No. 7, FEBRUARY, 1901. 
THE SEEPAGE MEASUREMENTS OF THE EX¬ 
PERIMENT STATION. 
BY L. G. CARPENTER. 
One of the effects due to irrigation that is noticed in all 
countries is the seepage water which returns from irrigation 
and enters the streams. This is so much that streams 
may be drained dry and, within a short distance, again have 
an appreciable quantity of water. 
At the suggestion of Hon. B.S. LaGrange, President of 
The State Board of Agriculture, and at that time Water Com¬ 
missioner of District No. 3, a measurement was made in 1885 
of the Poudre River by the State Engineer’s office, and two 
others were made in 1889 and 1890. In 1891 the Experi¬ 
ment Station took up the matter to investigate in detail the 
amount and the laws of the increase. Such measurements 
have since been carried on annually on the whole length of 
streams in the State, from their exit from the mountains to 
the State line. These include the Cache a la Poudre, the 
South Platte, the Big and Little Thompson, the St. Vrain 
and Left Hand creeks, Boulder and South Boulder, Clear 
Creek, Bear Creek, the Arkansas from the mountains above 
Canon City to the Kansas State line, the Rio Grande from 
near Creede to the New Mexico line, and the Conejos. Of 
these, measurements have have been made for four years on 
the Arkansas and for five years on the Rio Grande, and 
the others for varying times. 
It has been the intention to extend these measurements 
to other parts of the State as soon as time and means per¬ 
mitted. During the past year, 1900, the measurements were 
begun on the Western Slope, and were made on the Un- 
compahgre River from Ouray to Delta. These measure¬ 
ments have required every foot of the streams to be passed 
over, every headgate visited, every stream that leaves the 
river, as well as those which flow into it, to be measured. This 
has required the traveling over, in detail, of very nearly one 
thousand miles of river during the past season, and from 
six to eight hundred miles for each of the past four years. 
In all, some five thousand miles, at least, of river measure¬ 
ments have been made. 
