salts it is dangerous to allow this subsoil water to collect and evapo- 

 rate from the surface. The best results from cultivation can never 

 be realized until the land is thoroughly drained. Cultivation and 

 forage crops which shade the ground will to a large extent, prevent 

 evaporation, but in many cases the damage has gone too far for such 

 preventive measures to be successfully used. 



THE HAGERMAN AREA OR THE NORTHERN CANAL SYSTEM. 



This area comprises a narrow strip of land running south from the 

 Roswell area along the Pecos River. The water of the Northern 

 Canal is a mixture of the Berendos and Spring rivers, together with 

 the waste, drainage, and seepage water from the Roswell district. 

 The character of the Northern Canal water is therefore not the best. 

 It carries on an average about 200 parts of soluble matter per 100,000, 

 of which about 115 parts are resoluble after evaporation and there- 

 fore likely to accumulate in solution. Thus we see that the water 

 introduced into the soil contains one-tenth of 1 per cent of soluble 

 matter. Since few plants can successfully grow with their roots in 

 contact with a solution of more than 1 per cent concentration, it 

 requires only a concentration to one-tenth to bring the soil moisture 

 to the maximum limit allowable. Proper precautions must be taken, 

 therefore, to avoid excessive evaporation from the surface of the soil. 



The soils at Hagerman are of corresponding types to the Roswell 

 area, with the addition of one new type gypsum soil, or ' ' yeso " as 

 it is termed by the native Mexicans. The soil is so much more typ- 

 ically developed in the Carlsbad area that its description will be given 

 there. 



The main problem which confronts the farmer at Hagerman is 

 similar to that in the Roswell area that is, tlfe prevention of the 

 accumulation of alkali near the surface. Over land which has ade- 

 quate natural drainage very little damage has been felt from this 

 cause. On the heavier soils and where the gypsum comes close to 

 the surface, these lands must be underdrained. One attempt has 

 been made to underdrain the land and this with fair success, though 

 not as yet completed. 



THE CARLSBAD AREA OR SOUTHERN CANAL SYSTEM. 



The flow of the Pecos above Carlsbad sometimes becomes very 

 small, as low as 50 to 75 cubic feet per second. At other seasons of 

 the year great quantities of water flow. Two large storage reser- 

 voirs have been constructed on the Pecos to hold back this flood 

 water, and from these reservoirs the water is turned into the South- 

 ern Canal as desired. The canal was originally planned as far south 

 as the Delaware River, but has only been used to a short distance 

 below the Black River. The average condition of this water is not 



