Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1904-03-31
in pEcoS VALLEY
L. IL. Spencer Gives Fine Des'
cription of Country.
In an Interesting Letter To l.. l..
Holmes OF this city.
Roswell, N. M. Mar. %, 'O4
L l. Holmes, Esq,
Belding, Mich.

Bedding, Mich.
Friend Lou:-Tom and are taking
in the wonders OF the Pecos Valley,
New Mexico. presume that you have
read something OF this really knew
nothing OF it until / came here. In
Chicago we were induced to join the
Tallmadge excursion to this Valley.
This company runs special cars every
two weeks to this point, bringing thou
sands of home-seekers and investors.
This is the valley of the Pecos River
and is an arid plain from ten to thirty
miles wide and about sixty miles long.
There is very little rain fall here but
a great canal has been built the whole
length of the valley and furnishes
abundance OF water for thousands and
thousands of acres of land. This land
when once supplied with water be comes
the most fertile you can imagine, and
here where the sun shines every day in
the year, all trees and crops and vege.
tation grows beyond anything you can
think Of.
The greatest apple orchards OF the
world are here, a though they have
been set out but few years. One
man realized $90,000.00 off OF his last
years crop. Another refused 320,ttt
cash for forty acres in orchard. G her
fruits are also abundant. Alno. all
kinds of farm products flourish here,
the finest celery of the world grows
in abundance. Alfalfa OF which we
hear so much back East is awonderful
crop here, growing as heavy as our
Michigan clover and cutting four and
five crops each season.
Hoses, cattle, sheep and hogs -four
ish and grow fat on this; the largest
and latest cattle ever saw are raised
wholly on this. We went out and saw
a herd OF Herefords; among these was
a bull which weighed 2600 pounds and
a cow which weighed 1900 pounds. 1t
seems there are more cattle and horses
in this little valley than In the whole
state OF Michigan. In addition to the
supply Of water from the canal they
are putting down hundreds OF Artesian
wells all through the Valley, with
from siX TO twelve inch pipe throwing
the brightest and purest water the
full bigness Of the pipe high in the air.
This is a very interesting sight These
wells are from three hundred to eight
hundred feet deep and as the water
comes from the ground it is from IS to
10 degrees Fahrenheit. The force is
so great that you can drop stone as
large as the pipe will take into the
pipe and the force OF the water will
throw it back. 1t is said that it will
do the same with a crowbar. Hardly
think it, did not try it, although did
try the stones. This large canal OF
which have told you is supplied by a
large number of these springs which
break out at two different points at the
head of the Valley. 1t seems that Ma
ture planned these great reservoirs
which, like our coal beds, had been
waiting through the ages the coming
of man.
There is another side to the stock
conditions here, however. On the
vast uncultivated plains there are
thousands and thousands OF cattle liv-
ing off of what remains of the dry gras-
ses Dry and dead as can be for there
has not been drop of rain since last
June. These cattle roam miles away
in search of food and as they turn back
to their drinking places they are often
cut of by the long stretches OF barbed
wire fence which enclose the ranges
and perish of thirst. There are peo-
pie in this Valley who live by gathering
up the bones of these cattle and draw
ing them here for shipment to the
manufacturers of fertilizers back East.
They do not need it here. ] spent a
couple OF days last week with the Pas
sanger Agent of this roao and he told
me he had suggested to thevnanage
ment the shipping Of this soil here to
the old farms back East to be used as
fertilizer. / would not for anything
discredit old Michigan or the locality
In which we live, but you can imagine
the incest farm in Ionia County, and
there are hundreds stretching up and
down the settled portions of this val
ley which would discount 1t.
With the great influx of people from
all the states and territories, the ten
dency is to divide the land into small
farms or gardens OF from ten to forty
acres. One man produced his book to
prove that he realized $2700.00 last
year off OF three acres, small fruit, cell
cry and garden stuff, himself and
twelve year old boy doing all the work.
Undevloped land with water right to
the canal can now be bought for from
$50 to s1OO per acre, according to the
proximitv 10 the railroad or towns