lEEIGATIOISr IN NORTHERN COLORADO. 13 



Canal. With the exception of Black Hollow, the reservoirs of the 

 Water Supply & Storage Co. below the canyon are also low and 

 their outlets are arranged so that water from them may be turned 

 into the Larimer and Weld Canal or the river. Below the Larimer 

 and Weld Canal is the Windsor Eeservoir, which has a capacity 

 of 17,000 acre-feet and discharges into the Greeley Canal No. 2. A 

 few of the rights in this reservoir are held under the Greeley Canal 

 No, 2, but the great majority are owned by farmers under the Larimer 

 and Weld Canal. The exchange is operated by taking advantage of 

 all these conditions. 



Except during high-flood periods the rights of the Greeley Canal 

 No. 2 may entitle it to practically the entire flow of the North Fork, 

 but instead of allowing this water to flow down the channel of the 

 river to be taken directly by the canal, the water commissioner per- 

 mits the North Poudre Canal to divert it for use, and directs that 

 an equal amount be turned from the Windsor Reservoir to the Greeley 

 Canal No. 2 when the drop in the river reaches that canal. If, for 

 instance, a flow of 100 second- feet has been taken for 10 days, the 

 North Poudre Co. then ow^es the Windsor Reservoir 1,985 acre-feet, 

 or 87,000,000 cubic feet, as it is expressed locally, and to secure the 

 debt that amount of water is held in the North Poudre Reservoir No. 

 6, In other words, Windsor Reservoir water to the amount of 1,985 

 acre- feet has been transferred upstream for delivery to rights under 

 the Larimer and Weld Canal, and the North Poudre Co. has been 

 able to use in its main canal 1,985 acre-feet of the water stored in its 

 low reservoirs. While channels are available through which the 

 water in Reservoir No. 6 could be delivered direct to the Larimer and 

 Weld Canal, this is never done. Instead, the water is delivered to the 

 Larimer County Canal Co. at any time on demand of the Water 

 Supply & Storage Co., and in exchange this company holds sufficient 

 water in its low reservoirs to deliver 1,985 acre-feet to the Larimer 

 and Weld Canal to supply the demands of the holders of Windsor 

 Reservoir rights. It will be noted that while the Greeley Canal No. 

 2 has been left undisturbed in its rights, the use of 1,985 acre-feet of 

 its appropriation has served to exchange nearly 6,000 acre-feet of 

 water stored in low reservoirs. 



WATER RIGHTS. 



The development of irrigation was so rapid in the Cache la Poudre 

 basin that the problem of an equitable division of the water in the 

 stream arose earlier than in any other section of the State. The 

 need became pressing with the construction of large canals in the 

 late seventies, and the efforts of the people of the valley to solve the 

 problem resulted in the inauguration in 1879-1881 of the present 

 system of water administration. The first general adjudication of 

 water rights in the Cache la Poudre and its tributaries was held 

 immediately after, and with few exceptions the rights decreed then 



