Estancia news-herald. [volume] (Estancia, Torrance County, N.M.) 1912-19??, 1915-04-29

sand that washes into your well
and it will come out through the
pump and be discharged in your
ditch preventing your we'll from
filling up.
| would buy a thoroughly first
class internal combustion engine,
built to consume a low grade of
distillate which we ought to be
able to buy delivered at any
point in the valley at between
six and seven cents a gallon. 1t
makes an immense saving
against gasoline for which there
is a great demand nowadays,
The engine should be simple in
construction and easily under-
stood. The purchaser should re-
member that the Estancia Valley
is from six to seven thousand
feet in the air. The internal
I combustion engines are much
less efficient at this altitude than
they are at sea level. | would
discount their rate Of hor3e-pow-
er at least twenty per cent and
then be sure and get an excess
of power.
1t is quite possible that after
you have been pumping all over
the Valley for number of years,
the permanent water level may
recede somewhat and your lift
increase fifteen or twenty feet.
You don't want to have to buy a
new engine and scrap the old
one. Neither do you want to
reduce the capacity Of your
pump, because you will probably
have more land to cultivate then
than when you started.
Your engine should be an
chored to the best cement foun-
dation that you can make, No
matter how small it is or how
big it is this installation should
be just as good as it can be made,
and then the whole business
should be housed and protected
against the weather and sand
and the plant should be kept
clean.
| have known of plants which
would pump enough water for
forty acres to cost complete, at
about S800,00 and have known
of $2000.00 spent on a plant to
serve only twenty acres. 1t is
needless to say that there is a
difference in the plants The
cheap one will not last. I Think
it is fairly safe to approximate
the cost Of 500 gallon outfit,
such as | have described, from
$12O0.O0 to S1500.00 and expect
it to be good.
With an adequate reservoir
such a pumping plant should
take care of forty acres Of land
in a pretty dry year and in the
average year, it would do the
emergency work on twice that
amount of land with the rainfall
that you usually have in the Es-
tancia Valley. That is assuming
that your farmer is thrifty and
cultivates his land thoroughly
and uses his water intelligently
and frugally. The fuel cost,
with lift of 40 f., ought not to
exceed $1.75 an acre loot of
water. A good deal OF land that
| have seen will irrigate very
readily and open bitches viii
carry the water for a reasonable
distance without excessive losses.
| personally have tried to cuiti-
vate too much land and have
made my bitches very long,
standing a heavier loss than |
would advise others to figure on.
You have a world Of good
grazing in your country and the
man who is just beginning would,
in my judgment, be wise to fig
ure on his cows earning a con-
siderable portion of their living
by grazing during a large part
of the year. He can raise q
world of stuff on forty acres of
land and, if he provides himself
with siIo and takes good care
of everything he produces, he
will find that forty acres
will balance against a very con-
siderable area given over to
pasture. After he increases in
his experience and adds & little
to his resources be can either
put in a second pumping plant or
nnlarue his first one IL he has