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The introduction of the turbine pump and the discovery of natural gas in southwest Kansas helped to spur interest in irrigation; however, development was relatively I imited until after World War II. The availabil ity of commercial fertilizers, improved irrigation equipment, and the drought of the 1950's contributed significantly to the rapid increase in irrigation in the past 20 years. In 1966, an estimated 1,200,000 acres were irrigated. The only major irrigation developments prior to 1950 were along the Arkansas River and in Scott and Grant counties. Land in the Arkansas River Valley was irrigated with surface water or with water pumped from relatively shallow wells. Irrigation water was obtained from deep wells in Scott and Grant counties. Comparison of two state maps contained in Figure 3-1 shows the spread of irrigation development between 1950 and 1966. During this period, most of the increased irrigation development used groundwater. Except for the Bureau of Reclamation projects, which serve around 70,000 acres at the present time, very I ittle new surface water development has taken place. Recently, irrigation has expanded most rapidly in the northwestern area of the state and is essentially all from ground- water. The amount of water used for irrigation in 1965 was determined by the Water Resources Board for its report entitled Irrigation in Kansas. Irrigation is by far the greatest water use of all categories and was estimated at 2.26 mill ion acre-feet (MAF) in 1965. Rural Domestic and Livestock Water Use This category includes aJ I water which is withdrawn for livestock water- ing and household purposes in areas which are not served by a municipal warer supply. Unit figures for rural household purposes were developed from the water use experience of several rural water districts, small rural communities, and a few individual farmsteads. Unit water use figures for I ivestock were developed by relating water use to dollar value of production. The amount of water used for household purposes in the rural sector was estimated on the basis of water use reported by individual farmers, by rural water districts in Kansas, and on the basis of comparison to reported water use in cities. A sample of 33 rural water districts reported a combined water use of 264 million gallons in 1965. These 33 districts had a total of 3,716 water service connections; the average use per connection was sl ightly more than 71,000 gallons per year, or approximately 65 gal Ions per capita per day (GPCD). For the base year 1965, people not living in incorporated cities were divided into rural farm and rural nonfarm categories. The assumption was made that rural nonfarm people would use three quarters of the quantity of water used per person in the cities. Rural farm water use was assumed at two- thirds of the urban use. This compared favorably with information on 20.