Deming graphic. (Deming, N.M.) 1903-1948, 1904-02-03

" expecting to farm with water
from well, The first thing
he wishes to know is, can he get "A well
that will furnish sufficient supply of
water? That being answered in the
affirmative, the next question is, how
much will it cost? This we will try to
answer by figures that will not lie.
The water which is being used in and
around Deming is found in a gravel
bed at q depth Of from 45 to GO feet,
varying between these depths accord
ing to the surface of the ground, and
the cost of digging common open wells
is from 80 to rs cents per foot. But it
has been demonstrated that the ordi-
nary we'll does not furnish water to
supply a large pump, as the flow
through the gravel is not sufficiently
rapid to meet the demand In view of
this fact, a series of experiments were
made last year at the New Mexico Ag-
ricultural Experiment Station, for the
purpose of determining whether a well
could be secured at moderate cost which
would supply large pump running
continuously for considerable length
of time, and they were successful in
such marked degree that we may
assume that the question is practically
settled 70 those localities where the
conditions of soil, water flow, etc, are
similar to the Mesilla valley. This well
was made by digging an open well to
the water level and sinking six inch
pipe from that depth TO where coarse
gravel was encountered, which at the
Station is depth of 4S feet from the
surface, while the distance to raise the
water is only Is feet, and after reach
ing the water gravel placing a II foot
strainer inside of the pipe and raising
the pipe to the top of the strainer thus
forming well six inches in diameter,
with a strainer II feet long, through
which the water and fine sand could
pass but which would detain the gravel,
forming stratum through which the
water could enter the strainer as fast
as pumped. In these tests some of the
pumps drew over 1000 gallons per min
ute for several hours without affecting
the supply in the least, which leads to
the conclusion that such well is prac
tically inexhaustible and would furnish
any quantity of water desired if the
casing were large enough to give the
capacity. The cost of the Station well
is given, including curb, pipe, labor
and materials, as being less than $3.50.
which is surely a moderate sum for
such well.
In years past several wells have been
sunk in and near Deming which, while
some of them were very costly, demon
strated that with comparatively cost an
abundance of water can be had for all
necessities. One now in use supplies
plenty of water for irrigating ten
acre market garden and others will do
equally as well. One of the most in
teresting of all the experiments thus
far made is at a point near town where
an open we'll was sunk to depth Of
some 60 feet and a four inch pipe
driven 100 feet from the bottom of this
pit, where flow Of water was encoun-
tered which raised to a height of six
feet above the level Of the first water
stratum and continued to flow to the
full capacity of the pipe as long as the
water was pumped away from it 1t
is our belief that this is the source
from which the farmer who expects to
do extensive irrigating will get his
water. We are informed by well ma
chine men that they will sink six or
eight inch castings to this depth at a
cast of $500, and such well would
supply farm of 200 acres or more.
Later this will be added to the cost of
pumps, etc., in figuring the entire cost
Of an irrigating plant for farms of diff
ferent sizes, and we will now take up
the question of
DUMPs FOR IRRIGA1 ING. As to the
classes of pumps suitable for
this class of work, the Expert
ment Station professors, John j. Yer.
non and Frances Il. Lester, dropped all