The La Jara chronicle., 1911-05-26

feet in elevation between the
Gunbarrel Road, running due
south from Monte Vista, and the
!, city of Alamosa. There is differ
ence of ninety feet in elevation
between the Henry siding and
the Arnell lands, which lie on the
extreme west of the proposed dis
trict in the Swede settlement.
The fall is very regular, ten feet
per mile, from west to east across
36-9, while the slope to the east
from the Gunbarrel Road south
of Monte Vista down Rock Creek
basin to the Rio Grande south
east of Alamosa is five feet to the
mile and very uniform. Thus, the
engineering possibilities easily
warrant the conclusion that the
water may be brought to the
surface through gravity bitches,
or locks in the seepage bitches,
and used over three or four times
before it passes beyond the bound
aries of the district.
If, Mr.. Reader, your land hap
pens to be the higher land and
seepage water under this system
not available to you, you have an
offset in the fact that the lower
lands will be partially taken care
of by seepage water, while por
ton of the water now used on
these lands will be at your dis
posal to properly irrigate yours.
If the district were made small
er, including only limited areas,
the water developed by any
drainage district would have to
be sold or disposed of to
some water user lower down,
entailing endless chickering's and
negotiations more or less un-
satisfactory. But if all the land
is included in one district and the
water is used in that district you
receive the full benefit of its val
ne, using it over and over again
until it finally empties into the
Rio Grande above La Sauces,
where it is no longer available
for lands in Colorado, but where
it will furnish a constant stream
of several hundred second feet
during the dryest seasons to ap-
pease the wrath of the promoters
of the Engle Dam project, and
demonstrate to the government
reclamation service that the San
Luis Valley, irrigated and proper
ly drained, is the best storage
reservoir conceivable for the semi
tropical arid lands lying along the
lower Rio Grande.
So don't fritter away your seep-
age water for the mere cost of
drainage bitches; it is worth many
times more. You have market
for it at its full value, if you go
into a district large enough to use
it on some of the lands o. your
, district, and the oftener it can
be brought to the surface and
used over again within your dis
trict, the greater its value to you.
The physical conditions deter
mine the proper sh of any dis
trict to be formed. The sources
of first supply and the final use
of the seepage water developed
tof course within the state)
should determine the size of the
district.
No more ideal conditions exist
anywhere within the arid west for
perfect and comprehensive sys-
TEN of irrigation and drainage
than the lands embraced within
the confines of the Alamosa dis
trict, as above proposed. So let
us organize. Buy the necessary
reservoirs to secure an abun-
dance of water, merge all the
water rights now used on these
lands so they can be handled un-
der one head and to the great
est advantage of all, develop the
seepage water for the mutual
benefit of the entire district,
and show the world one hundred
and fifty thousand acres of land
all in one body, every acre of it
fertile and producing. 1t can be
done. Will you help do itf