Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1893-04-29
IRRIGATION IN NEW MEXICO,
The Valverde Company Preparing
q Plant to Cost Over
100000.
Underfew Waters to Be Utilizod-The
Pumping Problem "A Talk with
President Waddingham.
Special Correspondence Globe Democrat

Special Correspondence Globe Democrat
WARRINGTON, April 25.-Wilson Wad.
bingham, of Connecticut, is rapidly de.
veloping an enterprise which means a
great deal to the southwest. He is the
owner of large tracts of land in the New
Mexico valley of the Rio Grande. This
land needs only water to make it a para
disc like southern California, and that
need Mr.. Waddingham proposes to sup.
ply in the near future.
"Only the preliminary work has been
done 90 far" he said to-day in reply to an
inquiry. "Brt the Valverde Land g. Irri-
CATION company will commence at an
early day the construction of gravity
bitches ON both sides of the Rio Grande,
These bitches, as surveyed and outlined
will carry and discharge sufficient water
to easily irrigate $4,000 acres of land.
Our company also designs building a
long divertiny weir dam and thereby
creating great reservoir with which to
irrigate large area of its uplands. The
Valverde Land & Irrigation company, of
which am the president, Is the owner in
fee simple, under United States patents,
of two large properties, known as the
Armendaris land grants, Nos. SO and 81,
containing in all over $4,000 acres of ex-
cellent arabic, grazing and coal lands,
surrounded by four-barbed galvanized
wire fence, with cedar posts"
"How about the United States alien law,
Mr.. Waddingham, which prohibits land
corporations from holding over 5000
acres of land in the territory of New Mex
icof Was your company organized before
that act became lawf"
eyes, sir, and assure you that that law
is not only great hardship to the large
mining and land owners, but very great
obstacle to business development in gen.
can not get British or European capital
without attempting to evade the provis-
ions in some way of the alien act; even
homo capital hesitates. We don't pro-
pose to evade the law. Its provisions do
not affect our company's interests, ex-
cept SO far as they tend to leave an ad'
verse influence on investors"
"Where do you expect to get your water
supplyf The area you mention as being
under the proposed gravity bitches is not
all you desire to reclaim, is it,"
"By no means. As matter of fact,
have no doubt, and the opinions of all
experts who have examined this section
confirm my view, that, taking out the
coal lands, 10000 acres, and the noun
tain and other broken areas, estimated at
75, 900 acres, all that remains is most ex-
cellent grazing and arabic land that can
readily be made to produce alfalfa, small
wains, cereals and fruit in great abund-
hall So yno1 lee srur
gated. The lands-that is, the Armen-
darts grants-are situated in the very
center of plain Of dry fertile land, en-
bracing in all over &, 0OO, 900 acres, of which
at least two-thirds is arabic if water can
be applied.
"The Rio Grande is our present hope
for supply" continued Mr.. Wsdding-
ham, "but engineers widely differ as to
the possibility of getting tho river upon
this high plain by gravity. At three feet
per mile We could readily get in forty
miles 12O feet rise, which would be suffi-
cient to serve some of the land to be first
utilized. What We particularly desire is
to find the means of utilizing the go called
river underfow, and am certain that a
great reputation of business success
awaits tho engineer who will successfully
devise q method of securing this under
flow water and raising the same to the
level of the tornado plain; the highest
point on the plain lands of our company
is about $50 feet above tho lowest point
on the river bottom or bed. The tornado
is the dry basin of a prehistoric lake; it
is filled to great denth, the biologists
say, with the fertile and decomposed
matter of the sandstones, limestones and
volcanic rocks of the surrounding ranges.
A part of the Valverde Land & Irrigation
com pany's land is situated northeast Of
the river. The Rio Grande rises in
Colorado 500 miles to the north It bends
east for about 120 miles, and then turns
directly south through New Mexico. It
descends rapidly to Albuquerque, and
from there to Socorro, San Marcial and
Las Cruces the gravity is from ~
down to three feet per mile. The Rio
Grande flows annually sufficient water to
irrigate every acre of land upon which
its waters could be conducted. but, un-
fortunately, there IL great variation in its
monthly supply. The food waters
August can safely be relied upon to be
more than sufficient for irrigation during
those months. There is an enormous
body of river water during the food time.
River gauging, the experts state, show
volume Of aow between Embudo, N. NJ,
and El Paso, Texas, that ranges between
l,500 and $500 cubic feet per second, or
an average Of about 4,0O0-second feet for
the first, food season. For the second
ono. or summer dow, the range Riyen is
from 400 to 1.2O0-second feet. 1t is con-
sidered that cubic foot per second to
12s acres does moderate duty, while $50