THE UNDERGROUND WATERS OF NEW MEXICO* 



BY WILLAED E. HOLT 



BUDDING historian of the twentieth century has recently declared that 

 one of the smiling valleys of New Mexico was the original ''Garden of 

 Eden" and that off-shoots of the original apple tree are still bearing 

 fruit. Partial proof of this was established in my mind this year, when I saw 

 apple trees springing from the parent root full three centuries old and still 

 bearing fruit. 



New Mexico is surely fulfilling the Scriptural prophecy: "And the 

 desert shall be made to rejoice and blossom as the rose." Isaiah might have 

 been speaking of our region when he referred to roses, for nowhere under the 

 canopy of heaven do flowers grow more luxuriantly than in the great South- 

 west. 



For some reason, as yet unexplained by science, rainfall in the North 

 and East has been gradually lessening for the past decade, and farmers, 

 who for years have harvested abundant crops, have been forced, against their 

 will, perhaps, to agree with a statement recently made that shrewd, hard- 

 headed farmers are turning their attention to western farms. Naturally, they 

 want to improve water as well as land conditions. In other words, they 

 want to be their own rain-makers. In order to do this they must come to the 

 states where irrigation is practiced. 



Government projects and the reclamation service appeal very naturally 

 to people and it is not my purpose to dissuade any one thus inclined from 

 making full and exhaustive examination into any and all projects now in 

 operation or to be hereafter promulgated by our generous Uncle Sam. 



It is well, however, that all people should know that it takes real money 

 and lots of it for one to succeed on any reclamation project where the initial 

 cost runs into millions. Men with money, brains and energy will succeed 

 on these projects, even though the cost of obtaining title to the land ranges 

 from |45.00 to $70.00 per acre, with a perpetual tax for maintenance of com- 

 munity ditches added. 



Intelligent farmers are coming to the irrigation idea as the only reliable 

 get-rich-quick scheme without a penalty attached. With the "Back-to-the- 

 soil" movement there comes a land-hunger and water-thirst that can only 

 be supplied by states like New Mexico. People who have never traveled the 

 length and breadth of this mighty Southern Empire can scarcely realize that 

 we have 4,000,000 acres of land under our beautiful turquoise sky with an 

 available water supply, as specified by surveyors, and for which applications 

 to the Territorial Engineer have been made with but 750,000 acres now 

 irrigated, according to Engineer Miller's report. This estimate includes the 

 largest irrigation project in the world, now being constructed at Elephant 

 Butte, down to the smallest valley consisting of only a few thousand acres. 



Che peopling of this grand domain, where health, opportunity and op- 

 pi await the man who says: "I will," is going forward with rapid 



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