Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1891-04-18
Te|egraphic Tidings
ROCKY MOUNTAIN AGRICULTURE.
What Colorado Has Done and What New
Mexico can Readily Double Dis
count.

tereStlng reports from tno COlOradO ex-
perimental station. The report relating to
botany and horticulture includes brief
record of the growth of seventeen varieties
of apples, six of pears, six of poplars and
two of willows; tabulated notes on eighty
five varities of grapes, thirty-one of straw
berries, seven OF goosberries, six Of cur
rants, nineteen of sweet corn, forty-seven
of peas, thirty-six of beans, five of pump
kins and ten of squashes, and brief de-
scriptive notes on twelve varieties OF Gel.
cry brief accounts of experiments with
potatoes, onions, cabbage, tomatoes and
carrots, and statement OF the number OF
varieties of vegetables grown for seed Tor
distribution.
L. q. Carpenter prepared the report on
meteorology and irrigation engineering.
This includes meteorological observations,
studies Of evaporation, observation OF soil
temperatures, and the collection OF data
regarding irrigation as practiced in Colo
RADIO.
Preliminary estimates, given in the re-
port, from the data collected by the station
and from other sources, indicate that the
total amount Of land under ditch in Colo
RADIO at present is not far from 4 800 square
miles, or 5000, 900 acres. The amount of
land actually irrigated can not be so re-
liably estimated at present. 1t is much
less than the amount under ditch. From
the sections of the state which | have
visited, it would be safe to estimate that
not over one third of this is under cultiva-
ton.
Evaporation, in view OF the questions
arising from water storage, is of consldera-
BILE importance. Measurements were
made on tanks placed in the ground,
here and at the sub-stations, and also on
tanks floating in the water of reservoirs,
canals, and the river. The tanks used
for comparison here and at the sub-sta-
ton were three feet square and three feet
deep. At this station smaller tanks, to
determine the influence of size and of the
material composing the tank were also
used. The evaporation for the whole
year from our principal tank is less than
forty inches. At the other stations it has
been much greater"
A table gives the monthly evaporation
for three years 1S87-S9) at the station,
and for 1889 at the two sub-stations.
H. H. Griffin sends this report from the
San Luis Valley station:
"The San Luis Valley (or park is about
120 miles long from north to south, and
from forty to sixty miles in width and is in
closed by mountains except on the south.
Water for irrigation is principally obtained
from the Rio Grande river. 1t is a region
of heavy winter SHOWS, but scant summer
rain fall of high winds and late frosts in
the spring and early frosts in the fall.
''The station is situated near the Rio
Grande river, seven miles east of the town
of Del Norte. 1t is about sixty miles from
the southern state line and has an alti-
tude, approximately. of $500 feet. The
station farm comprises 200 acres; the soil
is a light, sandy, gravelly loan; the sub
soil is composed Of gravel and cobblestone
and is found at depths varying from one
to four feet" Irrigation is used on this
farm.
Brief notes are given on experiments
with wheat, barley, oats, rye, corn, buck
wheat, peas, red clover, alfalfa, esparsette,
German millet, English rye grass, and
timothy. Notes, in most cases tahulated,
are also given for twenty varieties of peas,
two OF onions, three of radlshes, three OF
lettuce, five of beets, two of carrots, twenty
nine of beans, six of cucumbers, thirteen
of muskmellons, four of watermelons
five of peppers, ten Of squashes, twelve ol
sweet corn, three of turnips, three of ruta
bagas, thirty of tomatoes, and forty-one
of Seeding and fifty.nine of standard po
tatoes. Experiments begun with orchard
and small fruits and forest trees are briefly
reported.