soon, however, other communities, especially the settlers on St. Vrain and Boulder creeks, 

encountered like difficulties, and the farmers around Fort Collins, 

who had at first opposed legislation providing for a distribution of 

water according to the rights of prior appropriators, began to favor 

it when they saw large enterprises inaugurated for the purpose of 

taking the water out of the river mjich higher up than the head of 

their canals, and thus threatening to deprive them of the advantage 

of position they had been enjoying.

IRRIGATION CONVENTION OF 1878.

As a result of the general appreciation of the need of State regulation and control, a convention of delegates representing the various
62 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [No.9.

irrigation interests met in Denver late in December, 1878, for the purpose of formulating a scheme of irrigation -legislation. Only the 

Platte Basin, now designated Division No. 1, was represented. At 

that time there was scarcely any irrigation carried on in those drainage basins that now constitute the other five irrigation divisions ef the 

State. Indeed, it was not until 1885 that there was any effort made in 

other parts of Colorado to have the State control and divide the water, 

as provided in the act of 1879.

At the convention held in Denver the sentiment in favor of and 

against regulation by a State law was nearly evenly divided. Those 

from the districts where the supply in time of scarcity was exhausted 

were in favor of such regulation, while those who still had plenty of 

water were opposed, as they feared it would impose on them a needless expense. Others, especially lawyers, held that rights could be 

better secured through the courts.

It was finally agreed that a committee of five draft a bill for a law 

providing: (1) for the division of the State into water districts corresponding with areas irrigable from certain natural streams or portions of streams; (2) for the appointment by the governor of a water 

commissioner for each district, whose duty it should be to divide the 

water in his district according to a record of priority of appropriation, 

to be ascertained by some sort of judicial proceeding; (3) for regulations in regard to construction and right of way for reservoirs; (4) 

for the appointment of a State engineer and for'gaging the streams 

of the State.

The committee, consisting of David Boyd, of Greeley, chairman; 

John C. Abbot, of Fort Collins; Dr. I. L. Bond, of Boulder; Daniel 

Witter and J. S. Stanger, of Denver, drafted a bill, which in its essential features became law by the action of the next legislature. The 

provisions, however, relating to a State engineer and providing for 

the gaging of the streams were rejected on the ground that it would 

be too expensive to the State, the agricultural interests of Colorado 

being then deemed insignificant. It became apparent by the time 

the next legislature met that little could be accomplished without a 

State engineer empowered to make measurements of water, and provision was accordingly made therefor.

DIVISION INTO DISTRICTS.

For the benefit of those who are studying the Colorado system or 

endeavoring to amend or improve State or local regulations it i$ proper 

to present some of the difficulties that beset this committee, of which 

the writer was chairman, in its attempt to draft a bill providing for 

the matters above named. One of the most perplexing things to determine was how much land should be embraced in an irrigation district 

or area within which priority of appropriation as conferring priority 

of right to use should be applied, and a record 'made as a basis of divi-
BOTD.I LEGAL CONTROL OF WATER. 63

sion by the agents appointed for that purpose. Theoretically, such a 

record should embrace what is contained in one of the six grand divisions into which at a later date the State was divided.

The question was narrowed down to whether the whole South Platte 

and its tributaries within the State should be embraced in one record 

and be under one administration, or should be subdivided, into a 

number of districts, for each of which a record of appropriations 

should be made without reference to the claims of the other districts 

of the division. It was finally decided that a record of the whole 

South Platte basin, covering so large a territory and embracing so 

many claims to water, would require for preparation an excessively 

long period, and that it would be almost impossible to execute the 

decrees, even when tabulated.

Eight of the districts now shown in Division I of the drainage map 

were then created. The first extended from the State line to the 

mouth of Cache la Poudre Creek; the second, from there to the mouth 

of Clear Creek, near Denver, taking in only the main channel of the 

Platte. Cache la Poudre basin was made the third and Big Thompson 

basin the fourth. St. Vrain Creek, except its main tributary, Boulder 

Creek, became No. 5; North and South Boulder creeks, No. 6; Clear 

Creek, No. 7, and the Platte above Clear Creek, No. 8. This latter 

was divided later into three, Bear Creek becoming No. 9, and all of 

the Platte above the canyon in South Park was numbered 23.

Recently district No. 1, which was about 150 miles in length, was 

divided into two districts, the lower one being numbered 64. South 

of this, Nos. 65 and 49 were created, both taking water from the upper 

forks of the Republican, which are dry creeks for the greater part of 

the year. Three other districts, which take their waters from the 

upper tributaries of the North Platte before they cross into Wyoming, 

were numbered 46, 47, and 48, and added to the first division. These 

five districts outside of the South Platte basin are relatively insignificant from an agricultural point of view.

In carrying out this scheme of districts, each with a separate record 

and administrative officers, the results were favorable as regards Nos. 

3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, each of which had an independent permanent supply from the mountains; but they were not so in numbers 1 and 2, 

which were wholly dependent upon streams passing through the six 

districts first named. The trouble was first felt in district No. 2, in 

. which are situated the earliest ditches of the State, and which is supplied almost wholly by the streams embraced in what originally were 

Nos. 7 and 8. The vicinity of these latter to the city of Denver led to 

great development in the way of irrigation works about the year 1880 

and thereafter, and when put in operation they soon exhausted the 

supply which district No. 2, on the Platte below Denver, had formerly 

received.
64 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [No.9.-

SUPERINTENDENTS.

The increasing difficulties in district No. 2 led to the enactment in 

1887 of a law providing for division superintendents. The more 

important of the duties of each of these are as follows: Within thirty 

days after his appointment each superintendent of irrigation shall 

send notice to the clerk of the district court of counties in which judicial decrees have been rendered, fixing the priorities of appropriation, 

and shall request of the clerk a certified copy of every decree establishing such priorities. The superintendent shall then cause to be 

prepared a book to be entitled "The register'of priorities of appropriation of water rights for division No. , State of Colorado," within 

which he shall enter certified copies of decrees, and shall make out a 

list, of all ditches, canals, and reservoirs entitled to appropriations of 

water within his division, arranging and numbering these in consecutive order, according to the dates of their respective appropriations 

within his division, and without regard to the number which they may 

bear within their respective water districts. . Water commissioners of the different districts are to report from 

time to time to their division superintendent the state of the water 

supply in their respective districts. From these reports he is "to 

ascertain what ditches, canals, and reservoirs are and what are not 

receiving their proper supply of water, and if it shall appear that in 

any district in that division any ditch, canal, or reservoir is receiving 

water whose priority postdates that of the ditch, canal, or reservoir 

in another district, as ascertained from his register, he shall at once 

order such postdated ditch, canal, or reservoir shut down and the 

water to be given to the elder ditch, canal, or reservoir, his orders 

being directed at all times to the enforcement of priority of appropriation, according to his tabulated statement of priorities, to the whole 

division and without regard to the district within which the ditches, 

canals, and reservoirs may be located." The district commissioners 

are subject to the orders of the superintendent, who may enter their 

districts and enforce his own orders if they are refused or neglected.

These rules read well, but they have been found impossible of execution. The water supply became deficient about the 1st of June, 

1890. Many of the older canals in district No. 2 were empty, and an 

attempt was made to supply them by shutting down canals in other 

districts that postdated them. An order was given to cut off the. 

supply of the Farmers' High Line and of four other large canals taking water from Clear Creek. The owners of these canals got a temporary injunction, which was afterwards made permanent, restraining 

the superintendent from shutting them off. The reasons given by 

the court for granting the injunction were 

First, that the superintendent did not have the necessary information from the water commissioner, in the form prescribed by law, on 

which to base his order.
BOYD.] , LEGAL CONTROL OF WATER. 65

Second, that the ditches in district 23, embracing the South Park, 

were not ordered closed to a date corresponding to those in the valley.

Third, that the law of 1887, which creates the office of superintendent and defines his duties, is unconstitutional, in so far as its effect is 

to determine rights of priority in the waters of the natural streams 

against persons who have had no day in court, by making the decrees 

rendered in one district binding and conclusive against claimants in 

another separate and distinct district who have also received decrees.

In regard to the first reason, it may be said that the kind of information required by the law to be obtained from the water commissioner to guide the superintendent in regulating the supply among 

the different districts of the division is difficult to procure from so 

wide a territory, and comes too late to aid him execute his trust 

with the promptness which the exigency of the situation demands. If 

a canal needs and is entitled to water to-day, it is usually ruinous to 

wait for ten daj7 s while the superintendent is getting the legal information, and hence the superintendent has to act, if at all, on the most 

uncertain and usually biased evidence.

The situation in district No. 23 may be examined somewhat at 

length, as it brings to light some interesting irrigation situations.

The water commissioner of district-No. 23, after consulting with 

attorneys, declined to shut down any ditches whatever. The superintendent then made a personal inspection of the district, and endeavored to obtain the necessary information as to location of ditches, to 

enable him to close them down himself; but in addition to being 

unable to secure the needed information, he found that in the excited 

condition of the people it would require the State militia to enforce 

his order.

This was the last effort made to shut off the ditches of the South 

Park district, so far as the writer has been able to learn. The district is very large, containing about 2,500 sqiiare miles. The number 

of ditches reported is 209. Over 77,000 acres are claimed as under 

irrigation, all being native meadow land except about 300 acres. The 

quantity of water decreed to this land by the court is 4,665 secondfeet sufficient, if the ditches could carry it, to flood the area irrigated a foot deep every 8.7 days. Measurements made by the State 

engineer discovered the fact that many of the ditches fell far short of 

their decreed allowance, some receiving only about one-tenth of that 

amount.

