WHAT HAS BEEN DONE IN COLORADO. 167 



way, before considering the possibilities of the future. The 

 actual history of irrigation in the United States begins with 

 the occupation of Utah by the Mormons in 1846. At that 

 time the territory was a waste of barren land and sage brush. 

 In 1868, twenty two years after the first settlement of Salt 

 Lake valley, 93,799 acres of land were under irrigation 

 at an expense of nearly $250,000, and works were in 

 course of construction which, when completed, would 

 greatly enlarge the area of land under cultivation. With 

 the exception of the continuance of some of the irrigation 

 works constructed by the Spaniards in Texas, New 

 Mexico, and California, a hundred and fifty years ago, 

 and which have been in use up to the time when the ter- 

 ritory came into the possession of the United States, but 

 little was done in the way of irrigation, until the occupa- 

 tion of Colorado and the adjacent territories, when these 

 were rendered accessible by the opening of the Pacific 

 railroads. In the course of a few years a great impetus 

 was given to the settlement of lands adjacent to the 

 rivers, and which could be brought under irrigation, and 

 several extensive works were constructed. Amongst these 

 may be mentioned the Platte River canal, 24 miles long, 

 irrigating 50,000 acres of land, and supplying the city of 

 Denver. Originally, the canal was 10 feet wide and 2 

 feet deep at the head, but has been enlarged to 18 feet in 

 width and 3 feet in depth. The fall is irregular, varying 

 from 6 feet to 18 inches per mile. The cost was $100,000; 

 a very excessive amount, but probably unavoidably so on 

 account of its unscientific and wasteful mode of con- 

 struction. 



The Table Mountain Ditch Company Canal, near Gol- 

 den City, is nearly 20 miles long ; 12 to 15 feet wide at 

 the surface, and 6 feet at the bottom, and 2 feet deep. 

 The fall is 19 feet to the mile, in portions, and in con- 

 sequence of this excessive slope the ditch is destroying 

 itself very rapidly. A branch is 2 1 | a miles long. The 



