T902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



333- 



and about the Bexar county metropolis. 

 So remarkable have already been the 

 results that the rich, black mesquite 

 plains on the outskirts of San Antonio 

 have doubled in value in the past six 

 months, reaching, during January, $100 

 per acre. The change has been due to 

 the sinking of a 6-inch well six hundred 

 feet and finding a water stratum that 

 runs 1 ,000 gallons per minute of pure, 

 clear liquid, with a temperature of 74 

 degrees. 



F. F. Collins has for many years 

 been identified with the development of 

 Texas. Seeking the country contigu- 

 ous to San Antonio immediately after 

 the civil war, he commenced his new 

 life in the wastes devoted to the long- 

 horned Texas steer. He was the first 

 man to urge the sinking of artesian 

 wells in the dr}^ sections and to intro- 

 duce the windmill as motive power. 

 He was practical and enterprising, and, 

 in order to prove the truth of his theory, 

 brought a well-borer from the Middle 

 States which he used to put down a 

 well. Water was found, the windmill 

 distributed it among the shallow earth 

 tanks, and his theory was an accom- 

 plished fact. 



Mr. Collins first, from a theoretical 

 standpoint, was considerably interested 

 in the development of the intensive sys- 

 tem of farming practiced by the peas- 

 antry and skilled market gardeners of 

 France, Belgium, and Italy. During 

 the past few years, in order to follow 

 out the investigations he had decided 

 upon making in regard to irrigation, 

 he visited the chief countries of the 

 world in which market gardening and 

 irrigation were practiced, either jointly 

 or as a general feature of agricultural 

 development. From close obser\'ation 

 he became convinced that the peasants 

 of the three countries named made the 

 best market gardeners. 



Returning from his travels, Mr. Col- 

 lins began to put his plans into opera- 

 tion Purchasing 148 acres of ground 

 in the immediate outskirts of San An- 

 tonio, he put down the two wells which 

 made his venture a success and proved 

 conclusively that sufficient w^ater could 

 be secured at a reasonable depth. The 

 area purchased by Mr. Collins was virgin 



mesquiteprairie, having asufficient slope 

 to permit the water to reach all portions- 

 of the field purely by gravitation, and 

 enabling the furrow s^^stem of irrigation 

 to be put into execution. 



The first well driven by Mr. Collins- 

 was a lo-inch pipe, which, at a depth 

 of 600 feet, tapped a stratum of water- 

 bearing rock. A measurement of the 

 volume of water which flowed from the 

 mouth of the well gave the output at 

 1,000 gallons per minute. Somewhat 

 elated by his success and desiring an 

 additional supply of water, he put down 

 another well some fort}- feet from the 

 first, but with a 12-inch casing. Water 

 was reached at the same level, but, to- 

 his surprise and chagrin, he found that 

 the combined output of the two wells- 

 but equaled the flow from each indi- 

 vidual well, it being evident that the 

 vein could not supply water fast enough 

 of its own pressure to double the output 

 of the first well. The water secured, 

 however, was sufficient to irrigate 400 

 acres, and, aside from the fact that 

 $3,500 had been expended unneces- 

 sarily, the lack of an additional water 

 supply did not interfere with the pro- 

 ject. 



Dividing his farm into plots of 12^2 

 acres each, he built on each plot a small 

 three-roomed house and a good barn, 

 conducted water pipes from a four-mil- 

 lion-gallon reservoir, into which the sur- 

 plus water was forced by its own press- 

 ure (the head of the water being 20 feet 

 above the surface), thus supplying pros- 

 pective tenants with an unlimited quan- 

 tity of fresh water for household use. 

 The farm was of such shape as to per- 

 mit an equitable division of the terri- 

 tory, so that the cottages all faced its 

 northern boundary. The main avenue 

 to the plots followed the boundary fence 

 directly in front of the cottages. 



The work of clearing the land of its 

 mesquite timber was begun during the 

 fall of 1900, and the grubbing and re- 

 moval of the mesquite roots was com- 

 pleted in time to permit the tenants to 

 begin operations early in the spring of 

 1901. By this time Mr. Collins had se- 

 cured a full complement of market gar- 

 deners, among the lot being Germans, 

 Belgians, and Italians, with a Mexican 



