27 



decreed them. The combined cai)acity of these ditches as measured 

 was 548.J)T cubic feet per second, whik^ thev were decreed ri<dits to 

 1,358.1)5 cul)ic feet per second. Tlie total amount of the rijrhts as 

 finally established by the decree probably bears about the same pro- 

 portion to the total amount of water which the ditches could carry. 



District 23 is the highest district on the South Platte River. 

 Rights in this district are theoretically subject to prior rights in all 

 the lower districts on the river — districts 8, 2, 1, and (54 — but so far 

 no attempt to close down these ditches has been made, owing in part 

 to the belief that the water is used very largely on hay lands close to 

 the river and returns so quickly to the river that its use has little 

 effect on the flow, and in part to the opposition on the part of the 

 holders to any regulation by the State officials. The table which 

 follows shows the total amount of the rights acquired in each year 

 and the sum of the rights antedating these in the lower districts to 

 which rights in district 23 are theoretically subject : 



Rif/lits to tcutcr in district JS and prior rii/lits in lo'irrr district-'^. 



The total amount of the rights in this district is 4,319.08 cubic feet 

 per second decreed to 219 ditches. Xo records of the flow of the 

 streams supplying this district or of the diversions made in the dis- 

 trict have been kept. The total area irrigated, as reported by the 

 Avater commissioner for 1903, was 67,213 acres, or about K) acres per 

 cubic foot per second of the amount decreed. 



Dhtrict 5.— District 8 includes the section of the South l*latte 

 Iliver between the mouth of Platte Canyon and the mouth of Clear 

 Creek and the tributaries of the Platte in this section. The first 

 decree in this district was rendered in 1883 and governs the rights of 

 all ditches which take water from the South Platte River itself. 

 A later adjudication took place in 1890, by which a few ditches with 



