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'(" -/(...... . the State of Utah. N. C. J~eekor, then an Indian agent, was kille.. in, the j,;eeker Jllassacre. Before going to Jleoker, he had played a prominent ,art in early irrigation ventures of the Greeley Colony in the South Platte Basin in Colorado. There is some evidence that many years prior to the time my father came to the Cebolla Valley, a small group of Spanish explorers settled for a short time in that Valley and built two or three small irrigation di tches. These earliest irrigators and those who came to Colorado after them during the next three deoades were able to oonstruct by individual effort the ditches which were the least expensive and, easiest to build for the irrigation of the land lying nearest the rivers and c~eeks. Then came a period when farmers banded together through associations and ditch companies to irrigate much larger acreage at higher levels and land re- moved from the strips which bordered the water courses. This was ac- complished by the construction of larger structures, canals and reser- voirs and required the expenditure of sums of money beyond the financial ability of the individual land owners. In many instanoes, the irrigation ventures of this period were highly promotional; and often the available water supply for the land proposed to be irrigated was inadequate. Thus the record indicates that, in many instances, those who had advanced the money for these ventures in irrj,gation were substantial losers and too often the farmers who relied upon them for a dependable water supply were doomed to bitter disappointment. Nevertheless it was during this period that i-rrigated acreage had its greatest expansion in COlorado, even though much of it remains to this day without an adequate and de- pendable water supply. " During the hundred years since the San Luis People's Ditch was built, irrigated acreage has expanded from a few hundred acres in Colo- rado to about 3,000,000 acres in 1950. From 1930 to 1940 irrigated acre- age in Colorado decreased and from 1940 to 1950 there was a deorease of 280,000 acres, even though during that period new irrigation struotures were constructed. ~o doubt, such reduction in irrigated acreage is largely due to the fact that at the present time, and it must be so to a large extent in the future, facilities for use of water must provide a more dependable supply in all years. It is only good planning to de- vote, as far as practicable, the remaining water supplies of the State to the stabilization of the existing agricultural economw of the State. This decrease, as shown by the last tentative census figures, is also partly due to the fact that in 1950 irrigated acreage in parks, golf courses, cemeteries and similar public areas was excluded. . According to the last tentative census returns, Colorado is the third state of the nation in total irrigated acreage. In the last ten years, the State had dropped f,om second to third place. California is now first with 6,619,000acres; Texas, second with 3,148,000 acres; and Colorado, thi-rd with 2,941,000 acres. Although the precise figures for 1950 are not now available, the tentative figures show 24,869, JOO acres