The La Jara chronicle. (La Jara, Conejos County, Colo.) 1896-19??, 1911-10-20
SELF EVIDENT FACTS
REGARDING DRAINAGE
Why No Time Should be Lost
in Building Reservoirs and
Draining the Lands.


self evident facts and unanswer
able arguments why we should
lose no time in building reservoirs
and draining the lands of the
valley.
Lowering the water table pre-
vents evaporation.
Drainage will lower the water
table to practically the level OF
the running water in the bottom
of the drainage bitches.
Lowering the water table will
make it possible to wash the al
kaline salts down into the sub
soils where they will sustain vege-
tation rather than prevent it,
as they do now in their con-
centrated condition on the sur
face.
The loss of water through eva :
Grafton is direct waste of money
to the farmer of the San Luis
Valley.
When the sub water comes
close to the surface it destroys
the fertility of the soil by eN
Guiding the air from the plant
roots, by rendering the ground
cold and clammy and by leaving
all its mineral content as it evap-
crates as an alkaline crust at or
near the surface.
Areation of the soil is as essen
tial to first-class crops as the SUI
plying of irrigation water.
Drainage will areate the ground
prevent needless evaporation ano
conserve the water now lost in
that manner for use in irrigation.
-AoLS iIessooou qua u9lIoVs II!M II
ing season by keeping the ground
warm instead of cold and clammy.
Drainage bitches, with proper
checks in them, will enable you
to absolutely control the sub, plac'
ing it at any level you wish.
Drainage will gather the water
now lost in evaporation and de
liver it to land of a lower eleva-
ton to be used in irrigation.
Five million dollars worth OF
water is lost by evaporation in the
San Luis Valley. This could all
be saved by two million dollars
cost in constructing drainage
bitches. These two million dol
lars worth of drainage bitches
will reclaim five hundred thouS-
and acres of water-logged lands
in the valley, areating them and
re-establishing their pristine life
and fertility.
The annual production Of this
one-half million acres should
easily be ten dollars per acre,
or five million dollars, which is
two and onc-half times the cost
of ditch construction, or two hun
bred and fifty per cent annually
on the investment.
Alfalfa on the drained lands OF
the valley is producing from
thirty to sixty dollars gross per
acre yearly.
Wheat, oats, barley, sugar
beets, peas and potatoes are prar-
tically a sure crop ON well drain
ed and properly irrigated land.
Ten dollars an acre is mighty
low estimate for the value of the
annual crop ON good San Luis
Valley land. Drainage and stor-
age water for irrigation will make
it all good land.
Nobody questions the value ard
productivity of well-drained, well
watered, San Luis Valley land.
Then drain your land, build reser-
voirs and water your land and
thus convert your paper value,
your asking value, into reality.
Better still, make your land pro
ductive and reap the yearly crops
that are annually gathered by the
farmers on the naturally drained
lands at the edges of the valley
If your land to-day is not pro
ducing you are losing the interest
on the money invested in it.
If you figure its value at five
thousand dollars, and money
worth eight per cent, you are los
ing four hundred dollars yearly
in interest on your land, besides
the taxes. Take this capital ont
of the idle class and make it