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basin (Table 2) and can be farmed successfully with intensive erosion control practice, drainage improvement, or greater inputs of fertilizer. The criteria for defining prime lands are the same as those for prime farmlands with the exception that prime lands require an adequate water supply to be considered prime farmlands. Soils in this category ~eet the soil requirements for prime farmland. The majority of these prime lands that presently are not under crop production are located in Adams, Arapahoe, Larimer, Logan, Morgan and Weld Counties (Table 2). These lands, totaling approximately 800,000 acres, generally are not under crop production. Most of the additional land suitable for irrigated agriculture occurs in fra~ented, rather than large continuous, land areas (Figure 7). These lands generally are in excess of 0.3 miles from the South Platte River and range from 150 to 400 feet higher in elevation than the river. High potential dry croplands (about 1.5 million acres) contain soils that have adequate moisture supply and water-holding capacity for an alternating crop-fallow system. The soils are not affected by salt or sodium. Under proper management, high potential dry croplands are not highly erosive and slopes are 6 percent or less. In most instances, soils in this category would become prime if they were irrigated. Lands in these latter two categories comprise a total of nearly 2.3 million acres in the basin. The land classifications illustrating crop production for the South Platte River basin are displayed in Figure 7 and summarized, by county, in Table 2. A total of approximately 2.6 million acres is devoted to agri- cultural crop production, with about 1.1 million acres used for irrigated agriculture and nearly 1.5 million acres used for dryland crops (U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service and Colorado Experiment Station, 1979). -22- I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I