Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-01-26

| what is now the United States. Wherever
primitive man was blessed with album
| for him to find food and warmth without
any greater effort than the Staying of a
beast, there primitive man remained a
savage. 1t was only when some wilder
tribe drove defenseless body Of terror
stricken savages into a cherries desert
that man now forced out of his neces-
sity to conceive an invention. In the
valley of the Nile in the morning of
the world. some refugees invented a
bucket to lift water out of the river on
to the barren desert sands. There was
born science and art and letters and all
that man now is
On the American continent the same
thing was begun in the same way along
the banks
Same Thing Happened of the Rio
on American Continent. somewhere
near Albuquerque. 1t did not progress SO
far,but it is interesting in that it still ex-
lists In it's own forms. rejecting the modi-
fications and improvements of our Egyp-
| tian-born American civilization.
The Pueblo Indians build dams and big
bitches to divert and direct the flow of
| the waters of the Rio Grande by means
of gravity, so as to fertilize their fields.
Following in their footsteps came the
MeXicans. doing exactly the same thing
In exactly the same way, and they in
turn are followed by the American farm
| err who may improve the technique, but
who does not change the system. The
winding water bitches one sees in the
Rio Grande valley in the neighborhood of
Albuquerque were there before Column
bus sai'ed on his memorable voyage.
This irrigation system is primitive, and
| therefore both wasteful and inefficient.
| 1t wastes not only water but land. The
waters of the Rio Grande are SO heav
| lily impregnated with alkali that when
| too much water is put on the land and
| the drainage is bad the alkali is de-
posted, and. laying a blanket of white
for agriculture. Thousands upon thou
sands Of acres of fertile valley land have
| thus been destroyed. 1t is to improve
the methods of irrigation and to prevent
of land that the efforts of the new state
government are already being directed.
y
| 1t is interesting, however, as COM
mentary on the advanced stage of civili-
cation achiev-
American Farmers ed by the
Have Adopted Plan. fore sD the com
| ing of the Spaniards to know that the
Indian system of irrigation is followed
not only in its physical, but in it's legal
aspects. The farmers Of a certain dis
! trict. the boundaries of which are deter
mined by typographical lines meet each
year and choose one of their number to
act as ma jor-d omo. All Of the farmers
are assessed in money or labor in proper
ton to the amount of land they hold, for
the expense and labor of constructing the
temporary diversion dam or heading
which is built annua.-y to throw the
waters Of the river into the irrigation
bitches. This major-domo, although he
has a Spanish name, is the successor OF
an Indian cacique, who performed this
same service and whose power was as
absolute then as it is now, and yet who
was subjected then as now to the demo-
cratic control of an annual election.
Albuquerque has a population of about
5000. It's business, however, is vastly
larger than that Of town of the same
size in the east, since it Is the center OF
the numbering industry and the supply
depot for large part of the great sheep
and cattle industry of the state. The
cattle ranges in New Mexico are being
diminished by the entertainments or agri-
culture and the modern irrigation pro-
jects, but they are still extensive. On the
public domain alone, leaving out of ac-
count the private ranges of the Spanish
grants, there are now about a million
cattle, 5000, 600 sheep, quarter of a mill
ion goats and 10000 horses. mules and
burros The tendency now is to reduce the
number and advance the grade of both
cattle and sheep, since the range is al
ready feeding all of the animals 1t will
accommodate. The. introduction OF SUI
perior breeds of sheep, and especially
goats is adding greatly to the value OF
the livestock interests.
That there is yet vast wild territory
tributary to Albuquerque, is proved by
the fact that in the winter time the mar
hets of the city display venison and bear
meat along with beef and mutton. Few
sections of the United States are more
interesting to the sportsman than parts
of New Mexico.