The La Jara chronicle., 1910-05-27
AS EDITOR FAxoN SEES US.


the Eighteenth National Irrigation
Congress, who last week made trip
through the San Luis va ley for the
congress, writes the following editor
ial correspondence to his newspaper,
the Garden City, Kansas. Evening
Telegram:
have just completed a 3-days trip
through the San Luis valley. in the
interest CT the Eighteenth National
Irrigation congress, organization, and
publicity, and | have been properly.
amazed at some of the things l have
seen and at the opportunity of the
country.
can best illustrate my apprecia-
ton by repeating a little remark that
| made to fine meeting that crowd
ed the rooms of the Commercial club
of Del Norte SATURDAY. afternoon, when
said the highest compliment l
could pay the San Luis valley was
to say it was the best section of the
mighty West / had ever seen. bar
ring only the Valley of Content-our
\
tic booster for the San Luis valley
said: Having associated with Mr..
Faxon for several hours to-day. and
knowing his loyalty to the Arkansas
valley, l am certain that, as he says,
this is the greatest compliment we
could expect for the San Luis val
ley"
The San Luis valley reminds one
of a sugar-bowL 1t is a great swoop
of territory fenced in by mountain
ranges covered with the eternal
SHOWS" and subjected to less of the
rgors of Western climate than you
would imagine. 1t possesses hun
dreds of thousands of fertile acres
yet scarcely touched by the hand of
the improver and developer. and
susceptible of the greatest possible
Improvement. Not to exceed 10000
people live in this section where
there should be at least a hundred
thousand. and it is one of the rich
est sections of the entire West. There
are several fine towns. of the size
or nearly so of Garden City. well
built up. modern in every particular.
and with fine agricultural sections
and districts surrounding them. This
is fortunately the case with Ala
mosa and Monte Vista. the princi-
pal towns of the valley Del Norte
is also another good town, hustl
ing, fully realizing the possibility of
agricultural development. and anx-
ious to enter upon its full career of
upbuil6ine and permanent improve
ment.
The San Luis valley comprises four
counties-Costilla. Conejos. Saguache.
in the semicircle formed by the
Sangre de Christie range. the Con
tinental Divide, and the New Mex
leo line. 1t has a sweep more COM
pact than the great Arkansas val 'ey,
and yet the acreage is about the same.
1t is a constant revelation to the
man Who travels over it, for II is a
magnificent domain, a kingdom. in
itself, and part of the mighty West
that is now building up under the
impetus of irrigation and what
have been pleased to call the Big
Business of the West.
The San Luis valley is good
deal like the Arkansas valley. l
never saw such a grain center as
this rich little valley is. with its
wheat and barley and its big mills
and elevators in every town, big
and small. Also there is the famous
pea section, where hundreds of acres
of this product are raised that the
famous hogs of the San Luis valley
may be fattened and prepared for
exclusive market. 1t is said that a
hog fed on San Luis peas will pro-
duce twice the flesh that a hog fed
Middle-West will produce, and that
is one of the things the valley is
fond of pointing out.
The Arkansas valley is highly de-
veloped under irrigation in the way
of beets. The seven fine sugar mills
that we have are a constant source
of revenue and envy. Yet the San
Luis valley is progressing rapidly
in the way of getting into this in
dustry. Live alert fellows are now
organizing a sugar company at Monte
Vista, the second town in population
in the valley, and expect to construct
a fine 6O0-ton sugar mil during the
coming fall and winter. More than
$500 acres of beets have already been