Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-07-18

The Beginning Of Modern Irri gation- The
Progress That Has Been Made in Utah
The Work of Professor e.
wood Mead.
Two years ago western members Of
congress-, led by Senator Warren, Sc
cured a small appropriation to enable
the secretary of agriculture to begin a
study of the problems of irrigation. The
secretary intrusted this work to ElWood
Mead, at that time state engineer or
| wyoming, and made Cheyenne the CEN
trail office. The results secured WetA OF
such practical value that the frs ap-
preparation of $40, 900 was followed by
one of $35, 900, and that by $4,000.
One result has been to awaken an in
terest in this subject in the east and to
stimulate the construction of irrig3tlon
works. The results obtained show That
the ability to apply moisture WHEN
needed is one of the most effective al Is
to success east as well as west. The
great field of irrigated agriculture,
however, is in the west, where 1t con-
trolls the social and industrial future of
more than one-third of the United
States.
In the last year book Of the agricul-
tural department the commanding i'm
portance Of irrigation as the basis OF
western development is set forth by Mr..
Mead in an article Of great clearness
and interest, entitled THE Rise and
Future of Irrigation" an abstract of
which is given below:
ANCIENT IRRIGATION WORKS.
The earliest pathway of civilization
on the American continent led along
the banks cf streams. In various parts
of the southwest, notably in the Salt
river valley of Arizona, in northern
New Mexico, and along the southern
borders of Colorado and Utah are we'll
| defined remains of irrigation works,
which have outlived by many centuries
the civilization to which they belonged.
In at least one instance the bank of
an ancient canal has been utilized as
a part of modern works.
Riding up the valley of the Rio
Grande. in the first half of the six
teenth century, Spanish explorers
found in the midst of arid surround
ings beds of beautiful roses, not unlike
those in the gardens of CASTLE" as they
noted in their diaries. They also found
| Pueblo Indians irrigating the thirsty
soil, as their forefathers had done for
centuries before them, and as their de-
%scendants are still doing to-day. In this
valley and along the tributary streams,
and at other places in the desert wastes
of the southwest, Spanish settlements
sprang up and maintained themselves
by means of these life-giving waters.
The bitches at Las Cruces have an I'M
broken record of 300 years of service,
the history of which is written in the
banks of the canals and in the fields
irrigated. This is due to the sediment
with which the waters of the Rio
Grande are laden. Year after year this
has slowly added layer on layer. to the
sides and bottoms of these bitches, un-
til from being channels cut below the
surface of the soil they are now raised
2 or 3 feet above. 1t is here that one
can yet find agriculture almost as prim-
tive as that of the days of Pharaoh,
where grain Is reaped with the sickle
and thrashed by the trampling Of goats.
EARLY IRRIGATION IN CALIFOR-
MA.
From these settlements and from the
conquered cities of Mexico adventurous
missionaries pushed their way still far
Their westward, until they came in sight
of the Pacific, teaching the Indians the
crude art of irrigation, which they had
learned either in Spain or of the simple
inhabitants of the interior, and making
hills and deserts of the coast. So came
the early churches and gardens of Cal
ifornia and the first small impulse to-
ward the conquest of its fertile soil,
which must always be gratefully asso-
with the memory of the mission
fathers.
Measured by their cost or the skill re-
CURED to construct them, the small,
rude burrows which watered these gar
dens are now of little Importance.
to the monumental engineer
ing works which have succeeded them,
they possess to-day but little interest.
The best preserved of these mission
gardens is now an insignificant feature
if a landscape which includes miles on
niles of cement-lined aqueducts, cores
If pumping stations, and acres on
lcres of orange and lemon orchards,
cultivated with thoroughness and skill
lot surpassed in any section of the old
world or the new. 1t was far different
It the end of the eighteenth century,
When the thirty or more Of these gar
lens which were scattered along the
cast between the Mexican border and
Ian Francisco were the sole resting
of weary travellers, and their
and foliage the only relief In sum-