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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />N <br />N <br />CD <br />..r::. <br /> <br />-4- <br /> <br />portion was then only about 35 percent of that total. Meanwhile, agriculture <br /> <br />by means of irrigation, has become a dominant factor in the economy of the area. <br /> <br /> <br />Although the district court records show that appropriations from <br /> <br /> <br />tributaries totaling 1,475 second feet, were entitled to priority dates between <br /> <br />1859 and 1869, and an additional 1,776 second feet to dates from 1870 to 1879, <br /> <br />there are adjudicated priorities during the same periods for appropriations <br /> <br />from the main stem of the Arkansas River in the aggregate of only 900 second <br /> <br />feet. In 1874 a pioneer named George Swink settled in the vicinity of Rocky <br /> <br />Ford and began the construction of irrigation ditches in that area. To him <br /> <br />goes the credit for commencing the era of the larger scale irrigation operations <br /> <br />in the basin, and possibly for the introduction of the raising of melons, which <br /> <br />have been prominent among the crops of the valley. <br /> <br />So much interest in irrigated farming in the area below Pueblo was <br /> <br />aroused that total appropriations from the main stem of 2,941 second feet have <br /> <br />priority dates between 1880 and 1889, and 3,079 second feet within the fo11ow- <br /> <br />ing decade. There are at present almost 2,000 ditches supplying lands in the <br /> <br />basin, varying in length from a fraction of a mile for those serving a few <br /> <br />acres close to stream channels, to over 100 miles for the longest, the Fort <br /> <br />Lyon Canal, which irrigates more than 90,000 acres. The total adjudicated <br /> <br /> <br />rights of main river ditches alone now amount to 7,415 second feet. <br /> <br />The average flow of the Arkansas River is at a maximum as it emerges <br /> <br /> <br />from the mountains. This average flow is approximately 750 second feet as com- <br /> <br />pared with the total adjudicated direct flow rights of 7,400 second feet. Thus <br /> <br />there are rights to divert from the river amounting to almost ten times the <br /> <br />average river flow at the head of the plains area. Of course, the rediversion <br /> <br />and use of return flows resulting from the application of irrigation water, and <br />residual tributary inflows makes possible total diversions considerably in ex- <br />