THE IRRIGA TION A GE. 321 



with the desire to be a truck farmer; watermelons seemed his favor- 

 ite and in growing them he was most successful. He sent them to the 

 <jity in loads of about one hundred melons on each wagon drawn by 

 four fat mules, who with their teamsters would have done credit to a 

 <jity brewery. "It looked magnificent but it was not" farming for 

 profit. The melons were hauled through town in competition with 

 local gardeners or shipped to agents in distant places who sent no 

 adequate cash returns; so when he had cut down all the trees on his 

 land and was forced to buy fuel for his steam boiler the cost so over- 

 came the income that he had to cease work and now the place lies de- 

 relict and the lands unoccupied, as the Mesquite, the only tree of the 

 prairie, like all hardwoods, is of slow growth. In his failure we have 

 a lesson that a truck farm situated far from a populous center or rail- 

 way communication is out of place and cannot be profitable, whereas, 

 had he given his attention to cattle raising, even on hig small pasture 

 he could have supported a considerable number with the aid of his 

 irrigated farm, growing foodstuffs only, allowing all the trees to re- 

 main on the ranch, which gave shelter to the cattle; buy all fuel 

 required; keeping his plant and ditches in perfect order, he would 

 have been able to furnish several hundred head of cattle each year for 

 the stock yards. The crops would not require to be hauled off the 

 premises; they would walk. Times of drouth would have been to his 

 advantage. 



There is one feature concerning the city of Laredo and irrigation 

 that I think worth recording. It has a population of fourteen thous- 

 and. The rainfall for the past two years cannot have exceeded three 

 or four inches; there are six or seven evergreen parks and plazas, 

 avenues of trees, private lawns and gardens growing semi-tropical 

 fruit and flowers, the roses almost unrivalled; all depending on the 

 working of one small steam engine, the water of the Rio Grande, and 

 coal of the neighborhood; yet, notwithstanding high summer tem- 

 perature and occasional dust storms, is one of the healthiest cities to 

 be found; but it lacks the green hills and fields around which make a 

 place beautiful. 



At the present time the prairies are strewn with the carcases of 

 thousands of animals dead from hunger and thirst, only to fatten the 

 buzzard and coyote both plagues of the ranchman; this is surely an ex- 

 cuse for my proposing a plan which, if carried out, would prevent the 

 recurrence of such misfortune to man and beast. The writer has had 

 long experience as a hydraulie engineer and was trained in. the prac- 

 tice and theory of farming by some of the ablest men of their time, 

 and for several years given a close study to the question of irrigation; 

 and as I do not now practice the profession I have no private o bject 

 to serve, 



