IRBIGATIOlsr IlSr NOETHERN COLORADO. 



73 



and a small embankment. Some of these reservoirs have been en- 

 larged since 1903 and the cost to date would give a lower unit cost 

 than is shown by the table. 



Table 28. — First cost of reservoirs of the valley. 



Reservoir. 



Cost. 



Capacity 

 in acre- 

 feet. 



Cost per 

 acre-foot. 



Cache la Poudre No. 2 



Terry Lake (Larimer and Weld) . 



Windsor Reservoir 



Rocky Ridge 



Long Pond 



North Poudre No. 1 



North Poudre No. 2 



North PoudreNo.3 



North Poudre No. 4 



Coal Creek (Clark's Lakes) 



Fossil Creek 



Douglass 



Windsor Lake 



S105, 000 



70,000 



50, 000 



12,000 



12, 000 



3,000 



7,500 



5,000 



5,000 



6,000 



160, 000 



50,000 



1,000 



8,035 



6,887 



11,708 



4,726 



3,922 



674 



5,000 



2,550 



1,074 



4,477 



11,478 



10,547 



918 



$12.07 

 10.16 

 4.27 

 2.54 

 3.06 

 4.45 

 1.50 

 1.96 

 4.66 

 1.34 

 13.94 

 4.74 

 1.09 



6.75 



The sale of reservoir water and the rental of rights for a season is 

 a common practice in the valley. Many reservoirs are owned by in- 

 dividuals and were built expressly for the purpose of selling the water 

 stored in them, while others are owned by cooperative companies 

 which impose no restrictions as to where the water may be used. 

 Many farmers own an excess of rights in these reservoirs, and others 

 have an excess when their scheme of rotation of crops brings them 

 around to a year in which they have a preponderance of crops re- 

 quiring only early irrigation. To offset this supply there is always 

 more or less demand from farmers who have not quite enough water 

 for ordinary conditions and who suffer from a real shortage in dry 

 weather, or from farmers who have a sufficient supply in average 

 years but who are growing a large acreage of crops requiring heavy 

 late irrigation. In ordinary years under the Greeley Canal No. 2, a 

 second-foot for 24 hours will sell for $5, and there will be an addi- 

 tional charge of $1 for carriage in the canal, but in dry years the 

 price may be as much as $16 per second-foot for a day. Eights in 

 Terry Lake, carrying between 45 and 50 acre- feet per season, have 

 rented for from $40 to $300, but the average charge is close to $75. 

 North Poudre shares, carrying 1| to 2^ acre-feet, average about $10 

 per season. It is natural that under these conditions there should be 

 a certain amount of speculation. In the early spring the speculator 

 buys water or rents rights to be held and later rented or sold to others. 

 Whether he makes or losses depends chiefly on the dryness of the 

 season. Water for which he paid $2 an acre-foot may sell for $8 or 

 $10, or there may be no market at all for it. 



The land served in 1916 by the more important independent reser- 

 voirs of the valley is shown in Plates XVIII to XXIII, inclusive. 



