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<br />-58- <br /> <br />to 1890. All other districts were a decade or two later. The storing of <br />water for late summer use has done much to increase the productivity of <br />agriculture. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />In 1890, Terry Lake reservoir, just north of Fort Collins, was con- <br />structed by the Larimer and '0eld Canal. Horace G. Clark described the <br />change which that reservoir had made in the 'lives of farmers living under <br />it, before the Nineteenth Irrigation Congress in Chicago in 1911. Mr. <br />Clark who was a water user of the Larimer and Weld, said: <br /> <br />"I was a farmer under this ditch, and with others, suffered <br />from an insufficient supply of water. We looked with jealous <br />eye on the profitable crops of potatoes grown by our brothers <br />under old Greeley Ditch Number Two . . . . We could not raise <br />potatoes. And we had frequently to irrigate our grain crop <br />when it was too early--when it baked in the ground, turned the <br />grain yellow, and cut the yield down one-third--for fear we would <br />make no crop at all for lack of water later on. About one crop <br />of alfalfa--the first--and a half crop the second cut. . . That <br />was our condition under the Eaton Ditch . . . .prior to the advent <br />of Terry Lake .'" <br /> <br />Anothe~ phase of this search for more water with which to develop <br />a higher agriculture was the development of interbasin and transmountain <br />diversion. The Larimer County Ditch was the agency that pioneered in this <br />field. A. A. Em,ards, director and secretary of that company, was the <br />man who promoted this development. In 1890 the Larimer Oounty Ditch was <br />started. Since it was the last but one of the major ditches on the <br />river, its stream flow rights were very poor. That same year the company <br />began to build the Grand River Ditch to intersect several tributaries of <br />the Colorado River, and to bring the water over poudre Pass into the <br />South Fork. In 1891 heavy rains washed out Chambers Lake dam, which <br />the Larimer County Ditch Oompany had acquired and enlarged. As a result <br />of the damages caused it was thought best to reorganize, so the 'Mater <br />Supply and Storage came into existence. This company completed the <br />Larimer County Ditch and several diversion projects. The "Sky Line" <br />Ditch was begun in 1891 and completed 2 years later. This was an inter- <br />basin prcject, bringing water from the Laramie River to the Poudre. <br />The new ccmpany also completed the Grand River Ditch in 1895. The Sand <br />Oreek Ditch diverting frcm Sand Creek and Deadman Creek into Sheep Oreek <br />was built in 1899. The largest of all the diversions, until the Big <br />Thompson, which was constructed and operated by the Laramie-Poudre District <br />was the Laramie-poudre system. It was begun in 1910 and completed 2 <br />years later. The tunnel through which the water was brought across the <br />dividing mountains had a oapacity of 1,500 second-feet. This project <br />provoked Wyoming into bringing a suit against Colorado. The resulting <br />Supreme Oourt decision in this case limited the amount that could be <br />diverted to a small fraction of the capacity of the system, and has <br />prevented any further diversion projects from the North Platte and <br />Laramie watersheds. These diversions bring into the poudre watershed <br />about 25,000 acre-feet each season, and it has gone for the most part, <br />not to irrigate new land, but to improve agriculture on land already <br />under irrigation. <br /> <br />. <br />