Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1891-11-21
IRRIGATION IN new MEXICO.
Colonel Max. Frost tells of the Oountry's
Prosperity.
How Irrigation is TrapsfoJ ming the Arid
Lands Into Farms of Wonderful
Productiveness Success Of
the Experiments Made
by the Maxwell
Company.

Col. Max Frost, editor of the Santa Fe
Daily New MEXICAN and secretary of the
territorial Bureau of Immigration, is in
Denver on business before the United
States land court. He stops at the AL
bany. A reporter for the Sun found him
busily engaged talking irrigation matters
to some eastern capitalists at present in
the city. The Sun reporter desired to
know how irrigation was getting on in
Colorado's sister commonwealth to the
south, and other matters concerning sunny
New Mexico. Said the colonel
Irrigation is becoming question of
great Importance, and several large enter
prises in that line have been completed
within the past two years, and many
others are under way. In the northern
part of the territory the irrigation systems
of the Maxwell Land Grant company
come first; that company has now in sue
"essful operation two large systems, called
the Nermejo and the Cimarron systems;
] ohooo WaIoi Fciy SATISFACTORILY DeuN Gull
! 90 900 and 60 900 acres of very fine grain
and fruit lands. They are being rapidly
purchased by a very superior class of i'm
migrants at fair prices. The company is
doing all 1t can to develop its magnificent
domain, consisting of the Maxwell land
grant in New Mexico, containing over
l 100000 acres; the title the company
gives is perfect, the grant having been
confirmed by congress and three times
sustained by the United States supreme
court.
I'm addition to the irrigation systems
mentioned, the company is covering the
grant with network of excellent county
roads and telephone lines. There are
several saw mills on the grant now. and
a million and half feet of the finest pine
lumber, bridge timber, telegraph poles
and the like are now being produced.
The coal on the grant is also being
worked fully, and gives employment to
several thousand people. The coal is
bltumlnous, and is found on the grant In
vast quantities. The irrigated lands in
the county Of Colfax, wherein the grant
is situated, are very fertile and with irri- ,
cation produce sure and valuable crops, /
for which there is a steady and good
home market, as the territory of New
Mexico does not raise onehalf enough =
cereals, grain, hay, etc., for its own con
as yet.
In the southeastern part of the terri l.
tory the ditch system OF the PeCos 1rriga- q
ton Improvement company is becom-
Ing one of the grandest and most conn ete t.
IN the United States, if not already the il
5randest. Nearly $780, 900 acres of as fine
and as ever laid out of doors is now p
practically under irrigation, and complete a
irrigation at that, in that section. The ~
and is situated in Chaves and Eddy
counties, and its fertility Is simply aston @
shlng. Within the past six weeks sever y
II colonies of Swiss emigrants have u
ettled in that section. The COMPANY u
las sold each head of a family forty acres .
II land, and these tracts are now being L
TAINTED in grapes, fruits. alfalfa and grain TO
~ these people. 81
"This section of New Mexico was
ractlcally, i've or six years ago, wilder ar
ess given up to the Apache and Conan
ne, the rattlesnake and the jack rabbit. co
o-day 1t contains two new counties.
18th a population OF at least 5000 people, tb
bran new town, Eddy, of about 800 A.
Inhabitants, railroad ninety-fve miles m
ing, and is rapidly growing. This Won a.,
erfGl change has been brought about by
re ditch system of the Pecos Irrigation & =,
Improvement company. The section 9 n'
destined to be one of the richest and -
lost prosperous in the entire southwest. Iii
1.-The far-famed Mesila valley has gu
bout 10000 acres of rich soil under irri-
'tion. During the last season the first gu
lperiment of shipping the luscious an
apes, grown in that valley, in carload mt
is east, was tried and proved a success. Du
pples, pears, peaches, alfalfa, all sorts
vegetables and grains, grow very finely Lo
that section. Ten acres of land under en-
tch ought to give man and family uni
od living, and twenty acres ought to qu
We MN competency in few years.
re Mo Grande water used 10 that Sec ev,
N Tor irrigation resembles the water of Nc
Q Nile In that it carries heavy seui- h;o
ent which increases the richness of the ;ns
IL continually. The Rio Grande Land
mpanv at Las Cruces has several thous-
d acres OF the finest land under irriga- Tor
N In that section, and part of it is for Ia
e IN small tracts. This valley is espec- ay
ly famed as winter resort for con- ap(
mptlves on account of it's mild and I
liable climate. Sp,
In the northwestern part of the terri. Did
y, In the San Juan river country, south rhl
Durango, there are over 10000 acres mig
land under irrigation; that section of T
W Mexico supplies the rich San Juan rirc
ming region IN your state with fruit and vps
5etables. The people down in that Ere
lntry are very independent; they raise Mo
they need or can eat and wear and all mis-
~ can sell, and only need rail connec- A
to make them wealthy. Indepen. AZ AZ
1T and happy they are now. There is '' . y,
| good deal of government land in II