20 
BULLETIN 1026, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
quantity, and priority of their appropriations. The distribution of 
the normal flow alone would be a difficult problem, in view of the great 
daily fluctuation, but the problem is further complicated by the ex- 
changes made, the foreign water and reservoir water carried in the 
natural channels of the basin, and the seepage return to the stream. 
The present incumbent 6 has been water commissioner of the district 
for more than 25 years; and his long experience, good judgment, fear- 
lessness, and unquestioned honesty insure a just distribution of the 
water in the stream. He receives each day by telephone reports of all 
activities within the district, including the flow of the river at various 
points, changes in demands of the various canals, exchanges desired, 
and foreign and reservoir water turned into the river for carriage or 
exchange. With this information before him and his knowledge of 
the amount of seepage return he is able to determine the amount each 
canal may properly divert. If the flow in any canal must be increased 
or decreased he telephones early in the morning to the headgate man 
of the canal and gives him a new gage height at which the canal must 
be run until further notice. 
With the object of keeping the gain or loss properly placed as the 
river rises or falls, the order is sometimes reversed and the headgate 
man is instructed to hold the river below his canal at a certain stage 
and to divert the remainder of the flow. For instance, when the river 
reaches the stage at which the appropriation of the Larimer County 
Canal for 463 second- feet is entitled to draw, the commissioner will 
direct the headgate man of the canal to pass enough water to keep 
the river up to a gage of 3.7 at Shipp's bridge just below and to take 
the remainder into the canal. By holding the Shipp's bridge gage 
at that point enough water is sent down to supply all prior rights 
below, and the rise and fall of the canal coincides with the varying 
suppty in the river to which the canal is entitled by that appropria- 
tion. 
Table 6. — Diversions, in acre-feet, from the Cache la Poudre River in 1916. 
For storage. 
Jan. 
Feb. 
Mar. 
Apr. 
May. 
June. ; July. 
1 
Aug. 
Sept. 
Oct. 
Nov. 
Dec. Total. 
North Poudre Canal. 
Poudre Valley Canala 
Pleasant Valley and 
Lake Canal 
Larimer County 
Canal 6 










3,472 




1,712 

437 
370 




1,875 

2,230 

2.421 

1,400 

1,990 









2,746 

1,620 


2,812 

1,080 




310 8,194 
3, 630 
437 
12,214 
Jackson Ditch c 
| 

a Storage of foreign water and Windsor Reservoir exchange. Direct flow chiefly foreign water to lands 
under North Poudre Canal. 
t> Storage practically all foreign water, 
c Larimer Count}- water held temporarily in Long Pond and then exchanged for river water. 
6 John Armstrong. 
