The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-04-05
THE PfCOS
VALLEY

"AlA
face above the bluff, on the west side
of the stream to the highest mesa
The total length of the crest is 1890
feet. The other eld of n dam is
set into a limestone bluff. Floods
escape by cement spillways, so firm.
lly constructed and so wide that they
will carry off any possible torrent.
The delivery canal is 6k feet deep,
65 feet wide at the bottom and A
feet wide at the top cut through the
east bluff. Two main canals carry
the water to the fields-one on the
east side of the river and n of the
west side. The water divides three
and a half miles below the dam. The
west canal is carried over the river
by a cement %aqueduct 500 feet long
by 4S feet high and 25 fee wide, and
beneath Dark canyon, a ~torrentlal
stream, by a cement siphon $50 feet
long. Not a foot of wood is used in
the construction of any part of the
Carlsbad project, from the reservoirs
to Black river and Red bluff. The
entire work is of cement n iron, e
cept, of course, h earth and stone
r~einforcements. Even the gates are
of iron and cement.
III Is a WOTk IHdl Will 0IuuTe lOT dill
time. In its construction the engi-
neers have had the lesson of the fail
ure of earthen dams and spillways
which were adopted by the water us
ers' association, viii originally estab-
lished the Carlsbad project. For a
short time this association supplied
water for a limited area of land, which
became no less productive h a the
land adjacent to the Northern Canal
near Roswell; but floods carried out
the dam and finally the project was
taken over by the government and
now it has come to stay
The Carlsbad project will cost about
$500, 900, including maintenance, which
is to be refunded by the water users
in ten nnual assessments. The gov
eminent, by the terms of the Recla-
nation Act, operates this and all 9th
err irrigation projects it constructs I'M
til h cost, without interest or a pro-
fit, is refunded. The government does
not guarantee thai the work will with
stand the floods, or leaks, but when
the government builds it builds well.
Before it sticks a pick in the ground,
lays stone or cement, or even makes
a fixed rive it takes measurements
of floods and normal flows and other
wise gathers information. Thereby
"neu II DeSllS WOTh Is DTOInlSeu every
guaranty within human science and
foresight that the work will endure.
The first apportionment of water
from the Carlsbad project is for 10000
acres. and government experts have
selected the lands. This for the nor
NAL flow of water. In addition, there
are within reach of the canals $4,000
acres more which later, by allowances
from time to time, as the government
engineers may determine, will be
given water. Besides all this, there
is an area of $4,000 acres, which the
engineers denominate "second-class,'
a part of which may in time be given
water. No person, by the Reclamation
Act, may ave water for more than
100 acres.
This 10000 acres or more which
the Hondo and the Carlsbad projects
will bring il is new land, reclaimed
land, which heretofore has beer only
pasture for sheep and cattle. 1t is
something to boast of and for the en-
terprise of the towns of Roswell and
Carlsbad; whose markets especially
will be benefited by the reclamation
to advertise.
However, it is only a fragment of
vast acreage of the valley, which
is accessible to water and which will
De 1lduep productive DY lTTlSdJlOn. EN-
en- now much more and in the valley
is under cultivation and made produc-
tive by the artificial use of water han
the maximum area to be reclaimed
by these two projects amounts to; but
every added gain augme1ts the whole,
and to subject his new land to the
uses of man a generous government
has made it available. The whole
Hondo and Carlsbad area planted in
alfalfa would yield il a single sea-
son a gross value equal to the cost
of the two projects.
In the Valley about $4,000 acres
are under cultivation by irrigation
not counting the Carlsbad district,
where farming mas been suspended
il a large degree until the season of
1907, when the Avalon water will be
available. OF this land 10000 acres
get water from the Northern Canal
which, fed by South Spring river run
from Roswell in Chaves county almost
to the Eddy county line; $500 acres
which are supplied by the three Ber-
renda rivers; 5000 acres which are
supplied by the North and South
Spring rivers, nj $4,000 acres which
are supplied by artesian wells. These
are the figures of Mr.. J. A. Graham
of the Roswell Commercial
Club. The three Berrenda rivers and
the two Spring rivers are less than
miles long, and undoubtedly are
artesian source. They are narrow
but deep and swift flowing, and their
waters are pure and wholesome.
are famous bass streams.
But irrigation in the Pecos Valley.
with the lands under the Hondo
and the Carlsbad projects added to
the lands already getting water, is on