Rocky Ford enterprise. (Rocky Ford, Colo.) 1887-1950, 1901-03-16

lnElN brOusht Oht III builctth No c-'
office OF experiment stations, Irrigation
Investigations. soon 10 b- issued 10y
th. Department NJ Agriculture. emit
tied THE Reservoir System OF the
Cache la poutir- Valley" II was pre-,
supervision OF Eiwooi Mead, expert
In charge OF irrigation Investigations.
This bulletin describes the cach. In
Poudre valley ia Colorado: traces III.
history OF its development; discuss.,
the water supply and methods Of irrl-
cation praeticesi: describes In detail
the various storage reservoirs which
have been constructed in III. valley
and points out lessons taught by eS-
p-ricnc- therc.
THE average How OF the Cache In
Poudr- river for III. month OF July
for fifteen years Inns b,~n $40 cubic
feet per second. tn. duty OF water as.
sunicd In wat.r-right contracts In this
section II eighty ncn.s To LII cubic
feet per second. or iifty.iiv. ncnc- par
cubic foot per second. On this basis
the average How for July will irrisn,.
jG.asS acres. The Investigations OF
the duty Of water. made last year I'M
der the direction OF the Office Of cs'
pertinent stations. show that In the To-
dItions rs this valley the average
depth OF water applied to the land ir.
ri.nicd IL about Rs feet: that II. the
water entering the head sni.s OF the
canal when. measurements w-rc made
would cover the ARA irrigated under
shc-. canals To that depth. providing
IL NIL reached the land. Assuming that
IN" length OF the irrigation season In
the Cache Ia fouir- valley Is four
months. and that the average How OF
the river for July IL the av-rug. for
the four months. the natural How OF
the stream would cover To that depth
G:oi5 ncr.s. i,ut the AREA actually ir-
riEn,.d 10y canals from this stream II
nj least 10000 acres.
THE profitable cultivation OF this
area Il made possible largely by the
system OF reservoirs and the exchange
OF water which has brcn developed In
this valley. Ten years only have been
required to build M the most COM
pic,c system OF storage In the United
States. This has not been accom-.
piIshcd by large expenditure OF
money. nor because OF unusually In.
vorablc locations for reservoirs. nor
was Il wholly by accident that the
people Of this valley took up this line
OF Irrigation development: conditions
forced them 10 II. They did not walt
for the people OF some other locality to
demonstrate their prncticnbllity and
financial success. While this system
Is 10y no means completed. the owners
hav. already rcapcd much larger re-
wards for their labors than they cS-
pcctcd. reaching into the millions OF
dollars.
Although the necessity for storage
reservoirs and their utility and ben
ciits are generally recognized. but few
people outside OF northern Colorado
are aware OF what has been accom-
plished In that locality by the utiliza-
ton OF small things or OF the ingenu-
ity displayed In making the most OF
them. There are other localities. not
only In Colorado. but In nearly every
one of the arid states. where the work
OF these people can he followed with
beneficial results"
The report contains n table which
gives the value OF the crop due To the
stored water In the Cache Ia Poudrc
valley during the years 1897 to 1900.
inclusive. as S3.OG3.OS3. Discussing
this subject. the report says:
THE cost OF the reservoirs has been
given MS S3iI.0Oo. The figures In the
table show, then. for the four years
nm annual profit Of 222 per cent. This.
however, Is not fair statement of
the case. If there We're no reservoirs
the land would not have been planted
to potatoes, and would probably have
produced n good crop of grain or two
crops of alfalfa, Ms these can almost
always he matured with the natural
flow Of the river. What should be
Narrowing Alfalfa.
1t is possible that we have not
mcnt OF alfalfa. We print the follow
ing as the experience of Il Kansas
grower: I'VE put some hogs on II
field of alfalfa. and three years after
there was hardly any alfalfa left on
the ground. We concluded that the
alfalfa was so poor that it would he
useless to try hog experiments on ii
any more unless something was done
TO make II grow. We took n disk har-
row and diskcd the land. with the re-
suit that most of the alfalfa was de
strOyed. We repeated the dose. That
summer we cut three good crops of
hay from the field. Wherever the al
falfa root Is split IL throws up new
stalks. Since then we have been disk
ing each and every year. Last year
we struck something new All our
alfalfa was diskcd and cross-diskcd
in the early spring. We had an eX-
cccdingly dry season all through the
summer but from our field of alfalfa
we got four good crops. AS soon as
the first load of hny was off We liSkpl