THE UNDERGROUND WATERS OF NEW MEXICO 231 



irresistible strides and the true American spirit. The best civilization of 

 our country is joining the forces of Nature in building a commonwealth that 

 will be the peer of any in the Union, and with climatic conditions surpassing 

 them all. 



New Mexico has successfully practiced irrigation since the latter part 

 of the sixteenth century, so that we claim nothing new except improvement 

 in method. 



HALF A MILLION ACRES 



Aside from the area that has and can be reclaimed by harnessing our 

 rivers and streams, we have nearly a half million acres of the richest soil in 

 America, that is, or may be successfully irrigated by underground waters 

 pumped from shallow depths, thirty-five to one hundred feet. Of this vast 

 area, not over five per cent has been put under cultivation, but that five per 

 cent has demonstrated to the world the absolute guarantee of wealth vouch- 

 safed to the man who pins his faith upon the magic of the pump, has the 

 cash or credit to buy the pump and applies himself with energy and intel- 

 ligence. In every county of the new State there are areas that are being or 

 may be reclaimed at enormous profit by the now proven system of pumping 

 for irrigation. 



At Roswell, in the great Pecos Valley, where hundreds of artesian wells 

 tap the underground waters, and many pumps are also in use, there have been 

 shipped this year over 8,000 carloads of the finest orchard and field products 

 in the world, worth not less than $3,000,000, to say nothing of trainloads of 

 livestock, wool and cotton. This is relatively true of the whole of the great 

 Pecos Valley, whose 1911 alfalfa product alone is worth almost a million 

 dollars. 



A single pumping proposition near Roswell includes 13,000 acres, with 

 twenty-eight miles of electric transmission lines connecting the motor-driven 

 pumps. The residents of this beautiful city say that apple orchards in that 

 vicinity are cheaper now at $1,000 an acre than they will ever be again. 



The Portales region can boast the largest central irrigation power plant 

 in the United States, where farmers are pumping on the cooperative basis, 

 the original cost being $35.00 per acre, but the cost of maintenance has thus 

 far been but $1.50 per acre. The longest transmission line does not exceed 

 eighteen miles and the acreage that will eventually be reclaimed will exceed 

 150,000. Everything, except citrus fruits, is grown in great abundance and 

 a fine beet sugar factory will soon add value to the area. It might be added 

 right here that New Mexico sugar beets, like her fair women, are the sweetest 

 in the world. 



The Estansia Valley is doing wonders around Willard and Estansia, 

 through the magic of the pump, where the cost of an acre-foot of water is 

 about $1.75, their products this year show 1,200 pounds of beans per acre, 

 200 bushels of potatoes, with other crops in proportion, and truck farming 

 producing $300.00 per acre or better, which latter fact applies to all our 

 valleys. 