It was, moreover, claimed by the iisers of water in this district that 

tfte early and heavy use of the water on the lands adjacent to the 

small streams that traverse the Park was a great advantage to the 

supply of the South Platte below its canyon, and measurements made 

by the State engineer seem to confirm this view. Nor is this unreasonable. This 77,000 acres of land is filled down to the bed rock with 

all the water the soil will hold by streams applied up to July. The 

irrigation is then stopped in order to cut and cure the hay. The water 

EBB 9 5
66 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

rapidly seeps out of the pervious soil, increasing the discharge of the 

streams during the succeeding months. Assuming that the soil and 

gravel to the depth of 6 feet is filled with water, this will be equal to 

a depth of 2 feet of water, and the 77,000 acres would have a storage 

capacity of 154,000 acre-feet.

That this early excessive irrigation up to about July 1 has the effect 

claimed is borne out by the fact that the measurements of the waters 

of the South Platte as they pass through its canyon show it, on the average, to be much smaller than Cache la Poudre Creek at the season of 

high water, and considerably larger during the fall and winter months. 

A belief of this kind, together with the injunctions obtained in other 

cases where the superintendent attempted to shut water from canals 

of one district for the benefit of earlier ones in another, lias hindered 

the superintendent from interfering with this or other districts.

CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION OF CANALS.

The object of an irrigation canal is to divert water from a natural 

stream and take it where it can be spread over the land. Other 

things being equal, the shorter a canal is in proportion to the service 

it renders, the more economical that service. Some canals run as far 

as 20 miles before they can deliver any water, while others begin to 

deliver within a few miles of their heads. The length of a canal 

depends mainly upon two things, first, whether there are canals close 

below that cover the upper part of the lands below the new canal; 

and, second, the degree of abruptness with which the land rises as it 

recedes from the stream. If the slope or fall of the stream is great, 

then a canal that has a small slope will gain in the height of its bed 

over that of the river as many feet per mile at the end of a certain 

number of miles as the difference between its slope and that of the 

river. This height of its bed above the bed of the river will bear it 

far away or near to the river in proportion to the steepness of the 

land lying between the canal and river.

The slope of the upper part of Cache la Poudre Creek after it leaves 

the canyon is for a number of miles 15 feet per mile, which gradually 

changes to 10 feet per mile at its mouth, giving an average of about 

13 feet per mile. Assuming that a canal like the Larimer and Weld 

is started within a few miles of the canyon on a slope of 2 feet to the 

mile and follows the contour of the country to the north of the river 

for 65 miles, and that the meanderings of the canal and of the river 

are about the same, it is evident that at the lower end of the canal it 

should be 715 feet above the river at a point on the latter opposite to 

this terminus. However, where this opposite point in the river is to 

be taken is really determinable only by measuring down the river a 

distance of 65 miles, following all its meanderings.

The height of the Larimer and Weld Canal where it crosses the 

Denver Pacific Railroad, about 9 miles above the river, is 250 feet 

above the river crossing. The length of the canal to this point is
BOTD.] CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION OF CANALS. 67

about 50 miles, and accordingly, estimating a gain of 11 feet to the 

mile, it should be 550 feet above the river. The railroad distance in 

the river valley from Greeley to the head of the Larimer and Weld 

is 26 miles, which, multiplied by the grade of the road, assumed as 

13 feet, gives 338, and this reduced by the fall of the canal for 50 

miles, namely, 100 feet, gives a height theoretically of 238 feet. 

Hence it is to be assumed that the fall given to the river is that 

of a comparatively -straight line running up its valley, and not the 

real slope of its bed, which must be about only half as much, since 

the bed of the river is more crooked than that of the canal. In Lone 

Tree Valley, which terminates at the mouth of Cache la Poudre Creek, 

and which has a nearly uniform slope of 25 feet to the mile, the distance of the Larimer and Weld Canal from the mouth of the creek is 

12 miles. This would give a height of 300 feet, which corresponds 

closely with the other estimates, this point in the canal being about 

60 miles from its upper end.

These relative slopes must be taken into account when any irrigation enterprise is contemplated in connection with considerations as 

to the 'fall which can be allowed a canal of a given carrying capacity 

without wearing its bed. Other related questions come, as to the 

alignment of the canal, the straightening by cutting and filling, and 

increasing the velocity; also how far shall the earth removed in 

excavation be placed back from the edge of the cut in forming the 

embankments, whether there shall be two embankments or only one 

(on the lower side) where there is a fill, and where, if there is only 

one, the water will run far back on the opposite side\

The experience gained from the results of the construction of two 

canals in our valley by the same engineer is deemed of practical 

value on these points. Union Colony Canal No. 2 was given a grade 

of 3.2 feet to the mile, a depth of only 2 feet, and a width on the bottom of 12 feet at the head. The course was very crooked, keeping 

for the most part in the ground, neither cutting nor filling much; the 

earth was piled close to the edge of the lower bank, and no embankment was made on the upper side, however far back the water might 

flow. This was economical in construction, but wasteful in the long 

run. The slope was none too much for the canal at the size it was 

first built, but it was finally enlarged to some five times its original 

capacity. The sharp bends were of necessity taken out, thus shortening the course and increasing the slope. The upper side had to be 

embanked where the water flowed far back, in order to prevent the 

action of waves on the lower bank and waste by evaporation; also to 

allow of the canal being filled and emptied rapidly.

The result of these changes was a great increase in velocity and 

resulting wear of the bed, which has now to be checked wherever 

water is taken from it. Portions of the bed not influenced by these 

checks are being worn away, and hence are in a condition to permit
68 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

great loss by percolation. The lower bank has been allowed to remain 

where it was', but should have been set well back, because wherever 

there is much wear on the lower bank there is great danger of break. 

The expense of moving the earth back some 6 feet is insignificant 

compared to the advantage of having it there.

The experience gained in the construction of Cache la Poudre Canal 

was of value in laying out the Larimer and Weld Canal some eight 

years afterwards. In general the slope planned was only 2 feet to the 

mile except for a mile and a half near the head, where the bed of the 

canal was over large bowlders similar to those in the bed of the river 

at the same place and where the fall was 15 feet to the mile. This 

part was given 13 feet fall to the mile, and has stood the wear without 

being materially moved. The lower bank was set back some 6 feet 

and usually made broad enough to allow the driving of a wagon along 

its top. Cuts and fills were made to some extent to preserve the 

alignment from abrupt angles, care being taken, however, not to cut 

too deep when this would prevent the water from being taken onto 

the land near the canal. Small expansions of the canal on the upper 

side were prevented by an upper embankment, except at Lak'e Lee, 

described on page 39. This serves a useful purpose for storing small 

quantities received from the river in time of scarcity to be delivered 

to alternate sections of the canal in amounts that can be economically applied. Another expansion of this kind near the lower end was 

found to be wasteful in times of low water, and a canal has been cut 

around its lower margin to keep the water out of it except when there 

is a surplus. Oh the whole, this canal has too much slope for its 

present size, and usually must be checked where water is taken into 

laterals.

CONTROL BY TELEPHONE.

This district is probably unique in the possession of a special telephone line for water control. This line was erected in 1889, being in 

part paid for by the two counties of Larimer and Weld, and in part 

by the large canals. It cost $1,500 and is an annual expense of about 

$60. The river commissioner regards it as worth each year its entire 

cost to the several users of water.

Its upper terminus is at the head of the Larimer County Canal; 

thence it connects with La Porte, where the river commissioner lives, 

some 4 miles above Fort Collins. It has two connections with offices 

of canal companies in the latter place, one each at the head of the 

Larimer and Weld and Cache La Poudre canals, two in Greeley, and 

one in Lucerne.

At three different places, at three set times, the river commissioner 

can be communicated with by those having the irrigation affairs of 

the district in charge. At the head of each of the three principal 

canals a man stays day and night, and the bell of the telephone is 

close to his ear when he is in bed. If there should be a sudden rise
BOYD.] CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION OF CANALS. 69

of water in the river and the commissioner is notified of it, he can 

immediately communicate with these three men at the head of these 

canals and have them raise their gates to save it. If a break occurs 

in a canal, the party who discovers it can communicate with the man 

at the head by going to the nearest telephone station and have the 

water shut out in the shortest possible time, decreasing the damage. 

The river commissioner must visit the gaging station daily to see 

how much water is in the river, this being his guide for supplying the 

different claimants according to their priorities. The station has a 

self-registering apparatus which gives the different heights to which 

the water rises during the twenty-four hours, and from the height in 

the channel the number of feet per second is found from a table experimentally prepared by the State engineer. The section where the 

measurement is made has masonry sides and a natural rock bottom, 

which give a definitely fixed cross section. Means of gaging every 

canal diverting water from the river are required to be put in by the 

owners, and these gagings are rated by the State engineer for the 

benefit of the river commissioner. Some of the smaller canals neglect 

to do this, and their water supply is estimated by the commissioner.

LATERALS.

The water is taken out of the canals by means of lateral ditches 

placed at short intervals. Usually they follow the crest of the ridges, 

and deliver water on both sides by means of sublaterals. Some of 

these laterals are very large, as, for example, those from the Larimer 

and Weld Canal. These carry as much as 100 second-feet, and in 

some instances have two ditch riders to distribute the water to the 

consumers. The laterals run as far as possible on the crests of the 

ridges that divide the valleys from one another, and the conditions in 

regard to their location are such that they can not be given any slope 

desired but must conform to the fall of the ridge followed. The 

average slope of the land between the canals and the river is about 

25 feet to the mile. Hence, in general, the lateral has a fall as great 

as that. This will not cut very badly under a flow of a few feet of 

water, but with 100 second-feet, as with two laterals of the Larimer 

and Weld Canal, there is nothing to do but to put in drops here and 

there after the cutting has gone on for some time. These are built 

of 2-inch plank nailed to suitable timbers. It is deemed best to have 

a lower horizontal section of planked bottom and to give the water a 

forward instead of a sloping downward direction when it resumes its 

course in the channel of the canal.

MEASURING AND DIVIDING WATER.

