GANNETT.] lEEIGA^TION IN GREELEY, COLO. 341 



right to water below, and if a man has not settled his assessment or tax, 

 t3 can have no water. At first locks were placed on the gates, bat their 

 use has been abandoned, because if a man should draw more than his 

 share, the superintendent would quickly detect it by the gauge or fig- 

 ures on the lower gate; besides, when a man knows that he is getting 

 what belongs to him, he is restrained by a sense of justice, and, more- 

 ever, the State laws are as strict in regard to stealing water as to any 

 other property. Only one suit was entered, and that was abandoned 

 upon the man agreeing to reform. It is to be noted that whenever a 

 division of water is made, a definite amount is allowed for wastage by 

 evaporation and soakage. This is about 50 per cent., which is found 

 to be so nearly correct, that the amounts allowed to 300 farmers from 

 15,000 inches of water are as accurate as divisions of ponderable bodies 

 could be. 



During the height of the irrigating season, a period of two months, 

 two superintendents traverse the canal from end to end daily, as if they 

 were police, and one man is constantly on duty at the head gate to guard 

 the dam and other works j for when the snow in the mountains is melt- 

 ing rapidly, the river is bank-full. 



The fall of the large Greeley canal is 3^ feet per mile, which is too 

 much by 18 inches. The current is so extremely strong, that it is forded 

 by teams with difficulty. 



Gardens require irrigating once a week through the season ; corn is 

 watered three or four times by letting the water run through alternate 

 rows 5 potatoes are watered twice, and that quickly, for much moisture 

 is fatal to them ; wheat and other small grains have two, sometimes 

 three, irrigations, and the whole ground is covered with water. To 

 raise a crop of wheat, it is required that with the rain-fall of spring, com- 

 bined with the irrigations, sufficient shall be applied to cover the ground 

 all over a foot deep. Water is let into the highest part of a field by 

 broad, shallow ditches, which overflow. Some farms at Greeley lie so 

 favorably and the arrangement of ditches is so proper, that water is let 

 on at sundown in a huge volume, and it proceeds onward from ditch to 

 ditch through the green standing grain, in appointed courses, and by 

 sunrise ^0 or 100 acres will be covered with water, without any help, 

 when the gates are closed and other work is done. 



COST OF IRRIGATION. 



(From a paper in Agricultural Eeport, 187L) 



In Boulder County the cost is from 5 to 10 cents per acre each season, 

 besides the first cost of a share in the works, which is from $50 to $100 

 each. The cost of repairs in the main ditch is paid by a tax on the 

 shareholders, usually amounting to about $5 a year. The laterals are 

 owned by individuals and built at their own expense. 



The charges of the principal ditch companies for water through the 

 season are as follows : 



Per inch. 



Platte Water Canal Company „ $3. 00 



Table Mountain 1. 50 



Farmers' ditch, Jefferson County 1. 50 



Ealston Creek Ditch Company 3. 00 



RESERVOIRS. 



By storing the water which now runs to waste in spring floods, and 

 utilizing it, a much larger area of land can be brought under cultivation. 



