PUB00068

• Year: 1952
• Title: A Hundred Years of Irrigatioin in Colorado, 100 Years of Organized and Continuous Irrigation
• Author: CWCB
• Description: Irrigation history of Colorado
• Publications - Doc Type: Historical

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of land are now irrigated in the seventeen ,:estern ari-d or semi--arid
states, and in the otl)e l' thirty-one states, there are presentlY irri- '
gated 1,529,,290 acr,es of land. The total for all of the country is
26,398, 2 ~O (teres. 'Of the irrigated acreage in the seventeell -(,estern
states, slightly more than 6,000,000 acres of iandhave been provided
by Bureau of,ileclamation projects with a new or supplemeIltalwater
supply.

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Irrigation permits a more intensi-ve use of land, and, where water
supplies, are adequate for a givell irrigation system, an assured year-in
and year-out high level of production, less influenced by vagaries of
season and \leather than any other t) pe of agriculture. Only six-tenths
of one per cent of the world's land is irrigated, but this irrigated
acreage provides a greater diversification than other forms of farming,
and thus helps both the economic stability of agricultural areas and
the living standards of consumers. For these reasons, irrigation"
formerly confined to the arid regions of the lvest, has steadily oeen
spreading eastward. ,As an example, take note of tr~ increase in irri-
gation,in these states during the past ten years: New York, 5,900 to
19,200 acres; New Jersey, 8,000 to 28,00'0 acres; South Carolina, 4ll
to 6,400 acres; liiassachusetts, 2,000 to 18,50'0 acres;F1orida, 132,'000
to 363,'000 acres; Arkansas, ,162,000 to 419,000 acres; and liisconsin,
2,345 to 9,781 acres. liiuch of tr.e irrigation outside of the seventeen
arid land states is accomplished by pumping underground water supplies.
It is interesting to observe, too, that states east of the ninety-eighth
meridianenc:ounter legal difficulties when any extensive diversion of
water from natural streams is considered. This is because these states
embrace the, riparian doctrine of water lavr, as distinguished from the
doctrine of prior appropriation Which is largely practiced in the
,:estern states.

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The ,Eleventh census (that f.or 189'0 with, acreage figures for 1889)
was ,the first to give attention to irrigation. ,This census, report
,listed the Colorado irrigated land by c'ounties. The irr:i:gated acreage
in Colorado duriDg the past .one hundred years , as disclosed by the
census, may be noted by the following figures: From a few hundred acres
in 1852, to 891,000 acres in 1889, 1,611,00'0 acres i-n 1899, 3,394,000
acres in 1929, 3,221,000 acres in 1939 and about 2,941,000 acres in 1949.

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The year 1902 was the beginning of anew era in ,irri-gation devel-
opmentin the ';.e,st. Federal reclamation of arid and semi-arid lands,
as it is known today, was initiated by the passage of the heclamation
Act of' June 17, '19'02. The original act and subsequent legislation es-
tablished this Federal reclamation program for the seventeen \.estern
states. In 1901"President Theodore Roosevelt, in urging initiation
of this Feder~l irrigation program for the \~st) made a significant
statement. It emphasized the need for the program and he pointed out
that it should be undertaken in full recognition and application of
state water laws. He stated:

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