

THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



173 



given them, and they sold the surplus to canal compa- 

 nies which needed it. Transfers of this kind did not, 

 however, increase the irrigated acreage; it simply took 

 the water away from one farmer and gave it to an- 

 other. In some instances these transfers of priorities 

 robbed orchards that were twenty years old and wa- 

 tered cactus fields which had never been fenced. 



When the water commissioner was called to recog- 

 nize the first of these transfers there was a riot. Men 

 knew that many of the appropriations were excessive, 

 but believed that they were confined to the ditches 

 where acquired, and that, since the owners of these 

 ditches could not use the water, no harm would result. 

 But the sale of these rights to canals with late rights 

 changed the situation, and when the commissioner had 

 an appropriation to be moved upstream ten miles and 



by crops and it falls with startling suddenness in July 

 when the need is greatest. 



In the Poudre Valley the need of storage has been 

 increased of late years because of a change in the 

 crops grown. Formerly wheat was the principal prod- 

 uct. Its irrigation usually ends in July, but in re- 

 cent years potatoes, sugar beets, melons, orchards and 

 alfalfa have become the leading crops, and all these 

 require watering after midsummer. These crops have 

 a high acreage value and water for their irrigation 

 commands a higher price and brings a much larger 

 return than when used on land devoted to small grain. 

 Nearly fifty reservoirs have been built to provide for 

 the regulation of this stream, and between 50,000 

 and 100,000 acre-feet of water will be stored this 

 season. 



American Falls Irrigation and Power Company's Ditch, near Morehead, Bingnam County, Idaho. 



turned into a late canal there was such an exhibition 

 of indignant feeling that the commissioner had to re- 

 sign. For a time the validity of these transfers re- 

 mained in doubt. Later the court sustained them, and 

 now they are a part of the recognized order of things. 



To irrigate all the land being farmed required an 

 increase in the available water supply, and this could 

 only be secured by building reservoirs to hold back the 

 water which ran to waste before irrigation begins, and 

 to regulate the discharge during the irrigation period, 

 so that when the snows melt too rapidly the water 

 would not run to waste. It was possible to provide 

 water for all the farmers under these canals, although 

 not to give all the water described in the decree. On 

 the Poudre there is too much water in the first half 

 of the year and too little in the last half. The stream 

 begins to rise nearly two months before water is needed 



These storage works are filled from existing 

 canals. There was some delay about this at first, be- 

 cause the outlets of these reservoirs are too low to 

 permit of the water being used on the land under the 

 canal which filled them, and it was not until a system 

 of exchanges had been worked out, by which the high- 

 est canal turns over the water stored in its reservoirs 

 to those lower down and takes in return the water 

 which the stream carries, that the natural basins that 

 these reservoirs occupy could be utilized. Making 

 these exchanges has, however, greatly increased the la- 

 bors of the water commissioner. In addition to his 

 division of the stream, he now has to act as an offi- 

 cial gauger in the delivery of water from reservoirs to 

 ditches as well as from streams to ditches. Whenever 

 water is turned from a reservoir he has to measure the 

 quantity run out, and to secure greater accuracy in this 



