Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1890-07-16
SOUTHWEST IRRIGATION.
Eradstreets Calling Attention Of the Fl.
nancial World to New Mexico
Enterprises.

Bradstreet's Journal OF Trade, Finance
and Public Economy, of June %, says;
Important operations for reclaiming the
arid lands OF the southwest are under way.
1t is not easy for eastern people to COM
prehend their magnitude. How, for ex.
ample, can the statement be grasped that
New Mexico has 39,2S9, 1922 acres now
unoccupied which water can make suit
able for agriculture? This is almost one
fourth as much again as the whole area of
New York. New Mexico, all told, now
has fewer people than any one of score
OF our cities, and is popularly supposed to
be vast, hot desert, and yet it is conf
IDENTIFY asserted that in less than half a
century this one territory will have a
farming area of nearly as many acres as
the whole Of New England.
, Extensive tracts in New Mexico already
require no irrigation, and they are steadily
enlarging because of the increasing an
nual rainfall and the earlier COM
ing OF the rainy season. 7. Is.
Mills, the treasury expert, whose ex-
haustive treatise on New Mexico appears
in the last report on internal commerce,
thinks it safe to predict that within
few years the raising of abundant crops
by rainfall will be the rule and irrigation
the exception. Irrigation, however, in
sures certainty Of crops, and for this rea-
son capitalists are undertaking enter
prises OF a magnitude that would excite
great interest and attention were they
in the east These enterprises are being
equaled all through the far western coun-
try, and as an illustration of the sort of
engineering going on all along the Rock
les and the Sierras some facts about them
are worthy of attention.
The report referred to give the names
of seven irrigation companies now at
work in New Mexico. When their
bitches are completed they will irrigate
720, 900 acres of land, or more than LOO
square miles. This is almost 100000
acres more than all the land at present
under ditch and subject to cultivation in
the territory. Heretofore the irrigating
bitches have been generally confined to
the narrow alluvial valleys Immediately
to the streams. The projected
bitches, or, properly speaking, canals,
are carried entirely out of the beds of
the streams upon the high rolling prairies
that intervene between the water courses.
When the report was written the Taos Val
ley Irrigation company had completed II
miles of canal 35 feet wide, and IA miles
of lateral bitches, with 100 miles more
to irrigate in all 225 900 acres.
A correspondent from Roswell, writing
on the lst inst, says that the Pecos Irri-
CATION & Investment company has taken
out of the Pecos canal that extends As
miles south. 1t is 80 feet wide at the
bottom, carries 6 feet Of water, and will
reclaim more than rs, 900 acres. Another
lower down is As feet wide at the bottom,
and will reclaim over 1926, 900 acres.
To show the nature of the work the
illustrates by the project
for taking water from the, Hondo. The
streams that make this river rise in
covered with snow the year
round, which, with numerous springs,
give large volume of water at least
nine months in the year. The streams
have two yearly overhows, and during
these seasons it is intended to store the
surplus water. To this end the COM
pany is about to begin the construction of
two great reservoirs, which it is expected
will take 200 men eight months to COM
plete. The capacity OF these reservoirs
will be something more than 3,OOO,OO
cubic yards. 1t is estimated that if their
were distributed over 100000
acres they would be covered to the depth
Of about seventeen inches.
AS to the amount Of water required to
make arid land productive it may be said
that for the sandy soil of Egypt 171a
inches have been found sufficient; for the
heavier soil of India 1914 inches are re-
quired, 1873 of which are supplied by ir-
rigation. The records Of Santa Fe show
1882 inches to be the average rainfall
during the period when the crops need
water. Making due allowance for evap-
Grafton and absorption, it is calculated
that 10.40 inches need to be supplied by
Contrary to the prevailing be-
lief it has been stated on scientific au-
thority, after many years of study, that
wherever there is soil in these regions it
is rich in the primary elements of fertili-
ty." These undertakings to supply the
one thing needful-water-are therefore
obviously Of great significance. Parts Of
the "great American desert may yet be-
come great garden.
Fire at Dallas.
DALLAS, July 16.-The building occu-
pied by the general land Office of the
Texas & Pacific railroad and the adjoin-
ing building was destroyed by fire yes
terday entailing loss Of $4,000; fully