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,"; CHAPTER I II ", PROJECT LANDS GENERAL The land irrigated under the Water Supply and Storage Company system lies generally in the north central part of Colorado, on the high plains immediately east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountain in Larimer and Weld Counties, Colorado. The irrigated lands lie to the east of Fort Collins, Colorado, and to the north of Greeley, Colorado. The area is relatively open and level, with a slight general slope to the southeast. It varies in elevation from about 5,000 feet down to 4,500 feet. ;: " The Long Draw Reservoir is situated on Long Draw Creek and is north of the Rocky Mountain National Park. It lies roughly 37 miles west of Fort Collins, Colorado. The sources of water for the Company are the Colorado, Cache la Poudre, Big Thompson, Michigan, and Laramie River basins. .~- From a tabulation of current Company records, the total farm land under the Water Supply and Storage Company system comprises an area of 53,859 acres, of which 37,425 acres are presently being irrigated by water supplies through the Larimer County Canal, the Company's primary distribution ditch. " ", .:,,'.-=: ". .", LAND CLASSIFICATION The lands irrigated by the Water Supply and Storage system have been irri-. gated for 70 to 80 years. They lie in the heart of the rich agricultural Cache la Poudre region. The Bureau of Reclamation has not made a land classification survey of the area for irrigabi lity. Therefore, we have obtained the soils in- formation of the area from the USDA Soi I Survey of the Greeley Area, 1929 and the Fort Coil ins Area, 1927. - ," ~ The soils of the area are of the type that occur in the semi-arid parts of the Great Plains Region and are a part of the Great Brown Soils Group. The soil series includes Cass, Weld, Terry, Nunn, Gilcrest and Larimer. The Cass series is a val ley soil which has developed from alluvial sands and gravel, and is well drained. In Weld, Terry and Larimer series are upland soils, with the Weld series being deep soils confined largely to sloping lands, the Terry series being residual soils developed from the underlying shales and sandstones, and. the Larimer series being shal low soils developed on gravel. The Nunn and Gil- crest series includes the terrace or bench soils of the large stream valleys and terracel ike soils of the upland valleys now occupied by small streams. These lands have.,a near 1 y 1 eve 1 topography. The product i v i ty potent i a I of the va r ious soil series ranges from high to moderate.