Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1889-11-20
THE JORNADA CANAL,

TO make the valley of death u country
OF luxurious vegetation and populous, with
/ farms, houses, orchards, vineyards, gar
| dens and small fruit plots along an artif-
cial river and on the shores of numerous
small lakes, is the project now giving hope
to the great central basin OF New Mexico.
Where the Rio Grande makes its greatest
bend to the west, lies this great plain of
| the Jornada del MuertO, between two
great mountain ranges, on the east and
west, joined to fertile plain above onthe
river 1t contains tract 100 miles long
and twenty-five miles wide. 1t rises 800
feet above the river, where the Rio Grande
pierCes the mountains to flow toward the
west. Fifty miles above this curve the
river lies nearly at its level. There a canal
will begin sixty feet wide, carrying the
vast flooding waters OF the Rio Grande in
the late sprit g time through to the center
OF the tornado by an easy flow over an
unbroken level surface.
Below San Marcial are the lava beds
which make great depressiOns in this
plain, with rocky sides and bottoms.
Here natural reservoirs, covering several
square miles each, will be filled with
waters pouring down the canal from the
RIO Grande, or rushing down the sides OF
the San Andreas range during the rainy
season.
No richer soil can be found in the ter
ritory than that which for ages has been
deposited by these floods on the Jornada
plain. Cattle here find even now rich
pasturage, but there is but little of Il
permanent water supply in all the region
of about 5000 square miles. There is
Martins well, 100 feet deep, with sixty
feet of water that neither steam now
wind power has ever been able to lower
an inch. The climate of the region is
superb. The ground rarely freezes, The
sky is bounded by rugged and lofty
the Fra Cristobal and PaIomias on the
west. The air IS pure, dry and inspiring
Congress will claim this tract for lu0,-
600 people, for whom the nation here re-
serves homes and opportunity for labor
that will enrich the great state of New
Mexico. The U. S. senate committee on
irrigation has already in hand the sur
veys of the canals and reservoirs which
must first be constructed, before the in.
vitation to come in and possess the land
can 90 forth with effect to the thousands
already looking hither. The committee
will ask congress for $35, 900 next month
to complete these surveys, lay out the
bitches, divide the land into sections, and
thus prepare it for a corporation under a
national charter to do the work. Five
millions of dollars of private capital are
pledged in New York and elsewhere to
accomplish this vast undertaking. a
million Of acres given in alternate sec
tons to this corporation by act OF con-
gress will secure their Investment. 4
million more acres thus irrigated and
made fruitful will be retained as govern
ment land, to be sold at a value increased
from nothing to IS or $40 per acre to i'm
migrants who will hasten, with surer
prospects than in Oklahoma, to secure
lucrative farms and pleasant, healthful
homes in southern New Mexico. One of
the finest fruit regions in the whole coun-
try will thus be opened for purchase to the
hardy farmer and skilled fruit grower.
1t is indeed virgin soil The Jornada del
Muerto has never been touched by
pillow; up to within five years ago it was
the domain of the Apache. All the pos
sibilities of nature at mans culture lie
beneath its surface.
Here homes will rise in reality which
filled the idle fancies OF the unskilled
Spaniards three centuries ago, on plains
that proved only dreaded and deadly pass
age ways to thousands of colonists, or the
last resting place OF their bodies overtaken
by heat or cold, or by thirst and famine,
or the bloodthirsty, cruel and relentless
Apache Indian. The enterprise is grand,
but within the power Of our government
and people. They vii here undertake to
do what has made Great Britain rich and
powerful by her possessions in India A
citizen of New Mexico, Gen. j. B. Bow
man, has been 'emost in bringing the
subject to the favorable attention of the
U. S. senate committee on irrigation and
the senate and house committees on terri
tories and pablo lands. He is now on
his way east to work for the project this
winter in congress. He will have strong
and powerful aid from many important
sources. The New MEXICAN wishes him
the fullest success in this important work.