Bisbee daily review., 1911-02-28
IRRIGATION OPENS DOORS
 WIDER TO THE FARMER


 ALBUQUERQUE, \. NJ. Feb. 27.
 Horticultural possibilities undream- ed of a decade ago are just. coming to light in New Mexico and decent discoveries demonstrate that an en- 1irely new era in the science of ir- rigation has dawned in this nart O. the great southwest Practical ir- ,isation has heretofore been re stricted by the visible supply of water in the streams; i. has HOW been shown conelusively that this is only a small portion of the total supply of water which is available for the reclamation of arid lands
 Practically every irrigab'e portion oi New Mexico is now believed to be underlaid by a vast underground sea which may be tapped by wells raised to the surface Of the ground aRd made to produce crops at a profit
 In the Mimbres valley around peming, N. M: over a hundred pumping plants have already changed a mesquite desert into fertile farms
 In the Portales district of east ern New Mexico sevefSy farmers have installed plants supplied with electric power from central plant. numerous pumping plants have been used for months in the Pecos val ley and elsewhere. The Commercial club of Albuquerque after thorough investigation has found that hun dreds of thousand of acres in the Central Rio Grande valley, the most fertile section of the new state can be irrigated at a low cost by electric or gasoline pusps, with 9 low rate assured for either electric power or fuel oil. the Santa Fe rail way having agreed to lay the oil down here at a rate which will en- able the consumer to get it at five cents a gallon. Ten or a dozen ex. perimental plants have demonstrated that hereafter Rio Grande valley farmers have access to an unlimited supply of water for irrigation at a depth of from ten to forty feet and may be absolutely independent of the flow of water in the river.
 Many other plants will be put in in the near future and the new and unexpected agricultural possibilities have attracted general attention to this section. which offers greater opportunities to farmers than per. haps any other part of New Mex leo. Thousands of acres of bench lands which cannot be irrigated by gravity from the river will now be placed under cultivation as new farmers come in; Albuquerque aE lords a splendid local market fol produce and is the distributing point of an immense territory and her citizens are now working de terminedly to make this part of the valley of the Rio Grande the most prosperous farming community fl the west
 The intense interest all over New Mexico in the newly realized pos abilities of irrigation through pump ing marks the beginning of an en tirely new era in agriculture and in the reclamation of dry lands il  the new state. Eastern capital more over has been attracted by the pos abilities of building big central pow CT plants to supply current so tho farmers. Manufacturers of pumpine machinery of all kinds have dis covered that New Mexico is abou to furnish them with the best nea market opened Up for many years Ten carloads of pumps and engines have been received at Deming iI the past six months and it is rec ognized that the permanent estab lishmens of the pumping plan in the Rio Grande Valley will mean al even greater development and rist of land values than in the Mlmbres valley where the values of tht pumping systems were first dem onstratcd.