The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1909-11-24
DESERT WILL Be REDEEMED
A VAST EMPIRE ON UNITED
STATES-MEXICO BORDER.
Basin of the Rio Grande, With Mill
lions of Acres, to Be Turned
Into Another Nile Valley.


lions of Acres, to Be Turned
Into Another Nile Valley.
Ell PASO, Textile governments
of the United States and Mexico are
to be asked to cooperate in making
possible one of the greatest irriga-
ton works in the history of the new
world-the veritable changing of the
Rio Grande basin into another Nile
valley. The project contemplates a
system which will reclaim strip
of arid land 100 miles wide-5O
miles on the American and so on
the Mexican side of the river and
$50 miles in length as the stream
flows. The farmers lnnabiting this
area will ask both governments for
authority to construct dams or dikes
in the river capable of insuring per-
feet irrigation to 25,000,000 acres.
In other words the area sought to
be reclaimed by the irrigating prof.
ect is larger than the combined
areas of the states of Connecticut,
Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts,
and New Jersey, and larger by more
than 1000 square miles than the
state Of Indiana.
No Government Aid Needed.
There are no serious engineering
problems to solve but the fact that
the Rio Grande belongs partly to the
United States and partly to Mexico
makes an agreement by both coun-
tries to the disposition of the waters
a necessity. No financial aid will be
asked or needed from either govern
ment. 1t is only the engineering and
diplomatic aid which is wanted, and
the American government in this
whole question must perform a part
which no company, community,
state or individual can perform.
Once the details are settled be-
tween the governments so as to make
it possible for private capital to car
ry out the physical work there will
be no trouble in securing all the mon
ely needed to build the reservoirs,
dams, levees and canals, as the high
merit of the soil and climate, given
a supply of water, is so well demon
strated that there are various finan-
cial and engineering institutions
ready, and even waiting, to under
take the projects. The rich soil is
there and the water is there, and
If the two can be put together the
rapid cultivation and development of
this vast dominion is assured.
Vast Increase i'll Land Values.
While the work of irrigation at
first will center in the lower Rio
Grande valley, extending $50 miles
north of Brownsville, the same plans
of development are to be applied
ultimately to the upper valley, which
extends beyond Devils river. The
upper valley is not a new country,
having been opened by railroads
many years ago. But the lower Rio
Grande valley, which, up to less than
four years ago was without a rail-
road, proved wonder to the pioneer
settlers who followed the locomotive
into the barren country. 1t was soon
discovered that water was all that
was needed to convert the sunburnt
prairie and cacti lands into produc-
ing farms. Rain seldom vets the
ground in that section; and, any,
way, with the nearest railway so or
more miles away, nobody wanted to
risk starvation, even though the land
was on the market for years at less
than 81 an acre.
But with the laying of the rails
into that pocket of southwestern
Texas came an awakening, and with
irrigation, which is now carried on
along the Rio Grande, thousands of
acres of land in the Rio Grande val
ley are being made as productive as
the valley of the Nile
The development Of the lower val
ley and the advancement in the price
of land will give some idea of the
value of irrigation when it is known
that land offered for 81 an acre and
less than four years ago, with no
buyers, is today worth from $50 to
$120 per acre and selling. For cen
turtles this land produced nothing but
cacti, stunted mesquite and other
forms Of chaparral. But it is now
being transformed into a garden and
fruit and vegetables and rice and
cotton and other products grown
there are in some respects far supe-
rior to the products of the same kind
produced in other sections of the
state-the crops maturing early be-
ing one advantage