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-35- . . expressed by the legislature or tested in the .courts. ;\'. C. "'reeker spoke for Greeley when, in a Greeley Tribune editorial, he outlined a policy. First the principle of prior appropriation must be recognized. Until it is, capital invested in irrigation cannot be secure, he wrote. "It looks to us as though it would be much better to consoli- date the interests of every ditch owner and to make the river an irrigation canal, subject to such superintendence as is establish- ed on our Number Two; for by this means everyone would have his rights, the supply of vmter would be constant, and all would know' what to depend on." . On July 15th, a fleek after the publication of the Meeker editorial, a meeting of Poudre Valley irrigators was held at the Eaton school. Fort Collins ditches were taking all the water from the river and the Greeley ditches were dry. David Boyd in his History of Greeley and the Union Colony of Colorado has left a highly colored picture of the meeting. GreeleYlTIen advocated the principle of prior right at the meeting. Fort Collins 1I1en argued for the appointment of a commissioner who would divide the water according to the greatest need, throughout the current season. Fhile no agreement was reached, the meeting ended amicably with the promise on the part of Fort Collins, to let some water down the river, a promise, David Boyd asserts, that. they never intended to keep. A heavy rain a few days after the meeting saved the situation for that season, but the irrigators in the Greeley community were firmly united in a determination to secure recognition of the principle of prior right. Less than 2 years later the Colorado .Consti tutional convention reco~mized the Greeley position. The committee on irrigation, agriculture, and manufac- turing consisted of nine members, two of whom were from Greeley, wrote the constitutional provisions. "The right to direct the unappropriated waters of any natural stream to beneficial uses shall never be denied. Priority of appropriation shall give the better right as between those using the water for the same purpose .. " . The first legislative session was too preoccupied with the organiza- tion of state government to attempt to implement the constitutional pro- visions concernj:ng water. The Greeley irrigators did not relax. They realized that the courts were too slow to offer protection to 'gro~ing crops. They got new converts from the Fort Collins area when, in 1878, ~a~Qn began construction of. the Larimer and Weld ditch. This ditch was to come out of the poudre at the mouth of the Poudre Canyon and it was designed to irrigate_7_0,-OGO acres of land above, and north of all other ditches on the river. It was to have a capacity of 571 second- feet, large enQugh to ta.kEl _al:J, the Poudre water throughout most of the irrigating s~ason. ,---~----_..- II ~r , i . In October 1878, J. L. Brush and L. C. Mead, representatives from Weld County, and Silas B. A. Haynes, senator, called a meeting of Weld County irrigators to discuss needed irrigation legislation. A small number of farmers attended, but they included representatives from both the poudre and st. Vrain. L.. C. Mead of the st. Vrain was elected chair- man. Quickly the meeting decided that three problems needed legislatIon. L .",,: ">-"--