INTRODUCTORY. 
By the DIRECTOR. 
* 
These particular bulletins, as well as several already issued, 
are a contribution from the studies made by the Experiment Sta¬ 
tions on the Great Plains of Colorado. 
When the agriculture of the state is under consideration, at¬ 
tention is usually confined to the irrigated area of the state and 
the plains are not considered. It has more commonly been thought 
that the plains were material for future development rather than 
of present importance. It has, however, been felt by the more 
careful observers that they were agriculturally of considerable im¬ 
portance, and that their extent is so large that the product 
from any given area does not need to be large to make the aggre¬ 
gate worth consideration. The plains of Colorado are limited on 
the West by the foot-hills of the mountains and on the East they 
extend to the state line, hence their extent East and West is two 
hundred miles, and North and South the whole width of the state. 
There is thus an area of forty thousand square miles, forming the 
Plains in Colorado. 
Irrigation is confined to a limited region near the mountains 
and tongues of land extending along the Platte and Arkansas 
rivers. The area under irrigation east of the mountains is less 
than four thousand square miles. Almost every foot of the Plains 
is intrinsically as productive as the areas under irrigation, provided 
it could be supplied with water. This condition has been so evi¬ 
dent that there have been many dreams that the whole area of the 
Plains would be irrigated in the future, not realizing that such a 
hope is an impossibility from the failure of the water supply, 
hence the Plains must substantially remain as plains, and their 
development must recognize the limitations of climate and of 
water, taking advantage of every favorable feature, and based on 
conditions as they are. 
./ . 
The settlers who came with the expectation of growing the 
same crops and using the same methods as in a humid country, 
instead of adapting themselves to the conditions, were doomed to 
