Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1895-09-16

pacity of 100000 cubic feet, there is no.
where the equal of this reservoir, which
stores 6,OOO,OOO,ap0 cubic feet of water.
The supply for this and other reser-
voirs is obtained by damming the Pecos
river, an unceasing stream fed by the
SHOWS of the Rocky mountains and in
Vulnerable springs that gush forth from
the limestone bed of the stream. By this
method the rains and SHOWS of the great
watershed are saved and utilized when
needed in dry seasons.
COST OF PECos VALLEY IRRIGATION
SYSTEM.
These works, together with the rail-
roads built in connection Herewith, have
cost something like $3,OOO,000, counting
the ex expenditures of the corporation alone;
while nearly as much more has been spent
by private enterprise in improving the
lands reclaimed. They have made avail
able to farmers half a million acres of
land that, but for the way being pro-
vided to supply water and reach the
markets of the world, would not have
been claimed from the government by
the settlers.
The immediate result has been the
building up of two comparatively new
and prosperous counties, now we'll sup
piled with civic institutions, public build
ings, schools, churches, prosperous towns
and progressive communities, having
railroad facilities, telephones and tele-
graph lines throughout the valley that is
200 miles long with an average width of
ten miles, while in the principal towns
are found electric lights and all other
conveniences possessed by older COM
munites.
An important subject, and one that is
now attracting the attention of those IN
terested in irrigation, and one which
should receive the most careful considera-
tion from you, is that of legislation; the
enactment of the laws to facilitate re-
clamation of the desert lands, and at the
same time fully protect the owner in
the water rights acquired. 1t ia especial
ly important that the investor should
know just what right he is acquiring aud
that he will at all times be protected in
the right acquired.
Capital is always timid, and must have a
guarantee of perfect protection before in
vesting; safety of the principal and GER
tainty of the interest are the two salient
points never overlooked by the careful
business investor.
How to do this is question of grave
Importance. Certain it is, that our pres
snt land laws, national and state, are entire.
ly inndequats; the present land laws were
not framed to meet the conditions found
here; they were enacted at a time when
the arid region was never thought of as
an agricultural country, and to suit the
conditions arising in the great temporal
regions of the Mississippi and her tribut.
aries.
The law for the acquisition of the
lands from the government, in the arid
regions, should be changed to meet the
conditions existing here. It would great
ly aid the settler, and in many instances
prevent the appearance Of fraud, which lie
SO frequently charged against the settler
when he is honestly trying to comply
with the requirements regulating the
performance of acts absolutely useless
for the purposes to which he intends to
apply the land.
Not only does the law need changing as
to the mode of obtaining title, but the
right which the settlers acquire to the
water should be definitely and clearly de-
fined, SO as to eliminate that uncertainty
now 80 often found among claimants, who
obtain their supply from the rivers and
streams that traverse two or more states
or territories.
Take for example the Rio Grande,
which traverses the southern part of Colo
RADIO, all OF New Mexico, and forms the
boundary for many hundreds of miles be-
tween the great state of Texas and the
republic of Mexico. For more than 1000
miles, it passes through contry where
its waters are used for irrigation, and
those using them are the citizens of two
great republics; those of one obtain their
rights from three separate sources, the
state of Texas and Colorado and the ter
ritory of New Mexico; and those of the
other, the republic of Mexico, from the
states of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Tam a.
ulipas.
The waters being in sufficient to
meet the necessities of all, 1t can
readily be seen how intricate the
problem presented and how difficult of
adjustment in such manner as to do
exact Justice and protect each proprietor
in his holding. This is difficult task,
where the stream is wholly in one state,
where one Gods of laws regulates the
rights of of all; but here We have the citi-
gems of two nations, governed BY six diff
ferent law making bodies, each acting in.
dependent of the other, to increase the
difficulty and make "confusion..w con.
founded"
It is true, the law gives to the party
first appropriating the waters of stream
the proprie.orshlp for the quantity APP
propriated, but the constant construction
of new bitches at various points up and
down the stream, distant from each other,
often renders it difficult to determine
who has the prior right, and ia seasons of
drouth to properly distribute the water
between those standing upon an equal
footing, even when all the parties are
sub ect to the came Jurisdiction, and the
matters in dispute can be submitted to a
single tribunal for adjustment; but the
difficulty is increased when state or ma.
tional lines intervene which limit the
jurisdiction to only a portion of the liti-
giants.
INTER STATE AND INTERNATIONAL CUES
TfONg.