From the main lateral, if it be a large one, the users-divert water 

one or many at a time. It is measured to them, or a proportionate 

part of it set off for them, wherever it is deemed best. The quantity
70 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

taken in by the lateral is estimated by the main canal ditch rider. 

Usually the measurement is made over a weir some distance below 

the head, and is computed from a table furnished by the State engineer, 

applying accurately, however, only to weirs put in according to the 

Francis plan. Large discrepancies are found in some of these weirs by 

accurate measurement. Usually more water is given than intended, 

as conditions for controlling velocity of approach are rarely present.

The Larimer and Weld Canal uses weir measurements. By its contracts it is bound to furnish 1.44 cubic feet per second for each 80-acre 

water right if this amount can be had from the river. In the other 

canals measurement is not necessary, since the consumers are at the 

same time owners of the canals and each has a proportionate right to 

all the canal can or does carry. Hence equitable division is all that 

is required. The usual course to effect this is to give for each water 

right so many sectional inches. This is fair, provided the sections

\V\\\\V\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\N\

.\\\\\\\\vs\

. PIG. 8. Plan of device for dividing water.

are of the same depth and the velocity of approach to the place where 

the section is measured is the same. The first condition can usually 

be secured, but often is not, and there is no uniformity in conditions 

to secure equal velocity of approach.

In the Cache la Poudre Canal devices called Max Clark boxes were 

put in both to measure and make a fair division. It was a modification of the Italian Soldati modulus, and at least did something toward 

making the velocity of approach to the measuring apertures uniform. 

It is not practicable to place a dividing device cutting off a proportionate portion of the whole in a large canal at each place where water 

is diverted, nor is this found practicable at the upper end of large 

laterals, but in the lower ends of these, and in laterals in general carrying not more than 25 second-feet, it can be done quite satisfactorily. 

A very simple and common form of divisor 1 is shown in fig. 8.

The partition at A is movable and may be placed at different distances from the side. When there is no desire to change the relative

1 Measurement and division of water, L. G. Carpenter, Bulletin No. 27, Colorado Experiment Station, August, 1894, p. 9.
BOTD.] EXPENSE OP IRRIGATION. 71

quantities taken through the two openings, the partition is fixed. 

This is usually the case, as it prevents changes being readily made by 

dishonest parties. When this partition is fixed, alterations can be 

made to suit parties by putting in a perpendicular strip of board in 

one side or the other. The view in PL XVII shows a device in laterals of Greeley Canal No. 2 by which the stream is divided into four 

parts.

COST OF IRRIGATION.

It has been impossible to obtain reliable figures concerning the cost 

of all of the canals and ditches taking water from Cache la Poudre 

Creek, but, as stated on previous pages, the expenditures in the construction of the two larger canals are shown approximately. The 

first of these, the Cache la Poudre, as stated on page 32, cost $112,000, 

and its reservoir $110,000; in all, $222,000. The cost of the Larimer and 

Weld has been placed at $150,000 for the canal, and for the two main 

reservoirs, $165,000, this including the estimated cost of completing 

the Windsor Reservoir. The total cost of this canal and its reservoirs 

is thus 1315,000, and for the two canal systems, $537,000.

The total area of land in crops under these two canals, not includ*- 

ing that designated as waste and pasture land, is 66,349 acres. This 

number of acres divided into the cost as just given gives an average 

of less than $9 per acre for the water. The price originally paid the 

railroad company for the land was $3 per acre, making a total first 

cost of land and water of $12 per acre. Until about 1895 this land, 

with water rights, has been considered as worth on an average $40 

per acre without buildings. As a rule, the lands have actually been 

held at a higher figure than this.

Omitting the other two large canals on the north side of the river, 

viz, the Larimer County and North Poudre canals, a comparison of 

the cost and value of the remaining irrigating ditches would compare 

favorably with these figures, except in the case where the lands under 

some of the ditches have been injured by excessive seepage and by 

the rise of alkali. If, however, these two large canals are considered, 

a different estimate must be made. Both of these were built after 

the supply in the river was practically exhausted and when extraordinary expenditures had to be made to secure a supply.

The Larimer County canals on the plains cost about $90,000, the 

part in the mountains approximately the same, $90,000, and the two 

main reservoirs $24,000. Estimating the cost of the other reservoir 

at $10,000, the total is $214,000. With this expenditure, only 16,713 

acres were reported in crops, making a cost per acre for water of 

about $13, or 40 per cent more than in the cases above cited. Besides 

this larger cost, the land under the canal, on account of uncertainty 

of supply, has a relatively small value, dependent largely upon the 

success of the Sky Line Canal. If this and the reservoir system
72 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

result according to the anticipation of their projectors, the lands will 

be as valuable as those under other canals. The unfortunate condition of the North Poudre Canal has been mentioned on a preceding page, its financial success being dependent largely tipon the 

possibility of diverting some of the headwaters of Grand River into 

Cache la Poudre Valley, in a manner similar to that of the Sky Line 

Ditch.

As to the cost of maintenance, it may be stated that the three principal canals of the valley employed each three riders, and there is also 

one man at the head and a general superintendent. The cost for 

supervision for the years 1893 and 1894, as reported by the river commissioner for this district, was $17,502, and the cost of repairs for all 

canals having superintendents was $52,472. It is assumed that these 

figures relate only to the expenses of the canals and not to the laterals. 

Taking the length of the former at 333 miles and the area in crop as 

125,000 acres, the cost for superintendence and repairs per annum 

would be 28 cents per acre.

AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE.

Whenever sufficient water is obtained and applied at the right times, 

the products of the lands within this valley are remarkable. Fertility 

is, however, maintained largely by a judicious rotation of crops. The 

best practice is that in which about one-third the area is kept in 

alfalfa, to be plowed under after two years' use as a meadow. Both 

the upper and lower ends of the valley are excellent for small grains 

and alfalfa, but the lower part is best for potatoes, and the upper for 

apple orchards, of which a great acreage has been planted within a 

few years. The more clayey soil of the upper end of the valley renders it more retentive of moisture during the winter and early spring, 

and hence the trees do not suffer so much from dry winds and occasional hot suns as they do on more porous soils. Blight has been 

severe on all the fruit trees of the valley save plums, which do well 

everywhere in the State.

The farms of the Greeley colony under Canal No. 2, now known as 

Cache la Poudre Canal, are rarely smaller than 80 acres or larger than 

160. The latter is regarded as the better size for profitable farming 

if the owner does not get too heavily into debt. The interest at 8 per 

cent and the yearly payment of installments on a large farm are a 

heavy load even for this fertile valley, and are a fixed sum, while the 

profits are uncertain. The operating of the larger farms is more profitable from the fact that as much farm machinery is needed for the 

80 acres as for the larger tract. If the farmer is raising grain, alfalfa, 

and potatoes, he needs three distinct lines of machinery. A good 

equipment of these and all kinds of implements needed to turn and 

stir the soil and move the crops will cost not less than $800. There 

is a much smaller proportionate investment for the larger than for the 

smaller farms.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL. XVII

VIEW OF DIVISION FLUME IN LATERAL UNDER THE GREELEY NO 2 CANAL.

BOYD.J AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE. 73

The size of the farm which may be made the more profitable 

depends upon the man. If the owner is a good worker himself, but 

unskilled in handling men and in management, then the smaller farm 

will be best. Many men on an 80-acre farm have done well, made a 

good living, put up good farm buildings, and have money out on interest. Others have done equally well with 160-acre farms, one-half of 

which they went in debt for, while others undertaking this have lost 

all.

APPLYING WATER.

The farmer having his share of the water in his own little ditch 

carries it to the highest point on his farm and leads it either along 

the side, end, or obliquely across in straight or curved lines, so as to 

keep it where it can fill the smaller ditches. By these the water is 

carried, if possible, to every square yard of the farm. Often much 

diking must be done on the farm, and before the lateral reaches it, so 

as to get the main distributing ditch where it will cover the most 

land. These dikes are expensive to make and equally so to keep up, 

and are a source of perpetual annoyance and often of waste. A farm 

is to be preferred whose feeding lateral runs along one side and does 

not meander here and there. A farm with a sag anywhere in it, 

especially in the middle, is to be avoided.

The ideal surface for irrigation is one raised a little at one end or 

on one side. It should have a fall of from 15 to 25 feet to the mile, 

as uniform as possible, and in one direction. For an 80-acre tract 

the following conditions, if they could be realized, would be best: 

The upper shorter side should have a fall of about 5 feet to the mile 

for the feeding-head lateral, and the long direction a fall of 15 feet to 

the mile, with the lower short end having the same fall as the upper. 

It will be seen that the upper ditch, which is a quarter of a mile long, 

will have but, a fall of 1£ feet, and a dam put into it at intervals of 10 

rods will make a difference of level of such a section of only 2 inches. 

If fifty rows of potatoes head into such a ditch and there is a sufficient volume of water in it to furnish a little stream for every row, 

it can easily be diverted into all at a time, since the diminished head 

will make up for the fall of level of the lower end of the bottom of 

the ditch, while, if the fall in this feeder was great, only a few of the 

rows close to the dam could be fed, and those unequally, without constant care and changing. This is the ideal surface slope for a potato 

field. Such tracts may be found north of Greeley and extending up 

to Eaton.

Such a surface is also desirable for grain or alfalfa, and to irrigate 

these crops by flooding, as is customary, the farmer has only to run 

through the grainfield or meadow a large double-moldboard plow, 

drawn by from four to six heavy horses, and penetrating to a depth of 

12 inches, throwing a bank to each side and leaving a clean ditch 

behind it. These ditches are usually put a hundred feet apart, and
74 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. r [NO. 9.

plowed in before harvesting, but in an alfalfa field they are left permanently. At suitable intervals a canvas dam is put into the ditch, 

the pole to which the edge of the canvas is nailed supported on both 

banks. The cloth lies in the bottom and on the edges of the ditch 

and is kept down by a little dirt put on the edge. The bank is cut 

on one or both sides as desired, just above the dam.

