Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-11-04
Irrigation in New Mexico.

Irrigation in New Mexico.
Carlsbad, N. M, Oct. 25.-Probably
never before in the history of any
community has the value of irrigation
and the storage of water been so thor
oughly demonstrated as 1t has in the
Pecos Valley during the summer just
closed. The season has been a most
trying one everywhere. Cloudless
skies day after day, cool, cloud-dlspell-
ing nights week after week, baking
fields and water nowhere except in
the irrigation bitches of such districts
as were fortunate enough to have them
In many cotton growing sections of
the Southwest ten acres of rich land
barely produced a bale of the staple,
and poor fiber at that, and this very
land has in the past years almost
without a break produced its regular
bale to the acre.
Cities with expensive and well
equipped water systems, being reduced
to the extremity where the consumer
couid only use water from the city's
mains an hour every second day. and
miles and miles of ungathered crops
have all borne direful testimony of the
disasters that attend an absence of
rainfall in the land that lies beneath
the ardent sun of the Southwest. This
or nr itb N ttyhfnh tro oeytx co
forcibly with the conditions that pre-
vailed during the preceding spring in
Texas and elsewhere, when enormous
rains and their attendant floods swept
away farms and villages, destroying
flocks and herds and human life, has
done more to call attention to the ben
eflts of irrigation and water storage
in the Southwest than all the eloquent
lectures ever delivered on the subject.
The rainfall in the Pecos Valley has
| averaged, one year with another, Is
inches, that being a low estimate.
This year it was less than 3 inches!
As | inch of rainfall represents nearly
1000 cubic feet of water deposited on
each arce of land, it can readily be
seen what an immense difference this
variation might have made in
the products of the valley
and would have made had 1t not
been for its superb system of irriga-
ton. AS it was, nothing suffered eX-
cept the sugar beet crop, and that not
to any fatal extent, probably showing
loss of third of what 1T would have
been under ordinary circumstances
cerCainly mo- a half. Fruit, alfalfa
kamr corn, Indian corn, melons, veg
etables and all other products, did
about as well as in other years.
From the first of March to the first
of October the irrigation company
placed on 1881 acres of land now un-
der cultivation in the vicinity of
Carlsbad 33923.21 acre feet Of water.
Now, as every acre foot of water rep
resents 1850 cubic feet, and every
cubic foot means eight gallons, it can
be readily seen why the same disasters
in the way of ruined crops and parch-
ed-up pastures did not overtake this
section that swept bare the cotton
fields of other parts of the South.
When it is considered also that a
few short years ago, so few in fact
lhat even school boys can recall them,
this part of the valley was almost a
barren waste, or at bestaveryindiffer
ent cattle range, and thattoday it
stands Rre-eminent as one the most
beautiful as well as most productive
sections in New Mexico, some idea
may be formed of the grand results to
be obtained from systematized irri-
cation.
water is the life of the soil" One
m ght go a step further and claim that
it is all, The rich and fruitful soil of
the arid regions in many parts of Am
erica without water is like the power
full engine without the steam, the ele-
merits of immense force are all there
but the motive power is lacking.-Geo
II. Hutchins, in Globe Democrat.