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<br />0Q238~ <br /> <br />- 2 - <br /> <br />These earliest. irrigators. and those who ca.me to ColCl"arlQ during <br />the next three decades, were able to construct. by individual effort <br />the ditches whioh were the least expensivE! and easiest to build. <br />Then ClllllB a period whim faJ.'rners banded togetMr through assoc1atiOl18 <br />lllld ditch compll!lies to const.ruct larger stractures, t.he cost of <br />whioh 1183 beyond t.he rinancial abl.lit,y of individual t"81'IlIllrs. It was <br />duZ'1ng tb1s latter period that irrigation acreage htld ita gNatest <br />explll1810n in Colorado. <br />The federal llecllunllticn Act ot 1902 initiated the present el'8 of <br />water development in Colorado. ThiaUU'1l typifieD a third period <br />when it is recognized that material irrigatj,(lI'I expans10n in the West <br />can be accomplished only through Federal i'1T\1mclng. AlBo. in th1a <br />period when the final patt.am of' basinwide development i8 being cut, <br />it ill neoessary. to recognize the interE19t of tl-.e Federal fjovllrnment <br />in water utilization and cOIltro1. At the same time it 1s understood <br />that the integrity of state water law SlId the ri~jlts and interests at <br />the states in each development shall be preserved. <br />During the oo.e-lnmdred yelll'B 8ir.ce tone San Luis Feople1a Ditch <br />was built" irrigated acreage in Colorado has expanded tt'01Il a few <br />hundred acres to the \h1rd largest. round in mv Western state, - about <br />three million !I.C:t&siD 19~. <br />An indicat.ion of the GConOOlic value of agriculture in ColoradO is <br />shlJll!\ by the 1950 estimate of t...l1e cash iOOOOle fran fam r.mrketings <br />for the State in 1949. This estima~ shows gross crop sales of <br />$245.285.000. This figure includes returnn from crops raised Oll. <br />dry land. hut it mu..~t be notod that the returns from dJ"j' lands <br />t"luotunte greatly from yf.la1' to y-oar. depending upon rainfall, whereas, <br />