The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-11-14
IFrom the Muvane News.l

From the MuVan6 News
To change a vast and comparatively
barren waste, where nothing but an oc-
casional cactus bush or ant heap now
breaks the monotony of arid plain, and
convert it into a veritable garden where
flowers, fruit and waving grain shall
make the hearts of thousands of hus-
bandmen rejoice is an enterprise which
may well arouse the enthusiasm in it's
promoters.
Such an enterprise is now well under
way, with every promise of early COM
pletion, near the city of Pueblo, in the
state of Colorado. 1t is the enterprise
of the Pueblo-Rocky Ford Land Co., of
Topeka, Kan, the president of the com
pany being c. L. Tallmadge, and the
vice president, B. H. Tallmadge, both
experienced land men.
In order that we might have direct
evidence on this immense proposition
the writer made a trip to Colorado last
week, together with several others from
this community, and will no longer have
to depend upon hearsay evidence when
the stories told him of the big things ac-
complished on irrigated lands seem too
big to believe.
Leaving Mulvane Wednesday after
noon, we arrived in Pueblo before day
light Thursday morning, and after
substantial breakfast. were ready by
80 to join the laree company of land
seekers for the Sixty-mile trip by auto
mobile to the reservoirs where the wa
ters are to be stored to irrigate the
100000 acres of land owned by this COM
pany. There were sixteen automobile
loads in the party, and as we whirled
away toward the south the great noun
tains to our right, which seemed but
lille Of thei- twenty away, presented
an ever-changing view. Far away to
the south the Spanish peaks, their snow
capped heads showing the white of old
age, stood like sentinels on guard Of
rio m
wagons at twenty miles an hour, up
grade, then down a slope into some
little valley where the luxuriant alfalfa
in field and stack told eloquent stories
of what a little water, a little soil and
ZONE Colorado sunshine would do. Then
up little higher grade until the foot
hills begun to show quite plainly their
proximity, when we came to a good
sized lake, across 80 mouth of which
a dam was being built by a large force
Of men. This is known as reservoir NO.
s, and the engineers give it capacity
of IA, 900 acre feet-that is, of the equal
foot of water over $4,000 acres, it is
claimed that twelve inches Of water If
placed at the proper time is all the ad-
ditional moisture needed to grow crops
in this part of Colorado. This lake will
empty its waters into Huerfano river at
the will of the company, be carried
down the river to the company's ditch,
and be diverted there and spread
cry tract of land owned or sold by the
company.
From here we went to reservoir No. 1
q basin called Bradford's lake, where
a body of water three miles across ans
twelve miles around will be held in
storage for summer use. This lake will
be filled by diverting the water from
the HuerfanO river through an immense
canal, into the lake, and then through
a second canal it may be turned back
into the river at the will of the com
pany, and put to the use of irrigation
at such time as it is most needed. This
lake has a capacity of 81, 900 acre feet
The HuerfanO is a stream with a bed
similar to that of the Minnesota, and
carries the water of a territory cover
ing 1,200 square miles where the annual
rainfall in % inches. AT this season Of
the year the river has but little water
in it. and was easily forded by the au-
tOmobiles, but it shows signs of being
a powerful stream in the spring and
early summer.
Besides these two reservoirs the COM
pany has four others, with a total ca
pacity of about 900 acre feet, or two
and one-half times as much as is need
ed for the land in question. We were
taken to where the great diversion dam
Of steel and concrete is being built
across the Huerfano by large force
of men. The route also took us past
the great diversion ditch upon which
two monstrous steam shovels are eat
ing their way through the earth in
strenuous effort to get together in the
next four weeks. They are now about
a mile apart, and the ditch they are
making is the second largest irrigation
ditch in the whole country.
From the reservoirs we were driven
to the little town of Huerfano, where
we deserted the automobiles, taking a
special train back to Pueblo and
through to Canon City, the home of
good coal, and they have also one of
the most marvellous irrigated sections