The use of the canvas dam is illustrated in Pis. XVIII and XIX. 

The former view shows a man with a canvas dam in his hand ready 

to put it in the lateral flowing through a field of young alfalfa. This 

view was taken on September 20, 1896, of a field under the Larimer 

and Weld Canal, near the town of Lucerne. On the left and in the 

distance are shown stacks of wheat recently cropped from the field. 

PL XIX shows the canvas dam in place turning out water for the irrigation of a wheat field near Greeley. The stream, checked in its flow, 

is forced to find its way into the young grain.

Little has been done in Cache la Poudre Valley in the way of leveling the land preparatory to irrigation. This is necessary only with 

rolling land, and especially where there is but little fall to it. Even 

when the surface is quite uneven, if there is considerable fall, a 

farmer can generally lead the water over the higher spots, while when 

it is nearly level it can be got onto these spots only by diking the 

ditches that run through the field. These dikes within a field are a 

nuisance, and in most cases it is better to level down the humps. 

For this sort of work various kinds of scrapers are used.

If a field is level to start with, it is important to keep it so and 

not create artificial irregularities by cultivation. This is done if 

the plowing is in narrow "lands," the "back" and "dead" furrows 

proving a great annoyance when flooding. To- avoid these the farm 

should be divided into a suitable number of rectangular fields and 

each of these plowed out one year and in the next. The small rise or 

hollow where the corners occur will prove a slight annoyance, but 

the work of alternate years keeps the change of level within narrow 

limits. To not only keep the surface of his farm in good shape but to 

improve it is the care of every intelligent farmer managing an irrigated 

farm. The action of both plow and cultivator, if carefully directed, 

is to improve the level of the surface, and the irrigation of rowed crops 

contributes to the same effect. The loose material in the steeper 

parts of the rows is carried into slight depressions and left there, 

and in a few years these disappear. The perfect potato field is without such depressions, but a surface entirely free from them is rarely 

found. They are less objectionable in a cornfield, as a little flooding 

does it less harm than potatoes, and hence it is advisable to raise a 

few crops of corn at first in such fields, even if the crop is not profitable.

To raise a good crop of potatoes on a steep field requires great pains 

and ingenuity. If the surface is not wavy as well as steep, the rows
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 8 PL. XVIII

IRRIGATING A YOUNG ALFALFA FIELD.

BOYD.] AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE. 75

can be run diagonally across the slope, so as not to give them too 

nrach fall, which will make the bottoms wash away and lower the 

water surface, so that the rows are not moistened underneath. Some 

farmers run the rows directly down a steep slope, and in irrigating let 

a tiny stream trickle down between the rows for a day or two, and 

thus succeed in having the moisture penetrate the rows. To get the 

water to enter so many rows at once requires a very level head-feeding ditch, or the greatest pains and ingenuity in the way of checks to 

effect that end.

In general it may be said that steep, rolling, irregular land is much 

less desirable in a country that is irrigated than in one where it rains, 

and such a farm should be avoided, however rich the soil may naturally be. Still, if the soil is a pretty stiff clay, it may be irrigated 

without tearing it to pieces, even if rather steep; but in this case it is 

next to impossible to spread the water so evenly and thinly that the 

soil can absorb all that is applied, and hence usually a large portion of 

that used runs off into hollows and draws and is lost to the owner.

ALFALFA.

Alfalfa can be raised at a profit for $3 per ton in the stack in the 

iield. The average weight of the crop is variously computed by those 

who make careful estimates at from 3 to 4 tons per acre for the three 

crops, and it costs from II to 11.25 per ton to put up the hay at the 

present reduced price of hands and haying implements. At these 

figures an income of 15 per acre can be safely estimated from land 

put down to alfalfa. Seed costing f 1.-50 will sow an acre. It is now 

usually seeded with the spring-sown grain, and if one does not want 

to plow it under for fertilizing purposes, a stand will last twelve 

years or more.

These figures differ widely from those given in Arizona and the 

Pecos Valley, New Mexico, where crops of 8 tons per annum and 

prices of $10 per ton are claimed. From personal observation the 

alfalfa fields near Phoenix, Arizona, do not show such luxuriance as 

those of Cache la Poudre Valley. In considering the price of alfalfa 

hay the true test is what it is worth to feed on the farm, and not. its 

temporary local price when a country is being opened up. Such is 

the productiveness of this plant that if any considerable area is 

brought into cultivation the local market is soon glutted. Thus the 

only safe basis of price is its feeding value and the probable permanent selling price of the meat produced from feeding it.

By adhering principally to alfalfa raising and stock feeding, it will 

be seen, a fair rental can be expected from land, and $40 per acre 

would be a conservative price for such land. Large tracts of land can 

be handled economically by one management if alfalfa alone is made 

the crop, and hence men who possess farms of considerable size are 

drifting into this crop and find it more profitable in the long run than 

renting in small tracts for mixed husbandry. This latter practice is
76 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

sure to run down a farm in a few years, while alfalfa farming at 

once keeps the land clean and increases its fertility amazingly. The 

best and most profitable farming here is done by men who own a 

moderately large farm and practice a mixed husbandry.

POTATOES.

Potatoes are usually planted after plowing under alfalfa. Two crops 

can then be successfully produced. Some farmers raise the two crops 

in succession, while others raise a wheat crop between. The former 

is the better way, as the land is usually too rich for the wheat if only 

one potato crop is raised. Besides, it often happens that the raising 

of one potato crop does not entirely kill the alfalfa, in which case it 

comes up in the wheat next year and smothers it, making it difficult 

to harvest. Usually the second crop of potatoes is the better, as there 

is likely to be a larger stand than when so much growth of roots and 

stubble are turned under and partly mixed with the soil, since the 

latter dries out rapidly from the free circulation of the air admitted 

by this light material.

The breaking of a well-set alfalfa field is no trifling matter. It 

may be done with three heavy horses, but it is hard work for them, 

and they will not be able to break more than 1 acre a day. The 

writer prefers using five heavy horses three in the lead and two on the 

end of the beam. They can go right along and plow 2 acres a day. 

Alfalfa roots are very large and strong when the plants have attained 

a full growth. They give a jerky motion to the plow and it makes 

hard work for horses' shoulders. A cast-steel plow is used, and the 

share is so tempered that a file can just cut it. It is hammered out 

thin at the blacksmith's shop when it gets too thick to file easily. 

The reason for filing, rather than using the hard, thin edge, as in 

other plowing, is that the edge needs to be rough as well as thin, or 

the roots will slip along the sloping edge of the share and not cut 

well. In breaking, the plowing is done from 6 to 8 inches deep. In 

plowing stubble the practice is to get down about 10 inches.

If water can be had, it is better to irrigate the alfalfa field before 

plowing. It will be dry enough to plant in three days if it has not 

rained meantime. It is usual to harrow down or run over with a 

packer and leveler daily, so as to retain the moisture as much as 

possible.

The planting is now done with an Aspinwall planter, which may be 

regulated to plant from 11 to 23 inches apart. Good seed is indispensable, and is often hard to get. Under our forced cultivation the 

tubers deteriorate rapidly in form and vitality. Often the sprouts, 

when they start in the spring, are no thicker than knitting needles. 

A thin, weakly stand is sure to follow from the use of such seed. 

Seed is shipped in from sections where they are grown by natural 

rainfall. In 1896 a carload was obtained from the divide lying
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL. XIX

IRRIGATING A WHEAT FIELD.

BOYD.] AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE. 77

between Denver and Colorado Springs, a high region where the rainfall exceeds that of the plains, and where it suffices in spots here and 

there to produce- a moderate-sized crop without irrigation. A new 

supply of seed seems to be needed about every three years to keep 

the stock in good shape, but much can be done by careful selection 

of home-grown seed. Storage in a comparatively damp cellar or dugout is now believed to keep up the vitality of the tubers better than 

storage in a very dry cellar. The latter tends to induce dry rot by the 

time the planting is being done, which is from May 15 to about 

June 10.

Early planted potatoes usually do not thrive well in this climate. 

The soil is too hot in July for the tubers, and if an attempt is made 

to keep down the temperature by frequent irrigation, the vines usually 

blight, turning yellow, both stem and leaves getting stiff. It is better 

to delay all irrigation until about the first of August, when the vines 

are beginning to blossom and the small tubers are beginning to form. 

August is much cooler here than July, the nights are longer, and 

there is more light rainfall and cloudy weather, all of which are aids 

to irrigation.

Soon after planting and before the potatoes come through, they are 

cultivated as deep as the ground is plowed with a two-horse cultivator, 

the soil being thrown onto the rows. The cultivator is followed by a 

fine-toothed harrow, nearly leveling its work but destroying all weeds 

and leaving the ground mellow. Two more cultivations are given, 

the last one throwing up the earth around the plants. This cultivation is followed by running through either a large single shovel with 

wings or a lister which makes a clean continuous ditch, but not quite 

down to the depth of the plowing. The top of the ridge is from 10 to 

12 inches above the bottoms of the furrows.

By about August the vines have made a fair growth from the moisture stored in the soil and the light rainfalls. The roots have spread 

beneath the surface in the soil moved by the plow, and many of them 

have penetrated the unmoved soil in search of water. This is a 

healthy and thrifty movement on their part, and they are in a good 

position to utilize the moisture furnished them by irrigation. Water 

is allowed to flow gently between the rows, a larger stream being 

allowed to enter the rows when the land is level, so as to force it 

through, but if steep, it must be allowed to flow long and slowly on 

account of washing, and the irrigations must be repeated oftener. 

On level land two irrigations are usually sufficient, while four are 

none too many where the ground is steep or where it is very porous.

No rules can be given about the frequency of applying water except 

the general one that the soil in the rows should not be allowed to dry 

through and through so as to arrest the growth of the tubers. If this 

happens, then they take a new start when water is again applied and 

throw out knobs and become abnormal in form.
78 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO.9.

