18 SOILS OF THE SAN LUIS VALLEY, COLORADO. 



single well. Some effort has been made in apportioning the land to 

 have the smaller tracts embrace the more productive lands. The 

 average price is reported to be $200, or at the rate of $40 an acre for 

 the 5-acre tracts. 



While occasionally desirable, partially improved lands may be 

 purchased in this vicinity at a lower figure, the amounts paid for 

 the above tracts are probably not excessive, and many of the tracts 

 are doubtless worth more than the purchase price. On the other 

 hand, but little of the land is capable of successful and permanent 

 production of crops without improvements in the way of irrigation 

 or drainage, both often being necessary. Few purchasers of the 

 smaller tracts have sufficient money to make these improvements. 

 Moreover, the short growing season, the limited local market for 

 vegetables and truck crops, and the remoteness from the centers of 

 population within the State limit possibilities in the production of 

 intensively cultivated crops of high value upon the 5-acre tracts, 

 without which such tracts are, except in unusual cases, insufficient to 

 support a family. 



The water "for irrigation within the valley is drawn principally 

 from the Rio Grande, and with the present gravity systems the sup- 

 ply is inadequate. During flood seasons an excess of water leaves the 

 valley by this river or is lost by seepage, but many of the ditches and 

 canals are without water during the drier months. There is no way 

 to increase the supply of gravity water except by constructing storage 

 reservoirs, many excellent natural sites for which exist. Such steps 

 have for some time been projected and some actual construction work 

 has been performed. The creation of the Rio Grande project under 

 the United States Reclamation Service for the irrigation of lands in 

 New Mexico and Texas by stored waters of the Rio Grande demands 

 conservation of the available water for this purpose. All available 

 reservoir sites adjacent to the San Luis Valley have accordingly been 

 withdrawn from entry and no further permits for right of way over 

 Government lands in connection with any storage reservoirs or dis- 

 tributing canals will now be granted. Upon completion of this proj- 

 ect these restrictions will doubtless be removed as far as surplus 

 water is concerned. 



Water is usually supplied by some system of subirrigation. This 

 method of application is economical of labor, but with the porous, 

 gravelly soils of the upper valley slopes it is wasteful of water and 

 results in accumulation of seepage waters and alkali salts in lower 

 lands. Irrigation of the soils of the San Luis series by flooding 

 would require frequent applications and should be accompanied by 

 repeated shallow cultivation. This would result in increasing the 

 cost of irrigation and would require some preliminary leveling, with 

 construction of more numerous laterals. It should, however, result 



