20 
(3) These hinds arc certain to again be of great value, and it is for 
future comparison also that the data is given here. 
THE BIG THOMPSON DITCH. 
A description and a history of the construction and management of 
this the first ditch upon the Big Thompson of which there is any 
record or which is of importance at the present time, is similar to that 
of all the early ditches in the district, and much of what is said will 
apply as well to other districts throughout the State. According to 
the record the survey and construction were begun November 10, 1861, 
the ditch being a neighborhood enterprise intended to water the lands 
of a number of adjoining farms. 
Without irrigation the grasses of the meadow lands were generally 
forced to maturity by the hot weather and the want of moisture before 
the growing season was really over, and the product was light, although 
making an excellent feed. The experiment having been tried in 
other communities with good results, it was believed that the applica- 
tion of water would very materially lengthen the growing season and 
produce a much greater tonnage. So we see that ditch building was 
almost coincident with settlement. 
The Big Thompson Ditch was some 8 miles long, covering a narrow 
strip of land, seldom more than a mile in width along the river bottom, 
and amounting probably to less than 3,000 acres, being almost entirely 
ha}^ land of the second bottom. The decree gives the ditch 90.5 cubic 
feet of water per second, which purports to be the amount actually car- 
ried at times by the ditch and necessary for the land watered. While 
it is possible that the ditch had a capacity equal to the decree and 
possibly did at times carry that amount, it is hardly credible that that 
quantity was either necessaiy or carried for any considerable time. 
In 1897 28 cubic feet of water per second was transferred by order 
of the district court to the Hillsboro Ditch. This transfer served 
two purposes: (1) A consolidation of interests with a consequent 
decrease of expense in maintenance, and (2) it made possible the irri- 
gation of higher and better land. Such a transfer could hardly be 
objected to by outside parties, as the head gate of the Hillsboro 
Ditch is but a mile above that of the Big Thompson, and any seepage 
water previously used was still available, and if the full appropriation 
had formerly been diverted to irrigate the bottom lands its use on the 
more valuable upland, requiring less water, was certainly wise. In 
1897 the superintendent of irrigation made transfers of individual 
shares to the Hillsboro Ditch as follows: Two of 14, one of 7, and 
two of 5 cubic feet per second each. In the same year two shares of 
"The prices given were obtained in 1901 and have already very materially 
changed. 