The main crop is harvested from October 1 to October 25. Some 

medium early ones are taken up all through September, but these are 

usually too unripe to keep long. The Dawden Digger is mostly used 

(see PL XX). It requires a man and four heavy horses to run it, 

and if kept going ten hours can dig 5 acres. The picking is paid 

for by the sack, which holds about 115 pounds. The price now is 

about 5 cents, which includes sorting and sewing. A sorter is mostly 

used, a horse dragging one along for four pickers, with one man to 

shake it, set off full sacks, and put on empty ones. These will keep 

a man sewing. If the potatoes are good, these six men will pick, sew, 

and sort 250 sacks per day. These on an average can be had from 2-J 

acres if the crop is after alfalfa, but no such average is obtained from 

all the acres planted, even in the best potato district. The most 

experienced and careful men sometimes fail to get even a thrifty 

stand, and as much poor land, or steep and uneven land, is planted, 

the general average from all planted in the valley will not exceed 60 

sacks to the acre.

It takes about two men and a team to haul in and store the 250 

sacks, which are put away in the dugouts on the farms, the sacks 

being laid on their sides and piled up about eight deep. Many sacks, 

however, are disposed of at the various railroad stations, being either 

sold and shipped away or stored at the potato warehouses.

PL XXI is a view of the potato dugout of Mr. H. B. Eaton, in the 

town of Eaton.« It is excavated about 3 feet deep, and earth put on top 

and at sides. Teams drive in and out on a gentle incline. Capacity, 

about 20,000 sacks of 2 bushels each.

To operate such a digging outfit requires 7 horses and 9 men. 

Calling the services of 7 horses equal to 3 men, we have an average 

of 25 sacks per man, or nearly 50 bushels dug, sorted, sacked, sewed, 

and put away in the dugouts.

Sometimes the potatoes are taken up unsorted and stored away in 

bulk in the dugouts. In this case, about a bushel is put in a sack, 

which is neither tied nor sewed but piled onto the wagons and then 

dumped into shoots from the outside. The sorting is then done in 

the winter and spring. The sacks cost about 4^ cents by the thousand.

For the last five or six years the price of potatoes has not exceeded 

75 cents per hundred pounds, while in 1896 it was only 25 cents. They 

are now worth from 50 to 60 cents. The crop in 1896 was short, not 

much more than half that of 1894, because of very dry, hot weather in 

the early part of the season preventing a good, thrifty stand and vigorous growth before irrigation was commenced.

In general it may be said that the crop can be raised at a profit in 

an average year for 50 cents per hundred, sacked and delivered at the 

depot. The outfit of tools, including alfalfa breaking-plow, harrow, 

cultivator, planter, digger, and sorter, costs about $300. The digger 

is a short-lived machine, and needs, on about an average, $10 per 

annum for repairs.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL. XX

VIEW IN A POTATO FiELD NEAR GREELEY.

BOYD.] UNDERGROUND WATERS. 79

In several years after the colony settled here there was a home market, and hence a high price, as the competition was between those 

raised here and those shipped in. But gradually the supply began 

to more than meet the home demand, and shipments had to be 

made into the towns on the Missouri River and into Texas. Here we 

came into competition with potatoes raised in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona, and sometimes Utah and California. Still, compared 

with those localities that do not irrigate, with which we come in competition, we have the advantage in a dry and hence scarce year, when 

the price is high. The size is larger and the quality usually better, 

and therefore we get a higher price in the same market, say by from 10 

to 20 per cent. Hence we are likely to keep on raising large quantities 

of potatoes in this region and at fairly remunerative prices on the 

average. But the days for making large profits have gone.

UNDERGROUND WATERS.

The percolating waters of the valley are of considerable importance, 

although relatively small in quantity compared to the amount flowing 

on the surface. The matter of seepage water has been fully discussed 

by Prof. L. G. Carpenter. 1 There are, however, a number of matters 

in connection with the character of water and the means of bringing 

it to the surface that are of importance not only in this valley, but 

elsewhere.

ALKALINITY OF SEEPAGE WATERS.

Seepage waters are nearly always heavily impregnated with alkaline salts, and storage increases the percentage of these deleterious 

constituents. If a reservoir is only 15 feet deep, there would be during the summer over one-third evaporated. As the salts held in solution do not escape, the water in the reservoir will be far more saline 

than it was when received. If the water stored comes from the river 

near its head and has been but little mixed with the return seepage 

always impregnated with salts or alkali, its storage will not materially injure it for irrigation.

The effect on soil using alkali water exclusively is soon made visible 

by efflorescence on the surface. Hence it is prudent to use stored 

water alternately with that brought direct from the river by the 

canals. Then when the drainage is good it may be expected that 

sufficient quantities of these soluble mineral constituents will pass 

off, leaving the soil comparatively free. The lower, older canals are 

making on this ground objection to exchanging the river water for 

the reservoir water in the manner described on page 60. This is a 

serious question; for alkali is easily developed and with difficulty 

removed, jrhere is practically no way of removing it but by procuring good drainage and applying plenty of fresh water to the surface,

1 Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin, No, 33, Seepage and Beturn Waters from 

Irrigation, by L. G. Carpenter, January, 1896.
80 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

in this way dissolving and carrying off a share of it through the underdrainage. Surface flooding with fresh water will also help, but there 

must be good drainage, natural or artificial, or the land will be rendered too wet to raise a crop.

Little success has been made in reclaiming the wet alkali land in 

Cache la Poudre Valley, the most notable attempt being at the Agricultural College near Fort Collins. Here a swamp, made so by seepage water, has been deeply underdrained with tile, and the land now 

bears good crops. The writer undertook some work of this kind, which 

proved a failure because the tile were not laid deep enough to reach 

the sand or gravel, the chief outlet for the water that percolated 

through the soil. This is about 7 feet from the surface, and to tile 

land at that depth would cost more than the land is worth.

The drainage of the town sites of both Greeley and Fort Collins is 

of interest in this connection. When these towns were settled, there 

was no trouble in getting a dry cellar. After irrigation had been 

going on some three or four years, water commenced to rise in the 

cellars. In some of the lower places i$ showed itself even on the surface. Both towns are underlain with a deep gravel stratum, which it 

was believed would give a perfect drainage. The quantity of water 

applied in irrigating lawns especially, and by the great number of 

small ditches running nine months of the year, was more than the 

gravel could carry away, and so it began to force itself to the surface 

where lowest.

The town of Greeley first laid a deep drain on one side of Main 

street, extending to the river on the east and to the city limits on the 

west. It was put down 3 or 4 feet into the gravel. Sewer tile 18 

inches in diameter was used without cementing the joints. This soon 

reduced the water level in the soil. There was a row of large trees 

along the side of,the street whose rootlets penetrated the joints of the 

pipe and nearly filled it. This was all taken up and a larger pipe (at 

the lower end 2 feet) put in and the joints cemented, except at intervals of 200 feet, where manholes were left to let the water in and at 

which place the roots could be removed as occasion required. One 

cross drain was also put in, and now the drainage is satisfactory.

In the district immediately west of Greeley, and between its western 

boundary and Canal No. 3, water began to rise in the cellars, and about 

September 1, 1895, appeared on the surface a short distance west of 

the end of the town tile drain above described. The cause of this 

was traced to the removal from the bottom of the canal the winter 

before of the accumulated sand for the purpose of making mortar. 

When the water was let into the canal the spring following this 

removal, it was ascertained that several hours were required for the 

moderate volume to pass this disturbed area. The bottom of the canal 

is here a quite coarse gravel, allowing water to go through it like a 

sieve. The water could not be carried off by the drainage of the land
U. 8. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER-SUPPLY PAPER NO. 9 PL. XXI

VIEW IN A POTATO DUGOUT.

BOYD.] UNDERGROUND WATERS. 81

below as fast as it went in. Prof. L. G. Carpenter 1 of the Agricultural College, states that a measurement of the amount of water in the 

ditch was made October 16,1895. The quantity in the canal decreased 

from 25.86 second-feet above the place where the sand was removed to 

20.80 second-feet a little distance below, or a loss of 5.06 second-feet. 

The total distance between the two measurements was about 760 feet. 

The total area of surface was about one-half acre. This would be 

equivalent to the discharge into the area wetted by the canal of the 

quantity covering it to a depth of 21 feet in twenty-four hours.

After the water was turned out of the canal, th.e cellars became dry, 

remaining so during 1896. Two years after the canal was originally 

constructed the same rise of the water in the soil was observed, but it 

disappeared after the sediment had coated over the surface of the 

gravel. The same effects of excessive percolation have been observed 

below canals of this district where the slope is so steep that the bottom 

is kept swept by erosion. When a check is put in, causing sediment 

to gather behind it, the percolation lessens or altogether disappears.

The drainage water of the city of Greeley is mingled with a limited 

quantity of sewage, which enters at the lower end of the discharge 

drain. This is carried across Cache la Poudre Creek in a wooden 

flume and is used for the irrigation of a market garden of about 200 

acres. The quantity is approximately 5 second-feet up to about the end 

of the irrigation season, when it is more abundant. This drain affords 

an indication of the periodical fluctuation of underflow due to a 

change from ample irrigation to cessation. The strip irrigated is 

narrow, the canal not being more than from 1 to 1^ miles from the 

river, and the gravel bed deep and of coarse material.

PUMPING UNDERGROUND WATERS.

Nearly all of the water found in the soil and gravels comes from 

the percolation following irrigation. This is proved by the fact that 

the early wells dug in the valley often penetrated gravels without 

finding any water until the rock was entered. For instance, on the 

farm of the writer, in 1880, when the Larimer and Weld Canal was 

being built, a well was put clown through 25 feet of soil, 25 feet of 

gravel, and 25 feet of shale rock. Here a thin layer of sandstone was' 

found, yielding a small supply of hard, alkaline water. This well 

was about 6 miles north of Greeley, and its bottom was above that of 

the river, due south of it. Along the river bottom, which averages 

about IT niiles wide, water is found about on a level with that in the 

river, the sand and gravel underlying the soil admitting of its easy 

passage to and from the bed of the stream. The dip of the rock 

strata is toward the stream and slightly to the east.

