The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-01-08

considerable sum. Another town sprang up for
the army of workmen, A railroad Is miles long
was built to haul material to the place where the
dam was erected. In fact, the preliminary work
was not a small part of the undertaking. Plants
Tor the manufacture of cement, buildings for the
housing of the workmen, a store, power station.
lines and a great embankment at a
gap in the hills northwest of the dam proper had
to be provided.
Construction of main fumes, coferdams. exca-
walton in the river bed and the building of roads
we're among the preliminary tt ks presented to
the engineers. The cost, with the exception of
81, 900, 900, will eventually be paid back into the
government fund by land owners who
will benefit by the dam, and will again be used
by the government for reclamation work in some
other section of the country.
The $~1,O0O,000 was appropriated outright and is
being used for that portion of the work which
will benefit farmers in old Mexico. The appro-
priation was made to furnish this water in set
Element of several million dollars in claims which
the Mexican government had presented to the
United States for damages to land on the Mexican
side, as a result of the water from the river be-
ing used in small irrigation projects on the
American side, thus robbing Mexican farmers of
water which naturally would have gone to them.
Something of what is to be expected as a re-
suit of the work is demonstrated by the small
tracts that have been irrigated by private irriga-
ton systems. The great dam will connect two
division dams already completed. One of these.
at Leasburg, waters $4,000 acres in what is known
as the rich Mesilla valley. 1t has been wonder
fully productive. Farmers in this section have
received a profit of 5000 an acre from truck in a
single year. AT other points along the Rio Grande.
in both Texas and New Mexico, small dams have
brought tracts of land under irrigation and made
it possible to raise bounteous crops.
The same fertility will be found on the 5 5000
acres around the new dam in New Mexico and
Texas. Great valleys which have hitherto pro-
duced only during the infrequent years that ma
ture was kind enough to send more than the
average rainfall, will be reached by the water
from the irrigation canals and large yields will
be assured.
The statement that the reservoir will hold
three years flow of the Rio Grande river shows
the greatness Of the project. The Rio Grande is
one of the longest rivers in the United States.
1t forms far up in Colorado and is fed by rivers
and streams extending much farther to the north.
1t flows through a portion of Colorado, across
New Mexico and forms the border between Texas
and Mexico, finally reaching the Gulf.
Extensive Irrigation from the river without the
aid of a great dam and reservoir is impossible,
because of the rapidity with which the stream
changes from a raging torrent to a bed of dry
sand.
With the completion of the dam and other irri.
for New Mexico is assured. New Mexico lies in
the heart Of the arid section of America She
has 1872, 400 square miles of broad plains, rugged
mountains, sage brush de serts; greater in extent
than all New England. With New York and New