The La Jara chronicle., 1911-09-01
CENTRAL ORGANIZATION
BY FAR BETTER PLAN

The interest in reservoirs for the
valley is daily increasing and dur
ing the last month no less than
three different sections of the
country north of the Rio Grande
have had Representatives up in
the mountains looking over the
various reservoir sites with a
view to purchasing and construct
ing reservoirs. Let the good
work go on. We need them. Th
more the better. We need them
even now and their necessity
will be still more imperative as
the work of drainage progresses.
We have pointed out in the
past that with the storage of all
the surplus waters Of the Rio
Grande, and other streams that
come into the valley from the
west, we will not have sufficient
water to irrigate all of the ar
able land of the valley which may
be reached under these streams
Tor, as before stated, there are
less than two acres of mountain
watershed for each acre of val
ley land having an easterly slope
and subject to irrigation by
streams from the western side
of tue valley. Hence, we have
repeatedly advocated the utiIiza-
ton Of the seepage water devel-
oped by drainage bitches, as well
as to have advised that the most
extensive districts be formed so
that the water may be used over
and over again as many times
as possible before being dis
charged into the river and al
lowed to run to waste or, being
the property of the small or re
stricted district, forced to sell the
water to lower lying lands at wha,
ev'r figure the owners of those
lands might offer.
1t seems very clear to us that
the selling of the water developed
by the drainage or seepage ditch
es is the poorest possible policy,
for it will necessarily make it
compulsory, upon the district so
disposing of its scepage water, to
send that water on out of the dis
trict each and every year to the
purchasers below, regardless Of
how badly it might be needed by
the developers. We know, and
every man well acquainted with
conditions in the valley cannot
fail to appreciate the fact that
in dry seasons when water is
scarce and the supply, even with
reservoirs, might prove insuftl-
cient, that it would be greatly to
the advantage of the district TO
put in checks to temporarily hold
the water nearer the surface IN
such dry years. The holding
back of water, by checks in the
bitches, an occasional year now
an1 then when the supply from
the mountains and reservoirs is
scarce, will reduce the quantity
necessary to properly irrigate the
land. This temporary raising Of
the water table will not injure
the soil by bringing up the alkali,
for as soon as the checks are re
moved and the water table low
cred, the subsequent flooding of
the land that will occur in years
of bounteous snowfall will wash
the alkali down again before it
will have had time to damage the
soil or retard in the least the
growing of crops. 1t has taken
more than one year of sub-irrlga-
ton to destroy these lands in
the past, so we feel absolutely
safe in asserting that the occa-
sional employment of the sub
irrigation process will not only
not injure the land but will be of
great advantage to the drained
districts. But this cannot be
done where the water is sold by
one district to district below,
for the lower district will have a