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( ~ proceeding mainly from the drainage area of the Gila River, have caused peak discharges at Yuma as high as 240,000 c.f.s. In 1905 the river broke away from its natural course in Mexico and followed the Alamo Cdnal through Mexico in the Imperial Valley of California to discharge into the Salton Sea. After this break was closed and the river was returned to its old channel in 1907, there began a program of levee building to protect the irri- gated acres around Yuma, Arizona and also to protect the irrigated areas of the Mexicali and Imperial Valleys. At the turn of the century it was estimated that irri- gated lands in the Upper Basin were about 530,000 acres of land and in the Lower Basin about 205,000 acres, most of this from the Gila River in New Mexico and Arizona with a small acreage in the Palo Verde area in California. By 1940 these uses had expanded so that in that year about 1,312,000 acres were being irrigated in the Upper Basin and about 1,323,000 acres in the Lower Basin in the United States and 190,000 acres in Mexico. Irrigation development in Mexico and in the Imperial Valley of California started with the construction by the Cali- fornia Development Company of the Imperial Canal system between 1896 and 1901. The Alamo Canal, as then constructed, began in the united States a short distance above the International Bound- ary and proceeded through Mexican territory about 43 miles, re- crossing the boundary into California in the vicinity of Calexico. In order to operate the canal in Mexican territory the California Development Company organized a Mexican subsidiary and was granted the right by the Mexican Government by contract dated May 17, 1904, to carry through the Alamo Canal 10,000 second feet of water. Mexico was given the right to devote half of the water passing through this canal to the irrigation of Mexican land. Total diversions for the Alamo Canal have exceeded 3,000,000 acre-feet annually during almost every year between 1925 and 1941. Although Mexico was entitled to use of half of this water, in practice, prior to the placing in operation of Imperial Dam and the All-American Canal, about two-thirds of the water so diverted was used in the United States and one-third in Mexico. Since the construction of Boulder Dam there has been a rapid increase in irrigation uses in the Mexicali Valley, the total area irrigated there being in excess of 300,000 acres. In 1943, according to reports made to the United States Senate, more than 1,800,000 acre-feet of water of the Colorado River was diverted for use in Mexico. In 1942 the All-American C2nal was completed. This -3- . -