LOSSES FROM CANALS RV SEEPAGE. 5 
extensive investigations obtain principles which may be ap- 
plicable under new conditions. 
The canals measured include stretches of canals in the 
Platte Valley and Cache a la Poudre valley near Fort Col- 
lins, and several in the San Luis valley, and one canal on 
which automatic records -were kept for two years. The 
method of measurement was essentially the same in all cases, 
namely, to measure the amount flowing in the canal at dif- 
ferent points, and then to compare the increase or decrease 
in the amount of water in the canal after allowing for the 
water taken out by laterals between the points of measure- 
ment. The measurements show that many of the canals, 
especially those deep in the ground, serve as drains during 
a portion of the year or for a portion of their course. This 
is often true where there are other canals on higher ground 
whose seepage drains into the lower canal. Some canals 
lose water in places and gain water in other places. We 
have thus found some stretches where the results differ from 
those anticipated. In some cases the loss from the canals 
was found to be very large. 
d'he results suggest that it is desirable for many of the 
larger canals to determine their loss from seepage through- 
out their length and thus determine whether unreasonable 
losses take place in any portion. It is true that some sec- 
tions are much more subject to loss than others, in fact that 
much of the loss is apt to be in a comparatively short dis- 
tance. When such is the case it may be profitable for the 
company to take steps to lessen the amount of loss. 
d'he loss of water from canals has been considered an 
incident necessary to the carriage of water. IT a limited 
extent this is true, but where the loss is more than moder- 
ate, it may be considered as due to defective conditions, and 
generally can be lessened, d'he loss from the canals is a 
pure evil. It lessens the amount of water available for use 
and in so much lessens the productive power of the land un- 
der the canal. In some cases it may be sufficient to cause 
the damage or loss of crops. More than that, the seepage 
is undesirable to the lands below the canal. In most cases 
it is a positive injury, leading to the water-logging of tracts 
of land, and frequently results in troublesome claims for 
damage against the canal company. 
METHOD OF EXPRESSING 'I'llE LOSS. 
For the present I prefer to express the loss as the depth 
