Deming graphic. (Deming, N.M.) 1903-1948, 1912-07-19

portant mountain streams. The
pumping industry is nourishing.
The next few years will mark great
strides in pumping for irrigation of
the first bench lands along the Rio
Grande, parlaclling the river from
albuquerque southwark 10 San Mar
cial. Central power plants will
doubtless he built at many points
which will greatly reduce the cost
of power. Pumping along this line
is ut the present time being devel-
oped in the Pecos river in the vicin-
ity of Roswell. A number of Albu-
querqne people have developed fruit
orchards under pumping systems
and plan the disposal of the land in
small tracts. Pumping possibilities
in the vicinity of Melrose, Portalcs,
Estancia valley and other points are
being investigated. II needs only
the demonstration of one pump OPP
Grated successfully To show the
chcapness and advisabiliiy of this
method of irrigation. In many re-
spccts the writer favors pumping
for irrigation where the lift il not
prohibitive, in preference to gravi.
ty systems.
The first step toward the drain
age of hundreds of thousands of
acres in New Mexico, was the en-
actment of the district drainage law.
How many acres of land this will
eventually benefit in the Rio Grande
valley in the counties of Bernalillo,
Valencia and Socorro. and the Pecos
valley in Chaves and Eddy counties.
cannot he even estimated. Other
lands may be susceptible to drain.
age for instance in San Juan county,
in the upper tributaries of the Rio
Grande and in the vicinity of Taos,
but up to the present time these
areas have not been considered of
sufficient magnitude to make the or
ganization end operation of drain
age districts commercially protita-
Bile. A recognized standard of the
economical use of water, and educa-
ton upon the proper use of water,
will greatly modify the necessity of
drainage in the future, and il will
be quite probable that lands so far
irrigated and in good condition will
bc saved and kept from becoming
water logged by the circulation of
information as to the proper hand
ling and economical use of water in
irrigation.
During the past two years there
have been filed in the State Engin
cers office 1876 applications, cover
ing 66S. .536 acres of land at an esti'
mated cost of S7.93S.S .S53. A grea,
many of these are small projects
but these small projects, ranging in
area from 80 to 500 acres. are the
ones which are really building NJ
many portions of our country and
contributing the major portion ol
the completed work. The State En-
ginccr's office is extremely partla
To the small farmer who has the tn
cilities for storing small quantities
of water. As he irrigates n com
parativcly small acreage, he can us'
his own teams and equipment ant
build his dam ai very low cost pei
r acre. These little projects are dott
: ed MI over the state and there ar
, hundreds of such opportunities tina
await cntcrprising men who are no
: imbued with the idea of developing
, some million acre scheme
, State supervision should be car
/, ried out more strenurously than il
+. in the past. Several projects ar
2 on the eve of construction. Tn
: State Engineer should appoint at tn
:. expensc of such parties reliable en-
r gineers to be daily in contact witt
the construction work. This pla'
n has been carried out in the last fey
!. months, and people who are pro
/. noting irrigation projects nav
come to accept this matter in tn
4 spirit in which It is intended. The
o have also found that such inspectio
). adds materially to the advcrt'sln
,,;h;I;t;os of their projects. i