Semi-weekly herald., 1913-07-17
INTERESTING LETTER ON
CONDITIONS ELSEWHERE

derived from travel is in contrasting
conditions in our own locality with
those we find in other places.
All is not waste that seems desert
In looking out the car window al
some of the bare knobs and fissured
coverings in the Dulce country one is
justified in the conclusion that here is
dead world, expired when the con-
vulsions of nature thrust those vast
heaps of Gods stupendous masonry
up above the rain belt. So it would
be. but for the grass, Gods greatest
gift to animal creation" the cool life
giving air so pure and invigorating
and the enchantment of the distant
peaks where earth and sky wed.
So we thought yesterday. Today
when looking through the dancing va
pors over the scorched plains of Texas
and beheld those enchanting lakes,
surrounded with trees and ferns, bid
ding the thirsty traveller pause, it all
summed mystic messenger of death
a phantom, IA vision of something per-
haps real far beyond those desert
plains. Then were we compelled to
exclaim, "Oh, the grandeur of the
mountains of Colorado"
"The Land of No Water" portion
of Texas should be designated. The
plains are sun baked by strong winds
and show much yellow-white clay and
an abundance of sandstone near the
surface.
In northeastern New Mexico we
found but few houses and but little
!. stock. 1t is q poor country, poorly
watered fnd 1na!stiy %a.i@L The
foothills afford good sheep range and
fairly good cattle range, but surface
water is scarce. Beyond Folsom is a
plains country with houses scattered
far apart. There was little attempt
at farming but it looked as though
it was going to be failure. Clayton
is quite town.
This country can never be any
thing but stock country on account
of the droughts and lack of water.
Wells are $50 feet deep. Here are
some feeble attempts at dry farming,
some plowing but as yet no crop is
in sight. People from the east are
buying requishments for 320 acre
homesteads for two and three dollars
an acre, hoping to do dry farming,
but the experiences Of those further
east in the agricultural part of Ok
lahoma should be a warning of newt
able failure. Those Oklahoma farm
ers have had only one fair crop in
four years, this year they seem to have
favorable prospects.
The country around Dalhart, Tex,
and from Amarillo east is the prettiest
l have ever seen, fine ranch houses,
from two to ten miles apart, the
ground as level as the floor and not
a stone in sight except along the
brakers and the banks of the streams.
A stream here consists Of streak of
sand, which after one of the semi-oc-
casional torrential rains of six inches,
becomes formidable liquid red mud
torrents, washing away bridges and
causing mud slides that hinder rail-
road traffic. Such a storm occurred
while / was en- route and | am told
swept away two spans of the several
hundred foot piling trestle bridge of
the Fort Worth and Denver road.
These are now safely embedded in a
sand bank some hundred feet from
the present channel of liquid red mud,
which the plainsman is pleased to
call water.
The cattle baron who owns these
vast plains does not depend upon this
mortar" for his water supply for his
herds, as is evidenced by the ever
present windmills pumping water from
wells from 80 to $50 feet deep.
Here the soil is red or brown loan,
but that this vast country must ever
remain a stock range is to me evil
dent Excepting the periodical rivers
!, individually, own more surface wa
ter rights than all the surface water
to be seen from Senator Barela's ditch
south of Trinidad to Fort Reno, Okla.
a day and nights travels.
Nowhere in my travels have foun6
such well built towns as in Oklahoma
but these are overbuilt, as the otter
vacant and deserted good substantial
houses attest. In one place we saw
the streets paved at an expense OF
$500 per lot, necessitating an annua
tax of $50 per year for ten years
In this town is high school build
ing that cost 5000, 900 with many ware
schools in addition to various othel
public improvements. The student
who knows the country only by tn.
map would classify it as small coun