El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-03-05

The history of the Mississippi, the Mis-
souri, and the Ohio valleys show that where
intense fertility and abundant water supply
are to be found, there will be the most de-
sirable location for settlement and devel-
ment, and that these lands will be taken up
and cultivated long before the less fertile
and productive lands are taken up. The
Ell Paso valley of the Rio Grande is similar
to those other great valleys, in that it has
the best possible natural conditions for
farming, and it is certain that it will also
be settled long before the less fertile and
semi-ard tracts of the southwest are even
homesteaded. Not only has the Ell Paso
Valley, the richest of the Rio Grande chain
of valleys, the richest soil texture and
sure water supply for irrigating, but it also
has a market at its door to which can be sold
a large part of the output of the entire val
ley. With conditions as favorable as these,
all that is needed to make the soil produce
crops that will make the grower rich within
a few years, is the industrious and intelli-
gent application of the laws of scientific ag-
riculture.
The soil, in itself the richest by chemi-
cal and physical test to be found in the
southwest, is being constantly enriched by
the irrigation waters that are run over the
land to supply moisture to the growing
plants The Rio Grande carries immense
amounts of fertilizing materials annually
from the headwaters, and this is deposited
on the lands Of the lower valleys. Lime,
magnesia, aluminium, carbonic acid and nj
trogen- the latter the most important ele-
ment of plant life, are carried down the
river IN solution, and as soon as the waters
are run onto the lands these elements of
plant growth are deposited on the surface
of the soil The air of the valley is very dry
and causes rapid evaporation. This in turn
causes the plants to take up the moisture
from the irrigated ground rapidly, and with
it these life-giving substances that are dis
tributed through the body of the plant and
cause the rapid growth. The richness of the
soil is not on the surface Of the land, as it
is so often found in other sections It eX-
tends down many feet and the fertility is
practically inexhaustible when economic
agriculture is carried on. This land has
been built up by sediment from the river
that has been carried down from above and
dropped over the Ell Paso Valley. Hun
dreds of years have been consumed in this
building-up process, and the result is a soil
texture that consists Of a number of strata
of rich SILT in the formation of huge layer
cake.
The Elephant Butte project, when COM
pleted, Will be one of the biggest irrigation
engineering accomplishments ever finished
in this country. It will supply water for
irrigating 10000 acres of land in the Ell
Paso Valley of the Rio Grande, and will be
built at a cost of $9,OOO,0O0 It will be built
in gorge at point about so miles above
Rincon. at what is known as Elephant
Butte At this point the river runs be-
tween rock walls, and it is the plan of the
engineers to construct a concrete re-
tanning wall from one of the sides of
the gorge to the other, making the
reservoir solid wall of masonry
connected to the natural rock forma-