The water in this well did not rise, indicating that there was no

i Seepage or Return Waters from Irrigation, L. &. Carpenter, Bull. 33, Colorado Agricultural 

Experiment Station, January, 1896. pp. 49 and 50. 

IEE 9- 6
82 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

pressure, or that the rock overlying this water-bearing sandstone was 

not impervious or water-tight, which was perhaps also indicated by 

the alkaline constitution of the water. After irrigation had been 

going on for two years, the water began to rise in the well, filling it 

up to the top of the rock and then gradually rising through the 25 

feet of gravel. In five years from the digging of the well, the water 

stood within 25 feet of the surface, where it remains with but scarcely 

perceptible fluctuation. This is an example of what took place 

everywhere on the bench land, varied by the different conditions and 

depths of soil,, grave.l, and rock.

In Lone Tree Valley water was found at the bottom of the underlying heavy gravel bed, and an abundant supply is to be had above 

the Larimer and Weld Canal at a depth of 17 feet. The same condition occurs on Owl Greek, a branch that conies from the northeast. 

At Carrs Station, still farther north, on Lone Tree Creek, the water 

flows out at several places, presumably forced to the surface by the 

bed rock. At this latter point some small ditches furnish water to 

irrigate a few acres. Two wells, one pumped by steam and the other 

by a windmill, supply water for the irrigation of small tracts of land 

lying above the line of the canals.

Lone Tree Creek issues from the foothills at Granite Canyon, Wyoming. Froni there to the point where it ends in the Platte, at the 

mouth of the Poudre, is 75 miles. The watershed or catchment area 

has an extent of 536 square miles. The water found in the wells is 

quite soft, indicating that its origin is near the head of the creek. As 

the soil overlying the gravel is heavy clay, it is probable that but little 

of the rainfall penetrates it to any considerable depth, and is either 

evaporated or runs off from the surface into the bed of the creek. 

The surface run-off is an intermittent flow, but keeps its channel well 

defined.

In striking contrast are the conditions in this valley below the point 

where the Larimer and Weld Canal crosses. A short distance down 

the water flows permanently in the bed of the creek to such an extent 

that three or four small canals are taken from it. This water, unlike 

that usually seeping, is also quite soft, probably for the reason that 

the layer of soil above the gravel is thin, usually about 3 feet, and 

hence can furnish but little alkali to the water that percolates through 

it. The canttl above is doubtless the principal source of the added 

underground water, since the bottom of its excavation must be near 

if not at the top of the gravel.

Two extensive pumping plants belonging to Andrew Wilson are 

located in Lone Tree Valley. The first is about 5 miles below the 

crossing of the Larimer and Weld Canal and 150 feet away from the 

creek channel. The depth to water here was 8 feet, and the well, 

12 by 12 feet wide, was put into the water 10 feet. The well is cased 

with 2-inch plank, and was dug by machinery operated by a steam 

engine. The cost of well and two pulsoineter steam pumps was $1,200.
BOYD.] UNDERGROUND WATERS. 83

The pumps raised a flow that, passing over a weir 2 feet wide, measured 5 inches deep. From this well in one year there were irrigated 

240 acres, one-half in wheat, the other in potatoes. It took about 1 

ton of coal per twelve hours, which cost at the Eaton mines, 2 miles 

distant, $1.50 per ton. The pump was operated night and day for 

about thirty days each season. This plant was erected in 1888, and 

the pulsometer pump was replaced in 1893 by one centrifugal pump 

operated by an engine, each costing $400. This is an improvement 

on the two pulsometers.

In 1892 Mr. Wilson put in another pumping plant, much more 

extensive, 2 miles farther up the creek. The well was put in a bend 

of the creek 93 feet from its bed. It is 12 feet by 12 feet wide and 27 

feet in depth. Water here was found within 3 feet of the surface. 

The well cost $800, and the pump, engine, and boiler $1,700 more. 

The boiler is 60-horsepower, engine 35-horsepower. This pump, 

when operated constantly, can lower the water in the well 18 feet, 

leaving 6 feet still in the bottom. The pump is centrifugal and can 

in forty-five days raise enough water to irrigate 320 acres. It requires 

about 2 tons of coal a day. The coal is obtained at the same price 

and distance as in the first case. The owner considers this much 

cheaper than the purchase of rights in the Larimer and Weld Canal, 

in which, if obtainable, the cost is $2,000 per 80-acre water right from 

the canal and $800 per right for reservoir water, making an investment for water for the 320 acres of 111,200, as against $2,500 for the 

pumping plant. The expense of operation is considerably more, but 

not enough to equal the interest on the difference of capital invested.

The privilege of pumping water from his own land has not been 

continuously enjoyed by the owner. In the summer of 1895 he was 

restrained from pumping at the instance of parties who are diverting 

water from Lone Tree Creek below his plant. His pumps were 

stopped by the order of the district court about the middle of the 

irrigation season. He had already been through the courts in connection with his lower plant, and the case had been decided in his 

favor in the court of appeals at the spring term of 1893. This legal 

controversy is of general interest to those engaged in irrigation in 

the arid regions.

The district court in the first case instructed the jury as a matter 

of law "that water which percolates through the soil, without an evident and well-known channel, is regarded as a part of the land and 

belongs to the owner thereof, and he may make such use of the 

water as he sees fit while it remains on or under his land; second, 

that digging wells close to a stream, so that the waters of the stream 

necessarily percolates into such wells, thus diminishing the water 

previously appropriated, is but doing indirectly what the law forbids 

being done directly, and will not be allowed."

The verdict was for the defendant, because the evidence did not 

appear to the jury to prove that the pumping lessened the flow in
84 IRRIGATION NEAR GREELEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

Lone Tree Creek. The court of appeals sustained the verdict 

"because the evidence was so vague, conflicting, and indefinite." 

But the court criticises the first instruction to the jury cited above in 

this fashion:

It is probably safe to say that it is matter of no moment whether water reaches 

a certain point by percolation through the soil by a subterranean channel or by a 

surface channel. If by any of these natural methods it reaches the point and is 

there appropriated in accordance with law, the appropriator has a property in it 

of which he can not be divested by the wrongful diversion of another, nor can 

there be allowed any substantial diminution. To hold otherwise would be to 

concede to superior owners of land the right to all the sources of supply that go 

to create a stream, regardless of the rights of those who previously acquired the 

right to the use of water from the stream below. Strictly and technically, the 

instruction should not have been given. There were no facts in evidence upon 

which it could properly be based. But in view of the fact that nearly all the 

evidence was directed to the question of whether the water supply was diminished 

by the acts of the defendants, the finding of the jury that it was not renders the 

instruction harmless. The other instruction (No. 2>given by the court appears 

to embrace and clearly state all the law of the case.

The ditch owners apparently made two claims, one for the water 

visibly flowing in the channel of the stream and one for a part of the 

water in the gravel below, which they affirmed they had forced up by 

means of a dam sunk in the bed of the channel at the head of their 

ditch. The testimony went to show that the pumping did not reduce 

the visible supply, and it was not proved how much the invisible supply was affected. From the nature of the situation it can be seen 

that 110 temporary shallow dam could raise and force the subterranean 

water into the head of the ditch, which was about 6 feet above the 

water table.

The valley at this place is 2 miles wide, and the depth of the underlying gravel is about 30 feet. Even if a comparatively wide dam 

were put into the creek down to bed rock it could not force the water 

table to rise except to a very limited extent and not to approach the 

height necessary to enter the head of the ditch. The water after 

being elevated a few inches behind the dam would undoubtedly move 

around its flanks in the surrounding gravel. In regard to this aspect 

of the question the court said:

In the case of a running surface stream the question of appropriation is of easy 

solution; but not so in a sunken stream, particularly where the water is at an 

indefinite distance below the surface. Under such circumstances it becomes at 

once apparent that to appropriate and utilize the water an impervious dam must 

be constructed and carried down to an impervious base to stop and retain the 

subterranean water and raise it to the ditch. Whenever such adequate provision 

is made, any act diminishing the quantity that would naturally reach the dam and 

add to the supply up to the limit of appropriation, whether by diversion upon the 

surface, the sinking of wells, and using pumps or otherwise, would be actionable. * * * It is in evidence that the plaintiff had constructed a dam across 

the stream to supply his ditch, but there is nothing in regard to the character of 

the dam. * * * The efficiency of the dam to stop, retain, and apply the sunken 

water should have been shown, for if the water found and taken by defendants
BOYD.] UNDERGROUND WATERS. 85

by sinking wells and pumping would, in its natural course, have passed under the 

dam [and he might have said around it] the available supply could not have been 

materially diminished.

The second case involved both wells, but has more pertinence to the 

upper one, which is much deeper and placed in a bend of the creek 

where the water was near the surface. In this case it was shown that 

the pumping decreased the visible supply in the creek above the heads 

of the ditches.

