El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-10-14

ment of enthusiasm for good roads in
this particular valley.
Add TO these causes the general one
OF the Intelligence and progresstveness
Of the farmers which the Mimbres
valley has been so fortunate in secur-
ing ana one IS safe in predicting that
road building viii be extremely active
here until there is network Of good
roads covering every portion Of the ir-
r1gable lands in Luna county.
Luna COunty's Road Development.
In the matter Of actual accomplish
ment, this county has much Of which
TO boast A year ago the road across
the sands Of the Mimbres north OF
Deming was built, half Of the money
being contributed by the county and
half by the territory For many years
the little valley OF the upper Mimbres
was the only region productive of
fruits, vegetables and farm produce IN
the whole valley. The greater part of
this was marketed in Silver CITY and
various mining camps in the surround
ing mountains, the farmers and truck
growers preferring the hard, rocky and
often preclpitous mountain roads to
the four or five miles Of heavy sand
which divided them from Deming. For
so miles down from the head of the
Mimbres to the sands just outside OF
town, there has always been hard,
even road skirting the mountains and
across the mesa lands but the moment
the sand was reached, an empty wagon
= ~
Work OF Good Roads Committee.
Realizing that this condition meant
the annual loss to Deming of thousands
Of dollars in trade, the good roads COM
mittee of the chamber Of commerce got
busy last summer a year ago and sue
good roads commission promise Of as
much money to build this road as the
county would contribute. The good
roads committee then prevailed upon
q rfn to a usr
ate $500 for this road and a CORES
pOnding amount was obtained from
the territory, and the good roads com
mission also sent a skilled engineer
the work OF actual construction The
result was that in a very few months
last fall there was built perfect turn
pike across the sands of the Mimbres
The result Of the expenditure Of this
comparatively insignificant sum of
money in building this road has al
ready brought thousands Of dollars into
Deming that otherwise would have
gone to Silver City and the mining
camps Of the mountains. Instead Of its
being days drive now from the near
est farms up the Mimbres with a load.
it is but a three-hOur drive An auto
mobile makes the run from Silver CITY
to Deming In an hour and a half. and
the people from the Cooks mining dis
trict now make two trips to Deming
where they made but one before
Good Roads Breed Good Roads.
Good roads breed good roads. They
reproduce their kind indefinitely. slim
ulated by the success Of the road to the
north. the farmers south of Deming
headed by S. J. Smith, Leon Godchaux
and Sam 7 Clark. started out TO raise
funds for building a road miles to
the south 1t was the work of but a
few weeks to raise the sum of $500
by private subscription. A promise was
obtained from the county commission
ers for an equal amount from the coun-
ty funds, and the territorial good roads
commission (by the way, one of the
WOrthiest Institutions in New Mexico
promised to cooperate to the extent Of
$500. There is now from the three
sources $4,000 18th which to build this
new road This sum Of money would not
mean much in a country where there
are expensive bridges to build. rocks to
be heWn away sWamps to cross and
so on, but it means great deal in the
Mimbres valley, where no streams
ravines or gullies scar the landscape;
where the most expensive operation is
grubbing out mesquite roots, and where
in most places the sand can be scraped
away. leaving a perfect road below
Aside from cooperative road build
ing in Luna county. there are individ-
uals here who have accomplished no
mean results in this direction Notable
among these is Air. G. N. Sadler, farmer