PULSE OF THE IRRIGATION INDUSTRY. 



A PROMISING PROPOSITION. 



The following is a letter received some 

 time ago from Mr. W. S. Burke, of Albu- 

 querque. X. M. . and as the offer may be an 

 inducement to capitalists to invest, we 

 give it to the readers. Mr. Burke gives 

 as reference the Albuquerque Bank of 

 Commerce : 



' 'Albuquerque is much the largest town 

 in New Mexico, and is the commercial 

 center of the territory. Immediately east 

 of the place, and lying parallel with the 

 Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe railway, is 

 a plain with an area of over fifty thous- 

 and acres all of which is too high to be 

 irrigated from the river, but can be 

 watered by the building of storage reser- 

 voirs. The land is of the richest and most 

 valuable tract in this county. The plain 

 is bounded on the east by the Sandia 

 mountains, and extends thence west al- 

 most to the city limits. Just on the wes- 

 tern edge of the plain, and overlooking 

 the town and the Rio Grande valley, is 

 the University of New Mexico, twelve 

 miles from the mountains. The best res- 

 ervoir site, and the only feasible one for a 

 number of miles, is at the mouth of Ti- 

 jeras canyon, immediately east of the uni- 

 versity. Here, by the building of a dam, 

 water enough can be conserved, according 

 to the estimates of engineers, to give an 

 abundant supply for twelve thousand 

 acres of the best part of the plain best 

 only because nearest to town ; otherwise 

 all the land is alike. If it should be de- 

 sired to take in a greater quantity of land 

 the water could be secured by the build- 

 ing of feeding reservoirs, at points up the 

 canyon. The building of the main reser- 

 voir and the necessary ditches to carry the 

 water on to the land would cost about 



fifty thousand dollars. The land has all 

 been a part of the public domain, and is 

 not embarassed with any great complica- 

 tions. A portion of it, probably 25 per 

 cent, has been taken up by settlers under 

 the public land laws, and these people are 

 nearly all willing to give one-half of their 

 respective holdings for the privilege of 

 buying water for the other half at any 

 reasonable rate a company might establish. 

 In this way a bonus of about four thous- 

 and acres can be obtained, worth as soon 

 as it can be irrigated, an average of not 

 less than thirty dollars an acre. 



This would pay more than twice the cost 

 of the entire work. The superior charac- 

 ter of the laud, and its favorable location 

 would insure its occupation by farmers 

 and gardeners as soon as a water supply 

 could be had, for there is an excellent 

 market at home for everything that can 

 be raised out of the ground, and more 

 than half of all we can consume in the ter- 

 ritory has to be shipped in from the states. 

 The annual charge for water in this coun- 

 try is never less than two dollars per a ere 

 and the company's income could therefore 

 be reckoned safely at $24,000. The man- 

 agement of the dam and ditches with re as, 

 enable repairs would not cost more than 

 $4,000, for aside from one man at $1. 200 

 or $1,500 a year, everything could be done 

 with Mexican labor which is very chep, 

 leaving a net income of $20.000 a year 

 from a plant that will have been built en- 

 tirely by the proceeds of property contrib- 

 uted. 



The land in question lies in the heart 

 of the sugar beet zone, and analyses of 

 beets produced in the immediate vici nity 

 show as high a per cent of both sac cha- 

 rine matter and purity as the best gr own 



