The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1905-01-17

in the great artesian belt around RIOS
well. This land is especially adapted
to fruit culture.
The second source of irrigation is
by artesian wells. The first well was
dug at Roswell fourteen years ago.
Now there are over 200 wells in the
Valley. These wells are from seventy
to one thousand feet deep and cost
$500 to s. 5000 each. They produce
large quantities of water. The Miller
well six miles southwest Of Roswell
discharges 1920 gallons per minute.
which spouts sixty-four inches above
the top of a seven-inch casing. The
Cecil well near Artesia flows $500
gallons per minute and the water
spouts a stream six inches across and
five feet high continually. On the
Hamilton stock farm two miles north
east of Roswell. a well 200 feet deep
throws 1000 gallons per minute thro'
an eight-inch pipe. These wells furn-
ish water for all purposes and are
truck, alfalfa and fruit lands.
Inc government mas just maze
used by their owners to irrigate
available under the Reclamation Act,
$250,000 TO build the Hondo reservoir,
twelve miles west of Roswell. This
reservoir will be completed in Sep
TENDER, 1905. and will Immediately
bring into use for farming and fruit
raising 10000 acres of AND immediate
ly adjoining Roswell.
The reservoir covers 1000 acres
and when filled will contain a depth
OF twenty feet of water. This water
from the White mountains by
the Hondo river and it's tributaries.
which are $50 miles long. Land own
ers in the Hondo district are assessed
$25 an acre to build this reservoir
and are given ten years in which to
pay, without interest. This land is
now valued at from SO to $25 an
acre, but it will be worth $50 in six
months.
Farms in the Valley are not large,
There are very few farms over 600
acres. Land values are at even great
er range. Unimproved land in the ar
tesian belt can be bought at $40 an
acre, but it often costs $25 or even
$35 an acre before an artesian well,
bitches and drainage canals are com
pleted. Land with water rights can
be had at S25 an acre upward. I'm
proved Ian near Roswell is selling
at $50 to $500 an acre.
George w. Medley refused $40, 900
for forty acres, including twenty ac-
res in orchard and twenty acres in
alfalfa. Three a ago he paid $3.50
an acre for this tract. This property
lies five miles east of Roswell.
The principal crops of the Valley
are alfalfa and fruit, with an increas-
ing yield of all vegetables, including
c~antaloupes and celery. Alfalfa is
cut four to five times annually and
sells at SIS to s12 per ton. R. F. Barn
EFT of Roswell owns forty acres of
land. asst year the first two
cuttings yielded 100 tons. the third
cutting sixty tons, the fourth forty
tons, and the fifth thirty tons. while
he rented the pasture land during the
winter at $3.50 an acre. On Deem
Der 1st he sold most of his crop at
$3.50 per ton in the stack. The first
three cuttings of alfalfa are usually
shipped to eastern and foreign mar
kets.
There are at present 5000 acres
of apple orchards in the Valley. ]. J.
Hagerman owns a 500-acre orchard
from which in 1904 he shipped 100
About $50 cars were shipped
from the Valley. Ben Davis. Gano,
Winesap, Missouri Pippin. and Nam
Black Twig are the principal
varieties. Bartlett pears. California
plums, and luscious peaches are
grown. Apple trees bear the fourth
year. About n hundred trees are
planted TO the acre. On the farm of
F. Barnett near Roswell, twenty
six acres of n~ine-year-old trees pro-
duced apples that sold for $4,000 in
1904. This price was obtained for the
fruit on trees, and COG trees Of this
orchard produced fruit that sold for
So, 900 on the tree. The yield for the
orchard was 1 5000 bushels. Watermel
ons from eleven acres near Roswell
SOLD last last e by the l.. +. D
farm for S1,780 for the first crop. Gel
cry yields $500 per acre net profit
Celery raised in the Valley excels the
article. The express COM
at Roswell collected 10000 ex-
in 1904. There is c~onsidera-
BILE land in the Valley open to home
entry, which may be turned in
to good farms.