Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-02-17
WATER ON THE MESA.
Its Feasibility Possible and Probable
by Artificial Irrigation.
r SAND SLOPES.

Editors CltlZen.
Upon the establishment of our sta
ton by the Santa Fe railway twenty
two years ago. began the influx OF
states people TO what is now our city.
Then commenced the agitation of an
improved water system for irrigation
purposes.
Up and down the valley for a width
of six miles, and a length of twenty
miles, is land as fertile appearing as
it IS extensive, as pretty appearing as
it is barren and useless. because non
irrigable.
In all these years theoretical schemes
have been advanced and attempted,
for the redemption of the slope of the
foot hills ana of the mesa; and from
the days of Brownwell and his two-bit
boring device, through Robertson and
his four-bit high line canal: to the
more recent toy two-thousand-dollar
augur driven a few feet into the ground
north of the city to the most recent
neutrality-suspicious. low line fake,
nothing practicable has been attempt
ed, and the only results have been the
expanding of about $50 900.
These thoughts arose when | was
commissioned to investigate the water
question in connection with the Per-
kins plant in the valley, seven miles
south. | found it situated on the slope
of the hills. Found first a small en-
CINE room, at the rear of which was a
hole about ten feet square, and nine
feet below its surface, water. clear but
slightly agitated. A scale dropped to
the bottom indicated nine and one-half
feet of water. In one corner stood a
four-inch pipe connected with a main,
and alongside two small pipes; that
was all. These pipes were afterward
found connected with a pair of air cyl
inders in the well.
An obliging young man came from
the engine room and with him | en-
tered it and saw a boiler, an engine
and a lot of stuff he called nipples, ell
bows, collars, caps, unions, etc, which
were as unfamiliar to me as engines
are uninteresting, unless they dem
onstrated what | wanted to see-water
flowing over these sand slopes. / had
wanted to see it as badly as for up
ward of twenty years The Citizen has
wanted to see a railroad through
Tijeras canyon.
Shortly Mr.. Perkins arrived. and II
was demonstrated that u desert is
subject to redemption; that in n part
of our valley the twenty-third hour OF
the day of the cacti, the sage brush,
the soap weed and the desert sand has
been reached. and the first hour of the
alfalfa, the cereal, the beet and the
other vegetables, is approaching. Halt
a minute. after the engine started a
solid four-inch stream of water spouted
ten feet into the air from a siX-foot
standpipe about fifty yards from the
well. IF | was as young as | used to
hn ~ thnro would IN va hapn ShOntinp
and self-irrigatior amongst all hands
by the elbow hoist and the downward
flow, for the old heart was elated, the
old eyes well pleased to see water
actual water, i~rrigating the desert
sands.
In about twenty minutes, measuring
the well, it contained six feet of water
Five minutes later this was reduced
two and one-half inches; the next five
one and one-half, and in another five
one inch. Then could be plainly seer
a four-inch pipe from which f1owed
naturally, a crystal stream spoutlng Sly
) inches above the pipe and falling in &
two-foot circumference as steady anC
looking as clear as the globe we Otter
see covering a waXen bouquet. This
from a depth of only ffty-seven feet.
The water flow looked sufficient, bu
Mr.. Perkins informed me that it wal
not enough to satisfactorily test thu
capacity of his power, but that he cal
r easily increase the flow from the pres
ent pipe, and knowing now where tn
) water is, the quantity is only a ques
I ton of additional sources of supply.
3 Air is the force used, and its applica
= ton does not pertain to this report
The water can be brought from an,
. depth and conveyed any distance.
e Questioned as to the injury to tn
e plant by the cutting sands, the re
@ Spouse was that there were no valve
to injure; no parts subject to destrut
ton by such sands as are encountere'
here, and that they are the worst in a.
experience of more than 100 wells.
What | was sent TO find was, whetf
er the sands could be made fertile?
The hill slopes can be irrigated witt
o out a low line canal and without re
gard TO the Rio Grande.
Can the mesa be. irrigated withou
e the high line canal and without regarI
y TO the Rio Grande? | have Away
6 been satisfied that it can when the OF
e ject is approached intelligently and
does seem as though the intelligen
e method is now in the valley. But ! al
not satisfied as to the competency @
e my Judgment. Mr.. Perkins appears I
d be experienced in artificial iTrigatio
and as a practical man The CltiZe
should have his opinion on the que'
tion OF the mesa irrigation.