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.,.58- - Platte River, as well as along the main stream, are to be found many irrigation appropriation rights dating in the early 18601s. Host of these early rights were for small quantities of water to serve limited areas along the bottom lands of the valley. Because of the favorable water supply of the Cache la Poudre River and the fertile lands of the valley, irrigation development was rather rapid and included the con- struction of comparatively large canals to serve large acreages. These more extensive enterprises were built and lands irrigated prior to 1880. The first Water Commissioner of the Cache la Poudre wasB. S. La Grange, one of the pioneers of the Greeley Colony of 1870. He was one of keen observation and believed that the water supply for irriga- tion in. the Poudre was strengthened by inflow from adjacent irrigated lands along the river. He interested E. S. Nettleton, then State Engineer of Colorado, in this phenomenon of returning water. Heasure- ments of river flow were made ty Nettleton, October 12-15, 1885, as a means of showing seepage return. It is believed that these observations were the first made to show return flow to a stfeamresulting from irri- gated lands. Bulletin No. 180, entitled liRe turn \'Iaters from Irrigation, II. by Professor L. G. Carpenter, published by the Colorado Agricultural Experi- ment Station, 1911, gives the historical account of the first seepage investigations al. ong the Poudre and South Platte. The 1885 observations by Nettleton, assisted by Commissioner La Grange, were conduc~ed by simply closing all the head gates along the river and then co~paring the discharge of the Poudre at the mouth of the canon and at a point near Greeley, a distance of 47 miles. A gain of 86 second-fe~t was found in ulat distance. Subsequent seepage measurement, betw~en these two river stations, over a period of 25 years indicate a more! or less steady gain each year, reaching an inflow of more than 150 sebl,ond_feet by the end of this period. The irrigated area along the Poudre Valley had reached ap acreage of about 200,000 in 1910 but some of the return flow from the! lands near the mouth of the river no doubt reached the South Platte withbut credit to the Poudre. The average flow of the Poudre at the mouth o~ the Canyon during July, August, and September, a period when the return flow would be near a maximum, was approximately 530 second-feFt. This substantial and sustained additional water supply, in the rivFr, of 150 second-feet is of considerable importance to the water uSFrs of this valley. I I Experiment Station Bulletin No. 33 published in 1896, gives Prof. Carpenter 1 s conclusions, in part, as follow EI: I I , , IIThere is a real increase in the volume of the streams as they pass through irrigated areas. I - The increase is more as the irrigated area is greater. The amount of seepage is slowly, but constantly increasing. It may be expected to increase for some years to come.