On hearing the question of making permanent the temporary injunction which he had granted, Judge Jay.H. Bouton, of the district court, 

said: 1

This is a case of great importance to all parties interested, and has been commenced at a very critical season of the year, and that is the reason why I thought 

it should be determined on its merits now. To my mind there is but one question of 

importance in this case, and that is as to whether the defendant, by the construction 

of these wells in Lone Tree Creek or its valley and the pumping of water therefrom, 

has diminished the flow in Lone Tree Creek so as to deprive plaintiffs of water to 

which they were justly entitled under their decrees as entered in this district; and 

perhaps preliminary to that is the question as to whether it is a well-defined 

stream, the water therein flowing in a clearly marked channel, either regularly or 

intermittently, from which the plaintiffs were entitled to their decrees of priorities. I am clearly satisfied from the evidence that both of these propositions must 

be answered in the affirmative. The testimony introduced on behalf of the defendant, standing alone, sufficiently establishes the fact that there was a considerable 

diminution in the volume of water running in Lone Tree Creek after the defendant's pumps were operated, produced evidently by sinking and pumping of water 

to irrigate his land. If that is true, then he has no more right to sink these wells 

below the level of the ground, or below the surface of the stream, and thus pump 

from the stream than he would have to take it directly from the bank [bed] of 

the stream for the same purpose by means of the construction of ditches. Of this 

proposition I have no doubt whatever. The motion to dissolve the injunction 

heretofore granted is denied.

It has been held by the court that if, as the result of pumping on 

one's own land, it can be proved that a surface stream is diminished 

to the detriment of one who has a prior right to the use of the water, 

it will not be allowed, no matter how the stream is fed that is, whether 

it derives its water in part from percolation from the estate of the one 

employing the pumping plant or not. This reverses the doctrine that 

water mingled in the soil below the surface is part of the estate 

the fluid substance being as much a part of the soil as the solid portion. In this case the true derivation of the water is not hard to 

trace. It is due both to the water flowing at the bottom of the gravel 

which underlies the valley and to the percolation from the Larimer 

and Weld Canal and the lands irrigated therefrom, and not to rainfall on the lands of the immediate vicinity. In consequence of this 

ruling there must be a great loss to this valley of water for irrigation. 

The quantity secured by ditches is insignificant compared with what 

could be pumped. The bed of the creek is nearly on a level with the 

top of the gravel bed, and hence can receive into its channel but a

1 Third Colorado Court of Appeals, 430, and 33 Pacific Reports, 880.
86 IRRIGATION NEAR GREKLEY, COLORADO. [NO. 9.

very small portion of the underground water that is slowly moving 

along to ultimately make its appearance in the bed of Platte River. 

Beginning in 1888 there was considerable activity in erecting pumping plants. A building ^as put up to manufacture what were 

known as the Huffer pump and the Nye pump. These, after-trial, 

have been cast aside for the reason that the pumps did little work 

for the fuel consumed. They were simple in construction, and hence 

cheap, but they were of primitive design, dating back to the infancy 

of the application of steam to mechanical purposes. The Swan hotair pump, devised by one of the* men prominent in promoting pumping and the manufacture of the pumps above referred to, is perhaps 

as economical as any in the market. One of these has been erected 

on the banks of Cache la Poudre Creek, near Greeley, pumping out 

of the river for the irrigation of adjacent lands of H. E. Churchill. 

This was asserted to have a capacity of 1,000 gallons a minute, or 

about 2-J second-feet. The boiler was so constructed that it could 

burn coal slack, which cost about $2 a ton laid down, about a ton a 

day being required. Under usual conditions it probably lifted steadily 

1| cubic feet per second to a height of 15 feet. It was used three 

years, but was discontinued in 1896, the reason being given that the 

land cultivated was of poor quality and did not pay expenses, the 

price of produce being so low. Another of these pumps, raising water 

30 feet, was used by J. D. Miller on his farm in connection with canal 

water when the latter was scarce.

ARTESIAN WATER.

As the lowest part of the valley that at Greeley is in the Fox Hills 

formation, there is little hope of striking the Dakota at moderate 

depths if the Cretaceous formation here is as thick as reported. R. C. 

Hills gives the average thickness of the beds lying between the Laramie and the Dakota at 3,500 feet. The latter sandstone outcrops 

behind the hogbacks near Fort Collins.

In spite of discouragements a project was started in 1883 to put 

down an artesian well in Greeley. Swan Bros, took a contract for 

drilling 800 feet. Blue shale was struck at 40 feet. No water was 

found at 800 feet that would overflow, and the work was prosecuted 

to 1,150 feet, when a fine bluish-gray sandstone was struck. The flow 

was quite weak, and it was decided to go farther to see if a better 

flow could be obtained. A depth of 2,300 feet was reached and no 

other flowing water was found.

Six others have been put down to this 1,150-foot water, all of which 

gave a weak flow until pumping was commenced in one, when the 

water ceased to flow in all the others. The water rises to within 40 

feet of the surface. The cost of these wells to the depth of 1,150 feet 

is about $2,500. The water is distributed by pipes to the different 

parties that have put down the wells, and is highly valued for washing purposes. It is not hard, but contains matter distasteful to most
BOYD.] UNDERGROUND WATERS. 87

people. It was once regarded as medicinal in its properties, but now 

seems to have lost this reputation. The stratum of sandstone from 

which the water conies is about 25 feet in thickness, and on account 

of its fineness and hardness yields but a small flow.

Both in Greeley and in the country around it wells have lately been 

sunk into rocks believed to be of the Fox Hills formation. Soft water 

has been obtained, which, however, in no case rises to the surface. 

In Greeley the rock furnishing this water is struck at from 75 to 90 

feet, and the water rises to within some 40 feet of the surface.

About 8 miles north of Greeley and 1 mile north of the town of 

Eaton an experimental well was put down by B. H. Eaton. The following account was obtained from the contractor, Dr. Swan: Above 

bed rock were 85 feet of soil and gravel. At 250 feet open, porous 

sand rock was found 30 feet thick, and in it a great abundance of soft 

water which rose to within 28 feet of the surface. At 450 feet a similar formation was found and the water rose to the same level. After 

this were shales and sandstones to 625 feet, but no overflow. At 

625 feet blue limestone, 6 feet thick, was struck. The work was continued to 970 feet, but with no more sandstone nor water.

On the farm of the writer, about 3 miles south of the above, a well 

was put down in 1894 to a depth of 265 feet. Of this 55 feet were in 

soil and gravel to bed rock, the gravel being full of water to the.top. 

Next below was a thin shale with coal indications; then a deep layer 

of sandstone, 80 feet thick, with plenty of hard water; then 40 feet 

of shale, underlain by 30 feet of sandstone, containing water, also 

hard; then 20 feet more of shale, when the sandstone was struck, 

which now yields the supply pumped from the well. The sand rock 

is very hard and close grained, and yields a small supply. The water 

conies to within 70 feet of the surface, but settles rapidly when 

pumped. There is 170 feet of 6-inch iron piping in the well. The 

total cost, pump and all, was about 1500. Half a mile southeast of 

this well another was put down in which an abundance of soft water 

was found at the depth of 190 feet.

About twenty wells have been put down around the above two 

named within a radius of 3 miles. They vary so much in depth and 

in quality of water in the different sands as to lead to the inference 

that this country is much broken by faults and that at places the 

seepage water from the surface gets into the sandstone. In all the 

cases so far fairly soft and good drinking water is found in some of 

the sandstone strata and at a moderate depth, but the pressure in no 

instance is sufficient to make the water overflow, although it rises to 

varying depths from the surface.

These wells cost from 1200 to $500 each, but furnish the best of 

drinking water, and have much improved the health of the localities 

where they are situated, especially in immunity from typhoid fever, the 

most fatal disease of this region. None of these deep wells have been 

put down more than 2 miles west of a line joining Eaton and Greeley.
INDEX.

Agricultural College, experiment at..... 80

Agriculture, practice of ............. . 72-79

Alfalfa, cultivation of..................... 75-76

Alkalinity of seepage water... .. 79 

Bouton, Judge Jay H., decision of.... 85

Boxelder, annual rainfall at-..-....-..... 14

Boyd and Freeman Ditch, excessive rating of.................................... 48

Cache la Poudre, significance of name.... 12

Cache la Poudre Basin, rainfall within.. _ 13-15

Cache la Poudre Canal, construction of. _ 29-33

duty of water under................... 33

cost of water rights under............ 32

size of farms under...-. ............ 73

Cache la Pondre Creek, measurements

ot......................................... 16-37

establishment of gaging stations on. _ 17 

diagram showing daily discharge of.. 18 

tables of daily mean discharge of..... 19-36

mean monthly discharge of... .... 27

. appropriations from................... 43-48

enlargements of canals under._.---.. 48 

extravagant claims to water of.... _ 49-50

conservation of water supply of..... 50-51

area of mountain watershed of.. 53 

winter discharge of... ........._ 53

return underflow from............ _. 54

water available for storage from..... 54-55

slope of.-....---.....- ... ........ 66

Cache laPondre district, hydrography of. 10-13 

area irrigated in 1892 in.-......-.._ 53

amount of water taken in 1894 from 

canals in ....,-....--...... ....... 54

Cache la Poudre Reservoir, map of....... 30

legal rights of.-..-......--...._...... 31

construction of .--..-....... ...._. 33-35

costof construction of,'-.. ---..._ 33 

description of........-...--.-.--------. 33-34

water gates of......................... 33-34

water claims of...........-...__..-...- 55

Cache la Poudre Valley, map of.......... 12

settlement in .. . ,...... .... 37

crop statistics of._....___...._ 51-53

reclamation of wet alkali land in..... 80

geologic formations of..--.-....--.... 86-87

Canals, construction and operation of.... 66-73

slopes of .......____..___......._ 66-67

costof maintenance of---........._. 73

Canvas dam's, form of..__..._...._ 74

Carpenter,L.G-.,work of.__..__..__ 18,19 

computations of duty of water by... 33 

cited ............................. 54,70,79,81

Chambers Lake Reservoir, destruction of 

dam of.. ........................_ 41-43

Page.

