Arizona republican., 1914-03-27
NEW MEXICO SOON TO HAVE
 NEW $8,OOQOOO CONCRETE DAM

noted. The long lines of immigrant trains, stretching from the Mississip- pi to the Pacific, passed it by un- needing. The yellow gleam of Cali
 fornia gold dazzled the eyes of the immigrants until they were blinded to the wealth that lay concealed in these sombre sands. Besides, the story of it was but tradition grown dim through centuries. There was no Pueblo Omar to sing:
 ''The lizard and the lion keep
 Their courts where Jamshyd glor-
 jed and drank deep
 But here beside the Rio Grande was re-enacted the world wide tragedy. a fruitful people withered from the earth, and their fertile lands became a desert
 Here and there remained isolated spots, however, where the dwindling remnants of the race lured the river waters aside with hereditary cunning and won rich tillage from their pitt fully little fields. Finally white i'm migrants noting these examples of the possibilities of irrigation in the Rio Grande valley, were led to imi tate, sporadically. these feeble at tempts to perpetuate the work of the ancient Pueblos. Gradually the con- viction grew that here was some thing worth while. Occasional civil engineers pronounced favorably upon the feasibility of more general and concerted irrigation of these lands. The attention of lawmakers was at tracted. An appropriation was voted to defray the expenses of a scientific investigation and report. The report was favorable. At last in 1904 the National Irrigation Congress met in Fl Paso and the Reclamation Service 1 project was formally placed before | the people. { But there were international diff
 culties in the way of such a project. i There were irrigable lands in Mexico
 which would be directly affected by | the construction of the dam contem- | plated. This matter was arranged ] finally by a treaty in perpetuity with Mexico, whereby it was agreed 1 to deliver in the channel of the Rio | Grande. above the head of the Juarez acequia, 60,000 acre feet of water each year. This guarantees the pos
 sible irrigation of 25,000 acres Of land lying adjacent to the Rio | Grande in Old Mexico.
 | Besides these lands, the Elephant Butte dam will provide for the irri
 gation of 10000 acres in New Mexi- | 4 n nt ] this statement conveys the most
 inadequate impression or the capacity of this project; for the big dam pro- l vides storage for :, 2,642,29 acre feet. and the average annual flow of the | Rio Grande at this point is 800, 900 acre feet. Now the lands comprised | in this project will require only 600,-
 GOO acre feet per annum; and figur-
 ing in every possible source of ex-
 penditure and depreciation, there
 would be left in the reservoir for
 emergencies not less than 1,400, 900
 acre feet, or sufficient to irrigate
 the entire acreage during more than
 two years of total drought.
 l It should not be lost sight of, 1 either, that the dam IS designed to | save and utilize the annual flood
 waters of the Rio Grande, which un-
 der natural conditions, have been sweeping down destructively to the gulf-a menace to lives and property and a total loss as far as the dry season is concerned. This dam not only utilizes this enormous annual
 waste, but prevents the destruction it has been wont to wreck along the
 lower course of the river. The nor nal water flow is not interfered with because under normal conditions the dam is kept filled by the floods.
 For the benefit of those who dc
 not know, it should be said that
 farming by means of irrigation is one
 of the oldest and most successful
 systems of agriculture known to man It is not only a success, but it is
 one and the only system of farming