232 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



At Almagordo, the pump is also becoming a great factor in profitable 

 farm development. 



THE ALBUQUERQUE REGION 



The Albuquerque region, and in fact the whole Rio Grande Valley, is 

 starting on an era of prosperity through the instrumentality of lifegiving 

 water, pumped from the earth, to give necessary moisture for plant growth. 

 There are a number of small irrigation wells in the vicinity of Fort Bayard, 

 the largest army sanitorium in the United States, if not in the world. Speak- 

 ing of sanitoriums, it may be truthfully stated that New Mexico is one great 

 sanitorium, where health makes wealth easier and where Nature has been 

 most lavish in her gifts to men. 



The Mimbres Valley is located in the southwestern part of the state 

 and lies largely in Luna County. It is surrounded on every side by moun- 

 tain ranges which effectually protect it from severe storms, an approach to a 

 cyclone never having been known. Its level area is well described in a 

 recently published report of Hon. Charles D. Miller, Territorial Engineer, 

 which says: 



''Estimates of the possibilities of this valley place the figures of irrigable 

 area from wells producing from 500 to 1,200 and even 1,500 gallons of 

 water per minute at 100,000 acres. To this area it is conservatively estimated 

 that there may be added 100,000 acres irrigated from wells producing 500 

 gallons down to possibly 200 gallons of water per minute." 



The valley has an underground basin filled with water filtered for many 

 miles through sand and gravel, rendering it the purest body of water in 

 America. The Government analysis last year of the water used by the Deming 

 City Water Works, which is a part of this underground flow, gave 30 parts 

 total solids, chiefly magnesia and iron, to 100,000 parts of water. Without 

 chemical treatment of any kind this water is used for every purpose, scientific 

 or domestic, and is applied direct from the pump with absolute safety to 

 every form of plant life which means everything in the vegetable kingdom, 

 outside of citrus fruits. Its quantity may be most easily and quickly under- 

 stood when we say the report of a Government engineer in charge of irrigation 

 investigations, this year, said: "If 300,000 acre feet were withdrawn from 

 the underflow in one year, a condition almost impossible, it would lower 

 the water plane below but 3.5 inches." 



From this underground sea more than 200 pumps, ranging in volume 

 from 200 to 2,000 gallons per minute, are truly making the desert blossom as 

 the rose. 



Using the Mimbres Valley as a leading exponent of pumping for irriga- 

 tion, we submit the following facts: Relinquishments from present holders 

 of land may be obtained for from $5.00 to |25.00 per acre. Unimproved deeded 

 land may be purchased for from $15.00 to $100.00 per acre, the price being 

 regulated to a certain extent by the distance from Deming, the chief market 

 town of the valley, and chief railroad center of New Mexico. Tracts of five 



