Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-11-20
An IRRIGATION SYSTEM PROPOSED.
Suggestion Made by a Resident ofthe Rio
Grande Vallav.

San Antonio, N. M, Nov. 19.-I have
read with considerable interest Prof.
Hadley's letter regarding methods for
securing irrigation water for the Rio
Grande valley, also his desire for opin-
ions from others on this important
subject.
Our conditions are vastly different
from those in California, our crops are
different and the soil from which the
water must be got is different.
We must have cheap water, if wheat,
alfalfa and other field crops are to be
produced at a profit. If water is to be
secured cheaply and in abundance, the
lift must be low, as it costs twice as
much to lift a given volume Of water
20 feet as to lift it 10 feet.
I have made several trips to Cali
fornia and have given considerable at
tention to the irrigation systems fol-
lowed there. I have also spent con-
siderable time in the Rio Grande val
ley and have made a study of the con-
ditions prevailing here. The whole val
ley from Albuquerque to Ell Paso is one
vast bed of quicksand. I have sunk ex-
detrimental wells in the mouths of ar
royas, hoping to find water in gravel
and have failed nine times out of ten.
Some way will have to be devised for
getting water out of this quicksand.
Without going over all the conditions
to be met and the various ways of
meeting them, 1t seems to me that
something like the following plan will
ultimately meet with success.
l would keep up the present river
supply as long as available, with the
present system of distribution. Then I
would go to a point on the acequia ma
Dire about one mile from its
ton with the river and there install a
pumping plant, where there will be an
abundance of water not over foul feet
below the surface of the surrounding
country, and where the water surface
in the acequia are on the same level.
This gives us a theoretical lift Of four
feet only, practically say six feet, pro-
vided the supply is ample to meet all
requirements. For such a lift some mo-
dification of the Turbine pumping sys-
TEN will be most economical. For my
well I would dig a long ditch running
north from the pump station say II
feet wide at the southern or pumping
end, and four feet wide at the north
end, an average width of eight feet for
a water supply of say 300, 900 gallons
per hour for 1000 acres. This ditch
well would be Of sufficient length to fur
nish the above supply without lower
ing the water level (normal) over one
foot when the pumps were doing full
duty. Pumping would begin, say in
June after the failure of the river sup
ply. There would be in the acequia a
deposit of silt deposited from the river
water. If there were. say 900 acres,
under this system, I would divide the
service into three sections of 300 acres
each, giving water to the first section,
on, say, Monday and Tuesday, the Sec
ond on Wednesday and Thursday, and
the third on Friday and Saturday.
When any of these sections were being
supplied, I would operate a drag or
harrow in that section of the ditch,
thus string up the river silt and Gar
rying it m the land of that section,
where it would contribute to the fertil-
ity of the soil and at the end Of the
crop Nal leaving the whole acequia
clean and saving the enormous labor
now expended annually for cleaning by
manual labor.
There is one other great advantage
in this system. Water taken from the
ground is of too low a temperature for
growing crops and must be warmed to
get the best results. This is accom-
plished while flowing from the pump
ing station in the acequia.
The only element of uncertainty in
the cost Of installing and operating
such a plant Is the investment neces-
sary to control the quicksand and to
secure an ample volume Of water.
G.. B. ALLAIRE.