The La Jara chronicle., 1911-09-22
7. {. Henry Endorses
Combined Drainage
And Irrigation
Denver, Sept. 13, 1911.

IOtNtlOplueuC OIL Ine AGRICULTURAL
territory tributary to Alamosa
as based upon my recent visit to
the valley.
AT the outset, | desire to eX-
press my deep qualification over
the personal courtesies so cor
daily extended to me and par
ticularly the high compliments
not, l fear, altogether deserved,
in your last issue.
AS a result of a full week S
touring of the valley, from Anto-
nito and forty miles south, and
thence as far north as Villa Grove
l have revived my personal know
ledge of the conditions which
reaffirm the optimistic opinions
that influenced me nearly thirty
years ago to aid in making the
San Luis Valley "blossom as the
rose
The demonstrations already con
summated have initiated results
which justify my renewed asser
tions of the past that there is
nowhere in all our broad land
a territory more fertile or better
adapted to the range of produc
ton established, than the great
San Luis Valley. | had been told
that land in the Monte Vista sec
ton was selling Cor more than
500 per acre. / really thought
if land was sold for that price,
tender-foot had been worked.
But | saw tens of thousands of
acres in actual cultivation which
are more certainly worth that fig
ure or more, than farms are in
the Mississippi valley at current
prices. There is not an acre in
your valley where irrigation is
possible that may not be brought
by modern skill to plane of pro-
duction equal to that established
by the Sylvester family.
But | regret to state that | was
deeply disappointed to see Ala
mosa still surrounded by a ter
ritory as fertile as the best, yet
a desert almost as barren as !
first saw it in 1888. In fact |
did not see a "show field" in a
radius of many miles about Alamo
sa. But | know the blame is not
due to natural conditions. My
own operations there twenty-five
years ago demonstrated that fact
conclusively.
take it that you want to know
what think should be done about
it. AT the risk of exhibiting some
presumption | venture to say =
First:-That drainage of the
entire territory surrounding Al
amosa lying under the Empire
and San Luis canals should be
comprehensively planned. When
ever extensive irrigation is
there employed, destructive seep-
age will result. The splendid
demonstration already made by
Messrs. Shahan & Robinson sub
stantiated by the Sylvester Bros,
in the north, absolutely solves
that problem.
Second THAT l judge not
more than one-half of that ter
ritory has any kind of a Water
Right and that ALL of it needs
storage. Under the Empire Ca
nal probably not one-half of the
water rights claimed have for
many years past been beneficial
ly applied. Besides, there are
many which are now merely float
in"" rights subject to contest on
the grounds of non-use. When
the laws governing the ownership
of water shall be as strictly en-
forced there as they are in North
ern Colorado, for instance,-a
matter of time merely-perhaps
half will be successfully as
sailed.
If, therefore, steps are not soon
taken to utilize these rights by
providing additional water both
for the lands supplied by them
an hose which have no water
whatever, it may well happen
that many thousands of acres ad-
jacent to Alamosa will continue
forever barren.
Third Il think the Shahan e.
Robinson operations should be