Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1892-11-19

is delighted with the graceful outlines of
Ship rock, which ever and ever seems
sailing on through the glorious azure OF
an arid sky. "See Rome and diew See
this land, breathe its air, dwell in the hos
pitality of its complex but generous
people and live, Turning the eye to the
immediate prospect,-on one side is the
rugged, serrated grey bluff that forms
the south bank of the San Juan. On the
other rolls the brown breast of the mesa,
stretching away smoothly full 10000
acres broad. The scene to-day is lovely, |
but picture the future, when the orchard,
vineyard and pasture shall deck the earth.
On the north the hills are skirted by the
Coolidge ditch, a lateral from which sup
plies about sixty acres of trees around
the home of the protector. This is but
an earnest of what will be. Hundreds of
thrifty homes will here one day grace the
landscape.
THE FACTS.
However, to the eye of the investor all
this does not gild his gold and the home
! seeker wants to know how he may earn
his living g-not enjoy it. Therefore
few facts will be pertinent. One young
man set out an experimental bed OF
onions and harvested from one-eighth of
an acre $125 worth. A single apple tree,
an accurate account of whose crop has
been kept by Mr.. Locke, the owner,
yielded at the rate of $50 worth of fruit
/ per year. Around Pennington there are
four notable orchards, of peach, pear,
apple and plum trees, three of them
belonging to Mr.. Locke and Mr..
Willet and Mrs. Markly, of forty
acres each, and the other to Mr.. Nc
Henry of twenty-five acres, which yield
over $15O per acre. Fruit sells in San
Juan county at from to cents per
pound and finds close and natural
market in the surrounding mining camps.
A great drawback to the county is the
absence of railroad facilities, but the
prevalent good prices and ready sale
compensate the grower. Even this diff
Guilty will shortly disappear as
LINE OF RAILROAD
is contemplated from Algodones on the
Santa Fe system across New Mexico into
the heart of the county. One other in
stance may be quoted: Bishop Burn
ham, of Fruitland, from plot of ground
of less than seven acres, received over
$2,500 for the crop of 1892.
Neither the famous fruit of California,
nor the renowned Delaware and Mary
land orchards can more than rival the
Yields of this newly settled country. In
THE STAPLES
the soil is equally prolific. Hon. R. L..
E. Paulin, one of the projectors of the
south side ditch on the San Juan, showed
the writer almost at random stool of
, of wheat of ffty-seven stems and heads,
and corn with from two to five ears to
the stalk. On
THE LA PLATA RIVER
Mr.. James McDermott, county school
superintendent, pointed out in one view
over fifty immense stacks of alfalfa, and
from the settlement of the same name
there were harvested this year $500 tons
of this fodder, which taken at 81 to So
per ton, the average price in the stack,
paid nearly $4,000. These are the in
ducements that men like Mr.. Coolidge
offer the immigrant
Roughly speaking the population is
about $500, the
} AREA OF CULTIVATION,
taking good, bad and indifferent, about
10000 acres. 1,200 of which are planted to
fruit. This is scattered over a wide area,
spreading from Aztec on the east to
Jewett on the west near the Hogback or
line of the Navajo reservation. The area
reclaimed that is covered with water
r from some ditch, is about 41,0O0 acres;
, and ditch is now projected by syndi-
, cate of Denver capitalists to cover the
{ Bloomfield and Solomon mesas, which
will make available for cultivation nearly
10000 acres more, most of which is pub
lie land. The South Side ditch now covers
about 5000 acres just across the river.
Q STATUS OF IRRIGATION.
' There is but one criticism to pass on the
present status of San Juan irrigation and
: that is, with exception of the Coolidge
{ ditch, the canals are only constructed to
Q irrigate the bottom lands or lower mesas.
= The people look too much to the imme-
r diate profit of their farming, forgetting
n that when two or three large bitches are
y taken out of the Animas and San Juan
= rivers, the present farms will fill with
y seepage through the friable soil and in
}, stead of being irrigated will have to be
Q drained. Besides this, the low lands are
}, perceptibly colder than the high mesas,
o and the frosts settle sooner on them. The
: ultimate irrigation of San Juan county
: will be accomplished mainly through two
n large bitches taken out of the Animas on
= either side, down the highest continuous
lines. The one on the north covering
nearly 100000 acres, This for the reason
q that the bed of this river is the highest
. water course in the county, the fall great
I and the water ample. The best and
n widest spread of irrigated land in the
o county lies in this valley from about Aztec
' to below Pennington.
Q COAL AND MINERAL,
Another great source of wealth is the
. immense coal measures that seem to
s underlie the whole county. On the San
!. Juan, opposite Fruitland, in the south
bank is an out crop ofcoal thirty feet high
and $50 long at the exposure of pure coal
n On the north sank three or four pits have
y been opened straight into, coal. bright
T. and nearly as hard as anthracite. Again
e over on the La Plata river is a mine
e opened into fine vein Of peacock coal
h that if merely covered with little sand
4. and fred on the ground will give very