8 
THE ARTESIAN WELLS OF COLORADO, 
one of the canals near by. After a year or two, some of 
the farmers below this point, and who already had rights 
in the Cache la Poudre Canal No. 2, one of the best in 
the valley, deemed this water of sufficient value to them 
to purchase it for $5,000. This present summer the 
amount of this drainage Water did not exceed If cubic 
feet per second, and as the purchase was made three years 
ago when there was still less, the rate was something like 
$3,000 per second foot. The owners think it was one of 
the best investments they ever made. 
If water has reached such value in a community not 
more than twenty years old, and that, too, where tropical 
fruits or the large returns of a more torrid climate cannot 
be expected, it may well suggest that before many years 
it may pay to expend sums for the development of sup¬ 
plies which would not now be thought of, and it im¬ 
presses the economic importance of conserving such sup¬ 
plies as we have, and of utilizing them to the fullest 
extent. 
One advantage in the artesian wells is in their con¬ 
tinuous flow, as in the case of the drainage water above 
mentioned. In most streams of the State the water is 
high for a short time only during the season, and during 
July and August it becomes scanty, so that late crops 
often suffer in consequence. The surplus water of June 
runs to waste. Where the flow is uniform throughout 
the season, a duty of some three or four times that used 
as the basis of water rights in Colorado may be expected. 
The flow from many of the wells is small, so small 
that the owners think it is of no use in irrigation, and there¬ 
fore allow the water to run to waste. We have not yet 
learned how to utilize the small but constant flows as the 
natives of some of the Eastern countries, like Armenia, 
where Mr. Nahikian, a native of that country, and a 
former student of the Agricultural College, says a small 
