The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-28

basin to be irrigated was about 100 feet
below the point on the river Nazas which
il was proposed to DAM that the main
canal would require a development of tbir-
ty-nine miles and that the Slope of the
lands within the basin was such thar
about 1l5 square miles out of the 30 COM
posing the basin could be advantageouslv
irrigated Since then by the aid of mod
ern engineering and American machinery
17j square miles have been placed under
cultivation. This required money and men
and high degree of engineering capa-
bility. The plan of irrigation was entrust.
ed by MIR. Iamedo to Jose Farias 4
Spanish engineer. An estate of 20O11
acres lying on the river Nazas and con-
trolling the water supply was purchased
and rp-rap was thrown across the river
at a point where il is about $50 feet wide
at the food. This constituted a dam and
from the dam the line of the main ca
nal was traced to the entrance of the
TlahualilO basin thirty-nine miles. The
canal was made seventy-two feet wide az
The base, six and one-half feet deep with
a grade of from eighteen inches to three
feet to the mile, except as TO one par
tcular section. This canal terminated in
a distributing tank to the entrance of
the irrigable area, from whence it bifur-
Gated, one arm clasping the western side
OF the basin and the other the eastern,
and both having the same average grade.
One Of them was fifteen miles in length,
thirty feet wide at the bottom, and with
a depth of five feet, while the other sub
canal was thirteen miles in length, with
a width of thirty-six feet at the bottom
and depth Of six feet.
Transverse bitches, at right angles to
the side branches, were then laid out and
all the land thus laid open to irrigation
was set out in blocks of uniform size,
each containing a Mexican sitio, a conven-
each side and measuring nearly 1850 acres.
The total ditching called for under the
plan included the main canal of 80 miles,
the first and second branch canals, respec-
lively, OF 10 ana 13 miles; 20 miles of trans
verse canals so miles of parallel bitches,
and 400 miles of distributing bitches.
Total excavation called for was about g.
10000 cubic yards for the main canaLand
for all the other canals and bitches on the
first section about 100000 cubic yards,
The first section involved 80 square miles.
From 1900 to $1,000 poems were employed on
the work, and d little over a year was oc-
cupled in digging the main canal. The most
approved agricultural implements and
utensils had been imported in advance
from the United States. Upon the compile
ton of the bitches each of the sitiOs was
placed under the management of an adj
mlnlstrator, and the general administra-
tor, and the general administration was
located on the hacienda of ZaragOza some
eight miles down the basin from the distrl-
butlng tank, and nearly in the center being
prepared for cultivation. Extensive build
ings were also erected consisting of
steam cotton gin and oil mill for handling
the cotton-seed oil a soap factory for utll-
lzlhg the Oil product, a cotton press and
en- electric light plant.
Such is a sketch of the big cotton fields
In Durango made possible by modern irri-
cation engineering. The rainfall in the
Bolson de Mapimi is confined to a few
days of heavy showers about the begin
ning Of June and the beginning of Decem-
Der. But up in the mountains of Durango,
where the Nazas is born the rainfall al
the same season is heavy and protracted,
resulting in high water In the river, when
lasts several weeks at a time and il Il
during these freshets that the lands Of The
Nazas district, and only then, receive any
water benefit.
In the Tlahualilo basin a week or ten
days of irrigation is all that is needed IN
the course of a year. the water soaking
quickly and easily through the almost I'M
palpabie silt, end the hot sun forming
protective crust that checks evaporation
and retains the moisture in the subsolL
owing 60 their long roots, cotton plants
strictly require irrigation only once every
other year, although corn and wheat must
receive il at each planting. Cotton tiell5
OF The Tlahualilo belt, after the spring II
rigation, resemble tracks of newborn rye
so modest are they in their size of pants
but the same fields after the fall irriss-
ton, when they have blossomed in snowy
white, show cotton plants so tall as almost
90 conceal from sight a man on morse
back. 1t is said that the cotton durlHs
those few months can almost be seen 20
grow. At all events. the finest cotton III
the country is now being produced upon
tracts of land League wide, which only
few years ago were deserts of sand
The company, during the cotton CROP
season, run their gins and presses and oil
mills day and night, and keep up laISe
electric light plant for that purpose .'
products of the hacienda are shipped az
rect from the station of ZaragoZa; the Coz,
ton, wheat corn and soap being marketei
in this republic. and the oil cake beins
shipped to the United States. Most OF the
machinery and implements employed are
OF American origin, and their aggregase
Is very large there being at present soluo
1000 American ploWs Of different types
uooD the estate.
a branch line. recently constructed iron.
the Mexican international railroad ~
Matamoras across the plains of the cen
tral Tlahualilo property, has made II pos
sible to extend cultivation to the remain
der of the basin, and it is estimated tnae
by the end of 1899 nearly 200 square mics
Will be under ditch and producing.