Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-05-30

Bluewater river comes down through
the canyon already described. 1t wan
ders about through the valley until II
is depleted to nothing by irrigation
bitches which lead out OF t.
Right up through the valley, from
south TO north, runs the Santa FL
railroad. There are three stations In
the valley-Grants at the lower end
Bluewater at the upper one. and Toll
tee In the middle Six miles sepa-
rates each pair OF these stations. The
valley Ia practically twelve miles in
length and in places has an equal
width Not all this width. though, Is
available for farming operations, for
the eastern side has not as much wa
ter as tho western and its slope Is too
great. little distance back, ever To
be brought under any project located
on the western side.
Soil Richest of Rich.
The soil OF the valley Is largely dts
integrated sandstone IL is an allu-
wal and nobody has ever found the
bottom OF It. 1T Is from 1000 feet
up TO bedrock" said one rancher II
Is OF a chocolate brown color, varying
at times TO a reddish brown All of
IL holds moisture wei, which some
times operates TO the detriment Of the
valley roads, and the heavier parts of
II seem TO hold water for weeks.
Through the middle of the valley,
sometimes cropping ont above the de-
posted soil, is a lava flow This flow
IS said TO be the largest In the world.
IL Is forty miles long and below the
valley stands fifteen or twenty feet
out of the ground in places II Is very
rough, practically impossible 10
horses at such points,
AT Toltec, in the middle of the val
ley, the altitude is 6,666
The remarkable thing about the soil
is that it can be cleared at a cost of
rot to exceed fifty cents an acre and
can be broken and planted the same
year. The preparation OF the land for
a crop IS simple in the extreme Four
men and four four-horse teams clear
ed, plowed, narrowed and planted five
acres on q place near that owned by
G. II. lIakes last Friday
They did 1t this way:
Clearing Five Acres Day.
The four teams spent the early
morning hours hauling heavy wood
en- drag across the land to be planted
TO break down the sage and chamis
brush. When as much land had been
so dragged as they expected to plant
that day three of the teams were
placed on gang plows and plowed the
ground All morning the fourth team
pulled a harrow after the plows. In
the afternoon this team was put on a
disc seeder seeding oats, and another
team took up the narrowing When
the blowing was almost done Sec
ond team was taken off that and put
TO narrowing after the seeder. When
it was all done, the last team aided in
the narrowing
The preparation given the land
seemed sufficient, too, for other sec
tons prepared in the same way but
planted earlier already had good
stands of oats on them With condi-
lions involving so little hardship and
labor for clearing. II is small wonder
that 5. f. Harding, who came into
the valley from Oklahoma this spring.
has broken and planted seventy-five
acres this year; or that Joseph r..
Thompson, of Mountainair, who also
arrived in the valley this year, has
thirty-fiye acres broken and planted.
or that John +. Carver, another
Mountainair man, manager Of the G.
j.. Kile farm, has cleared. broken and
planted eight acres of raw land and
planted thirty-two acres OF land
cleared last year
Land All Privately Owned.
There is no publicly owned land Inv
the valley now. There is, however a
considerable quantity of railroad land
and a small amount of school land
Raw land can be obtained for $40 to
SIS an acre, exclusive of water right.
An interesting feature of the irri-
cation work is that low lands are fill