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001233 Draft - 9/81 ') the heels of these two prlmary economic forces. Many of the gov- ernment, legdl and bdnking services centered in Denver Cdn also be seen as offshoots of mining and agriculture.6 The importance of water to agriculture ls obvious; crops and Ilvestock die wlth- out l t . The importance of agriculture and therefore of agrlcul- tural water to the rest of the population may be less obvlous. Among other considerations, agriculture affects regional lncome, employment, land use, population density, alr quallty, water qUollty, water consumptlon of both surface and underground water, and the consumer price lndex. Agrlculture ls the slngle biggest consumer of the state's water resources, and agriculture makes major contrlbutlons to Colorado's economy. The U. S. Soli Conservatlon Service has a s~stem for clas- I slf~ing soils in terms of their suitabiilty for growing crops. ~ Class I and II iands have the f~west limitations for suitability and the greatest productive potential. Only 5.6 percent of Colo- rado's private land falls in these two classes, compared to the national average of 12 percent. More than three quarters of the Class I and II lands are in the eastern portion of the state. Table 1 shows both land use and land ownership In Colorado.7 Several lmportant facts stand out from thls table. Most striking is the fact that more than half of the state's land area (59.1 61n the interests of simpliclty, the term "agrlculture" wlll be used jolntly to refer to all commerclal forms of raIsing crops and livestock, what ls commonly known as farming and ranching. 7Thls entire sectlon is highly lndebted to Volumes I and II of the study by Colorado Department of Agriculture, Aaricultural Land Conversion in Colorado. 1979. 9