Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1891-07-11


Editorial Correspondence New Mexican.
EDDY, N. M, July, lS9l.-A plain un-
vanished story touching the Pecos lrr-
CATION & improvement companys mag
nifcent system of irrigation canals and
water storage reservoirs and the pheno-
menal success which has attended the con-
struction of these enterprises in southeast
ern New Mexico may not prove uninter-
esting to the readers OF the New MEXTCAN
1t has been the pleasure of the writer to
visit this section more than once in the
course of long residence in New Mexico.
and he feels justified in the assertion that
certainly nowhere in the great west have
such changes been wrought in few years
as here. The buffalo and the wild horse
and the game OF the plains and foothills
that
THE HOSTILE APACHE AND CoMANCHE
were wont to seek here but a compare
lively few years since, were compelled to
give way before the advance of that great
western plains pioneer, the range stock
raiser.
Five years ago found this whole region
under the command of the beef producer
and the fock-master, their immense
herds gathering weight and wealth from
grazing upon the succulent gramma grass
that here abounds or resting in the noon
day sun beneath the cooling shades of
the beautiful groves that line the many
splendid streams coursing through this
part of New Mexico. 1t was not long be-
fore nature began to grow tame, and d~s'
gently with the
HARDY AMERICANS WHO HAD COME
to supplant the Indian. Pretty soon their
homes, crude at first, blossomed into
shady retreats, and the wild flowers that
sprang up along the banks of the small
irrigating bitches grew large and hardy
and far more beautiful than before under
the kindly action Of the sun supplement-
ed by the richly mineralized waters that
flowed down from the foothills. These
waters were running to waste, practically,
for all the live stock on earth could not
exhaust them. Presently the pioneers
began to plant orchards and gardens
Experiments" they were termed, but
how they did flourish The soil had only
to be barely "tickled with the hoe" be-
fore the seed, all new to this wild land,
burst into life and fruitfulness, and it was
not long before even tire conservative
early settler, the rangeman, became con-
vinced that the day when
HORTICULTURE AND AGRICULTURE
would develop into the valleys greatest
and most profitable industries, was not
far distant. There had been ample tests
experiments were no longer in order; the
country was beginning to settle up; there
Was demand for productions of the soil
for the water to make these productions
as certain as the seasons.
The later settlers who came here to en-
gage in stock raising were not long in
perceiving that few years hence would
work wonderful change in the then ex-
listing conditions, and they sat about to
prepare for the change. They realized
all that mother nature had done for them
realized the fact that there must soon
come different method of handling
their vast herds so that other factors
in the production Of wealth might be in-
troduced to supply not only beef and NUT
ton for
THE EVER GROWING MARKETS
springing up in the southwest, but bread
stuffs as well, and fruits and vegetables
and vast quantities Of forage that the new
system of range stock raising would sure
ly demand.
HON. CHAS. Il. EDDY,
one OF the early settlers Of the valley, was
the first to see and feel these changes
and he and few Of his friends whose
ranches dotted the valley here and there
we're not long in getting together"
They have been together ever since, and,
behold the change With a restless en-
ergy born Of the west, with pluck and
courage and skill and the aid of large cap
i tai placed at their command by willing
eastern capitalists, they have taken up
the magic wand of American enterprise
and twired it up and down and along the
Rio Pecos until now, after but two years,
their achievements have been little less
than wonderful. Certainly in the records
of the VESTS remarkable progress they
stand among the first as showing what
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 beer
brought together more perfectly by the
hand of man and made serviceabe fo
the true farmer and fruit grower of th'
future-the irrigation farmer and frui
grower.
1t embraces within its boundaries