El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-10-04
Westward the Star of Empire
Takes His Way"
By R. BEDICHEK, DEFINING, N. N.

plies for pushing civilization still fur
Their west. And IT has always been the
desire, nay, the necessity, for cheap
land that has moved the American geo
pie westward and ever westward, until
the great barrier Of the Pacific was
reached.
1t is easy to trace the source Of the
wealth OF the great majority Of the
families Of any community back to the
land. You ask about how Jones got
his money. You are answered that lie
came here in the early day, got a lot OF
land and held on to It. or he bought
and held on to them Or It may have
been Jones father who did this thing,
or his grandfather. The wealthy fam
HES Of any community are the ones
who, as a rule, got in on the ground
floor 1t is not secret this thing OF
acquiring property He who runs may
read Where there is one man who
got rich by means Of a successful in
vention, building a railroad, establish
ing manufacturing plant, there are
hundreds who got their money, OF rath-
er their start by the rise in the price
Of land.
Where Cheap Lands Lie.
1t is conceded TO be fact by all
that opportunities for making money
dwindle in proportion to the advance
ment Of any section Of country. At
the time at which Adam Smith wrote
the above quoted passage, opportunities
for making money were scarce in Eng
land, but they were plentiful in New
England, Virginia, Georgia. A hundred
years ago many of the opportunities
had been mOnOpolized in the Atlantic
coast states, but there was an abun-
dance Of cheap lands just west OF the
Aleghanies. Westward swept the vast
and ever widening flood Of immigra-
tiOn, leaving in its wake developed
farms towering cities vast public i'm
prOvements, and families established In
wealth and independence.
Somewhat 0ur of the regular c0uraa
Of immigrat ton and, therefore and for
other reasons appearing later long
overlooked by the prOspeCtor, lies the
fertile vallev OF the Mimbres in south
ern New Mexico. Nested among the
mountains, barren looking and uninvit-
ing to the husbandman. this valley was
overlooked while hundreds of thousands
OF homeseekers swept on to California
and the coast in search OF cheap and
productive lands. Furthermore, the
wonderful water supply Of this valley
remained undiscovered until very Few
years ago. 1t was known that vast
floods came down the Mimbres out OF
the mountains only to disappear mystic
riously and as If by magic; but what
became Of all this water was matter
OF conjecture until comparatively
short time ago. Some thought that
these waters were conducted by a mar
row underground channel, and perhaps
through fissures in the mountains to
the south, into the Rio Grande river.
Others thought that thEy reappeared in
some artesian district far into old Mex
leo. And so on.
The Conduct Of Water.
The truth of the matter turned out
to be that underlying the entire val
ley were thick strata Of sand and
gravel which acted at once as a reser-
voir and as a channel for conducting
the water slowly. very slowly to the
southeast Thirty percent Of the sand
and gravel strata is void and filled with
water, hence in every three feet OF
sand and gravel strata there is almost
foot of water. In the first $50 feet
there is something like 80 feet OF sand