Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1891-05-23

than wonderful. Certainly in the records
of the vests remarkable progress they
stand among the first as showing wha
the energy OF man can accomplish.
SOME DESCRIPTION OF THE vALLEY.
But let us take sweeping glance o
this valley of the Rio Pecos and see what
the natural conditions are that have been
brought together more perfectly by tie
hand of man and made servlceable fol-
the true farmer and fruit grower of the
future-the irrigation farmer and fruit
grower.
1t embraces within it's boundaries,
mountains, hills, plains, valleys and
meadows; streams, rivulets, springs and
the steady flowing Pecos river. No Sec
ton of its area includes greater variety
of trees, shrubbery or wild flowers that
beautify its surface, or greater diversity
ofclimate, or soil capable of producing finer
grains, grasses, vegetables or fruits. 1t is
we'll watered by the Pecos river and its nu-
merous tributaries. This stream flows
through the counties of Chaves and Eddy
in a southeastern direction, gathering its
waters from hundreds of living mountain
streams, brooks and springs that have
their source amid the snow topped peaks
that shut in the valley on the north and
west Above it flows between high,
grassy bluffs and foothills, through only
narrow valley until it passes the longi-
tude OF the El Captain range of noun
valley broadens out into one OF the wild
est, grandest, most beautiful and fertile
valleys that ever heaven smiled upon.
For miles and miles, as far as the eye
can reach, this marvellous valley stretches
away, from north to south and from west
to east it's surface smooth and even as Il
floor and covered with rich gramma
grass, which, for years past, has fur
nished sustenance to hundreds of thou
sands Of cattle and sheep.
WONDERFUL WATER SUPPLY.
Here the Rio Hondo and the Rio Felix
both of which rise amid the snow-clad
heights OF the Ell Captain and the White
mountains, and which streams are in
turn fed by numberless rivulets-fow
down and unite their crystal floods with
those of the already ample Pecos. Rein"
forced by these, and further down by
north and south Spring creeks, the Pc
nasco, the Berendas, the Seven Rivers,
Black river, the Delaware and numerous
other living streams, the Pecos sweeps on
through southern New Mexico, western
Pexas and finally falls into the Rio
Grande.
Dame Nature, as though realizing that
the mountain SHOWS might sometime fail,
has caused hundreds of living springs to
flow out, all over the upper portion of the
Pecos valley, from assures in the vast
floor of limestone wherewith this whole
country is underlaid, and, in fact, these
springs are found, at intervals, all along
the river clear to the Texas state line.
No such series OF pure, clear springs,
with such marvellous and constant flows
of living water, are found in any other
arid country on the earth.
Is it wonder that in the so-called arid
country where
"wATER is KING"
where water Is actually the basis OF all
land values, that enterprising men were
not long in establishing plan for utiliz-
ing these splendid water flows? The
main supply of the Rio Pecos comes from
magnificent perennial springs, represent.
ing the drainage of the CAPTAIN, Sierra
Blanca, Sacramento, Mescalero and Qua
dalupe mountain range. Some idea of
the volume of water that flows between
its banks in its course through Eddy
county may be imagined when it is known
that expert engineers have estimated it's
flow to be fully 1000 cubic feet per Sec
ond, and that it is capable of irrigsting
100000 acres of land No stream on earth
is better adapted to irrigation purposes
than is the Pecos.
Its current is about four miles an hour,
and competent engineers have shown
that its flow is 1000 cubic feet per second
at it's lowest stage.
Throughout much of it's course it flows
between walls of solid limestone, six to
twenty feet high, which afford immovable
buttresses for dams, and admirable sources
for large canals. Living springs that boil
up all along its course, in it's bed and
from its bank, supply water as fast as it
will ever be needed for irrigatiDg. One
of these springs, two miles above Eddy,
was recently measured by an eminent en-
gineer who is attached to the agricultural
department at Washington, and who as
certained that it flows 10000, 900 gallons
of water every twenty-four hours ,OOO,-
900 gallons more than is used by the
whole city of Denver during any one day
in the year. Four miles above this
spring is the great dam, where the rivers
flow may be shut off at will, set back into
the reservoir, or turned into the big canal
so that the bed of the river at the foot of
the dam may be perfectly dry. The en-
gineer above referred to measured the
flow OF water in the river at Eddy, six
miles below the dam, after the dam had
been thus absolutely closed for six days,
and found its flow to be 300 cubic feet
per second.
TIE GREAT CANALS.
The system of canals and bitches now
being perfected by the Pecos Irrigation &
Improvement company may be briefly
described as follows: The northern
canal takes water from the Rio Hondo.
The head of the canal is about five miles
east from Roswell, and in crossing the
South Spring river the water of that
stream is also picked up, or so much
thereof as can be handled. This canal
follows the higher ground of the valley on
the west side of the Pecos nearly parallel
to the general course Of that river and
generally about eight miles distant. The
canal has bottom width Of thirty-five
feet, fall of one foot to the mile, and
carries five feet of water. 1t is already
completed to the Feliz river, distance OF
twenty-five miles, bringing under irriga-