1 H E llltilGA 770 .V A G E. 



373 



that it lays adjoining a large body of arid government land, most of 

 which is subject to homestead entry and is now being taken up very 

 rapidly by parties who readily agree to the clause of the new bill, 

 which requires them to take water from the Government and pay for 

 it in ten annual payments. It also covers a large body of deeded arid 

 lands, many of the owners of which have already signed an obligation 

 to take water from the government under the terms of the bill and 

 others up to 100,000 acres will have signed similar obligations within 

 the next thirty days. 



The area to be watered will be oue of the richest in the State. 

 Besides the vast new territory to be thus acquired for agriculture, it 

 will become a perpetual source of reinforcement to ihe irrigation 

 system now in operation in this greatly favored valley. The country 

 is generally level and easily accessible to water, and the combined 

 facilities of government reservoir and the lesser works of a similar 

 nature now in operation will add. nearly 1,000,000 acres of fertile agri- 

 cultural land to the wealth of Colorado. Pending the construction of 

 the great reservoir, the irrigation system as now established in the 

 valley is ample for all newcomers, and all the greater will be the ad- 

 vantages of those earliest on tue grounds. 



Chief Hydrographer Newell and party standing on oneof the fawnec rocky buties and lookinf 

 across the outlet to the rocky buttes on the other side. 