Cheyenne, Wyoming, annual rainfall at. 14 

Colorado, map of water divisions and districts Of-.....--.-.---...-----.-.......... 11

annual rainfall at stations in.._ _. 14 

mean monthly precipitation at stations in.--------- .-..-.-. ...... 16

origin of irrigation system of---...... 61

irrigation districts of.................. 63-63

Colorado current meter, use of ........... 17

Dams of cauvas, form of ..._ .._...... 74

Du ty of water...... _-_-....-.--..-.....-... 32

Eaton, B H.,data furnished by.-..._.._., 40 

potato dugout of... ._._...._ 78

Fort Collins, annual rainfall at __....... 14

drainage of--....--_ .--..-..... ...... 80

Gaging stations on Cache la Poudre 

Creek, establishment of......._..._ 17

Q-reeley, Horace, colonization plan of.... 37

G-reeley, Colorado, annual rainfall at _.. - 14 

settlement of ............. ... .... 37

construction of ditches in ._ .... 27-38

map of canals near..--..---.... 38 

drainage of ....--...,... .--..,.... 80

Greene, J. S., work of.................... 16-17

Hills, R. C., cited. - .- - - . 86 

Irrigation, cost of .......... ... ..._ 71-73

preparation of land for..,....._.._... 74

Irrigation convention of 1878, account of. 61-83 

Lake Lee, storage of water in. ........ 39

distribution of water from ........... 39

Land, Gordon, water gates of Cache la 

Poiidre Reservoir, devised by --....._ 33

Larimer and Weld Canal, construction of. 35 

capacity of....__-.-. . -.-........ 35-36

Larimer and Weld Reservoir, cost of 

constmction of.......-...,. ........ 36

description of... .......... .--..-.. 36-37

litigation concerning..._.__ ..._ 37-39 

water claims of.. .. ........ 55

Larimer County canals, water supply and 

reservoirs of.- .._.------.------.... 41

costof .... .......................... 71

Larimer County Canal reservoirs, water 

claims of... ...... ... .. 55

Laterals,construction of....... .. 69

Linden Flouring Mills, water claims of_. 30-31 

Livermore, annual rainfall at......... 14

Lone Tree Valley, water conditions in... 83 

Loveland, annual rainfall at 14 

Meeker, N. C., irrigation colony of.. 87 

Newell, F. H., letter of transmittal by... 7 

introduction by--....-. . . ,r 9-37

North Poudre Canal, diversion dam of... 58 

cost of.. . - - .- 59
90 INDEX.

North Poudre Canal, vertical section of 

drop on..-...... --- --. -- .---_ 59

North Poudre reservoirs, capacity of ... 58 

outlets of... _ --.....-..-..---......... 59

Percolation from reservoirs, amount 

of. - -- -- ------.--- --. 55

Platte division, area irrigated in 1892. __ 53

Potatoes, cultivation of . -.......... _...... 76-79

Rainfall, stations for measurement of-_ 13-14 

at stations in Colorado, amount of. _. _ 14 

at Cheyenne, Wyoming, diagram 

showing--.--------.--..-.--.......-.. 14

seasonal distribution ot............... 15

Reservoirs, amount of percolation from.. 55 

capacity of-_-_-.._____--__.___....__-__ 56

construction and use of -..---......_.. 56-59

geologic character of-.-..-.-.......... 56

immediate irrigation rights under... _ 57

Seepage water, measurements of......... 54

alkalinity of........................... 79

Sky Line Ditch, construction and capacity of..-.-........-..-....- ........_--. 43-43

system of water exchanges of.--. . 43

South Platte River, average winter discharge of tributaries of ... ...__ 53

Page.

Superintendents of irrigation, law providingfor.- - -.............. _..___. 6+

Telephone, control of irrigation by .__._. 68-69

Ulrich, J. C., model flumes built by _--.-.. 59

Union Colony, formation of........__-. _ 27

canals and reservoirs constructed by - S3

Water, duty of-._........................ 33

extravagant claims to.. ..-.- --_.__ 49-50

amount used. ----------------------- 53-54

measurements of seepage of. .. __._ 54

exchanges of ........................... 60

legislative and judicial control of.. 60-61

methods of measuring and dividing.. 69-71

plan of device for dividing..._.-____._ 70

methods of applying................... 73-75

Waters, seepage, alkalinity of......... 79

underground, importance of.......... 79-87

Water commissioners, duties of ---------- 64

Water districts, division of Colorado into. 63-63

Water supply, conservation of-.--....... 50-51

Wells, artesian .......................... 86-87

surface.................................. 81-86

litigation relating to.... ~ ------------- 83-85

Wilson, Andrew, pumping plants of----. 83-83

Windsor Reservoir, description of_-. . 40-41
1895.

Sixteenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1894-95, Part II, 

Papers of an economic character, 1895, octavo, 598 pp.

Contains a paper on the public lands and their water supply, by F. H. Newell, illustrated 

by a large map showing the relative extent and location of the vacant public lands; also a 

report on the water resources of a portion of the Great Plains, by Robert Hay.

A geological reconnoissance of northwestern Wyoming, by George H. Eldridge, 

1894, octavo, 73 pp. Bulletin No. 119 of the United States Geological Survey; 

price, 10 cents.

Contains a d_escriptiqn of the geologic structure of portions of the Big Horn Eange and 

Big Horn Basin, especially with reference to the coal fields, and remarks upon the water 

supply and agricultural possibilities.

Report of progress of the division of hydrography for the calendar year 1893-94, 

by F. H. Newell, 1895, octavo, 176 pp. Bulletin No. 131 of the United States 

Geological Survey; price, 15 cents.

Contains results of stream measurements at various points, mainly within the arid region, 

and records of wells in a number of counties in western Nebraska, western Kansas, and 

eastern Colorado.

1896.

Seventeenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1895-96, Part 

II, Economic geology and hydrography, 1896, octavo, 864 pp.

Contains papers by G. K. Gilbert on the underground water of the Arkansas Valley in 

eastern Colorado; by Frank Leverett on the water resources of Illinois; and by N. H. Darton on a reconnoissance of the artesian areas of a portion of the Dakotas.

Artesian-well prospects in the Atlantic Coastal Plain region, by N. H. Darton, 

1896, octavo, 230 pp., 19 plates. Bulletin No. 138 of the United States Geological Survey; price, 20 cents.

Gives a description of the_ geologic conditions of the coastal region from Long Island, 

N. Y., to Georgia, and contains data relating to many of the deep wells.

Report of progress of the division of hydrography for the calendar year 1895, by 

F. H. Newell, hydrographer in charge, 1896, octavo, 356 pp. Bulletin No. 140 

of the United States Geological Survey; price, 25 cents.

Contains a description of the instruments and methods employed in measuring streams 

and the results of hydrographic investigations in various parts of the United States,

1897.

Eighteenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1896-97, Part 

IV, Hydrography, 1897, octavo, pp. (In preparation.)

Contains a progress report of stream measurements for the year 1896, by Arthur P. Davis, 

and four other papers relating to hydrography. The first of these is by Frank Leverett, 

and relates to the water resources of Ohio and Indiana, especially as obtained by wells; the 

next is by N. H. Darton, on the artesian waters of South Dakota, being supplementary to 

his paper in the Seventeenth Annual; following this is a fully illustrated paper, by James 

D. Schuyler, on water storage, mainly for irrigation and the construction of dams; the last 

pap_er, by Robert T. Hill, describes the artesian conditions of a portion of Texas in the 

vicinity of San Antonio.

Water Supply and Irrigation Papers.

This series of papers is designed to present in pamphlet form the results of stream measurements and of special investigations. A list of these, with other information, is given on 

the outside (or fourth) page of this cover.

Survey bulletins can be obtained only by prepayment of cost as noted above. 

Postage stamps, checks, and drafts can not be accepted. Money should be transmitted by postal money order or express order, made payable to the Director of 

the United States Geological Survey. Correspondence relating to the publications 

of the Survey should be addressed to The Director, United States Geological 

Survey, Washington, D. C.
WATER-STIFFLY AND IRRIGATION PAPERS.

1. Pumping water for irrigation, by Herbert M. Wilson, 1896.

2. Irrigation near Phoenix, Arizona, by Arthur P. Davis, 1897.

3. Sewage irrigation, by George W. Rafter, 1897.

4. A reconnoissance in southeastern Washington, by Israel C. Russell, 1897.

5. Irrigation practice on the Great Plains, by E. B. Cowgill, 1897.

6. Underground waters of southwestern Kansas, by Erasmus Haworth, 1897.

7. Seepage waters of northern Utah, by Samuel Fortier.

8. Windmills for irrigation, by E. C. Murphy.

9. Irrigation near Greeley, Colorado, by David Boyd.

10. Irrigation in Mesilla Valley, New Mexico, by F. O. Barker.

11. River heights for 1896, by Arthur P. Davis. 

In preparation:

12. Water resources of southeastern Nebraska, by Nelson Horatio Darton.

In addition to the above, there are in various stages of preparation other papers 

relating to the measurement of streams, the storage of water, the amount available 

from underground sources, the efficiency of windmills, the cost of pumping, and 

other details relating to the methods of utilizing the water resources of the country. Provision has been made for printing these by the following clause in the 

sundry civil act making appropriations for the year 1896-97:

Provided, That hereafter the reports of the Geological Survey in relation to the 

gauging of streams and to the methods of utilizing the water resources may he 

printed in octavo form, not to exceed 100 pages in length and 5.000 copies in number; 1,000 copies of which shall be for the official use of the Geological Survey, 

1,500 copies shall be delivered to the Senate, and 2,500 copies shall be delivered to 

the House of Representatives, for distribution. (Approved, June 11,1898; Stat. L., 

vol. 29, p. 453.)

The maximum number of copies available for the use of the Geological Survey 

is 1,000. This quantity falls far short of the demand, so that it is impossible to 

supply all requests. Attempts are made to send these pamphlets to persons who 

have rendered assistance in their preparation through replies to schedules or donation of data. Requests specifying a certain paper and stating a reason for asking 

for it are attended to whenever practicable, but it is impossible to comply with 

general demands, such as to have all of the series sent indiscriminately.

Application for these papers should be made either to Members of Congress or to 

THE DIRECTOR,

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,

Washington, D. C.