DROUTH AND THE SFOCKMENS' REMEDY. 

 By a resident C. E., Laredo, Texas. 



That a lesson can be learned from the history of irrigation in this; 

 district of Laredo, Tex., and that irrigation may be made to serve a 

 greater duty in these semi-arid regions than it has yet done will, I 

 hope, be evident from perusal of these pages. 



I propose to give a slight description of the soil and of the start 

 and progress of irrigation in these parts. However, my chief object 

 is to make a proposition how at least the evils of the stock raising 

 business may be mitigated in future. At the present time the herds 

 have mostly all disappeared, either dead from the effects of the year's 

 drouth or shipped to the Indian Territory. Of course there are large 

 exceptions to this statement, as some wiser ranchmen have still both 

 water and grass for their cattle. 



The valleys of the Rio Grande are of alluvial soil deposited in 

 prehistoric times when it must have been a great river which passed 

 through forests and lands of rank vegetation. This is evidenced by 

 the coal deposits along its course. The ground generally slopes from 

 the river banks and would in many places appear to a stranger or 

 casual observer as a barren soil where grass would not grow, but a 

 closer observer will notice that the barrenness is merely superficial 

 and that there has formed a hard crust on the surface from which the 

 rain runs off as in the case of the proverbial "duck's back" without 

 showing any good effects. There is a rich soil within reach of the 

 plough, which when once stirred up shows the wealth lying under. 

 That there is no subsoil is a fault which cannot be remedied. This 

 only affects the quantity of water required for its cultivation and no 

 drainage is necessary. 



Irrigation as a business was introduced here in 1800 by California 

 and Colorado parties. They managed to get up a company which 

 they controlled; then bought a considerable acreage of land immedi- 

 ately outside the north city boundries. Of this they cleared and 

 levelled about three hundred acres which they purported to irrigate 

 and sell to suit buyers. A pumping station was erected with all its 

 paraphernalia; a large reservoir was dug, which to many looked too 

 low to water the adjacent land, but none dared suspect that these en- 

 terprising strangers did nvot know what they were doing. The lots 

 sold readily, storekeepers disposing of their stock of wares to invest 

 in the new undertaking and seek fortune in grape culture; even sage 

 attorneys joined the boom and became land owners. The price fixed 



