THE DESERT AND THE ROSE 43 



may be accounted one of them, as will be seen by 

 the analysis here presented of the once muddy wa- 

 ters of the Rio Grande : 



Phosphate Acid 0.14 per cent 



Potash 1. 2 1 per cent 



Nitrogen 0.13 per cent 



Could fertilising properties furnished gratis further 

 go? The costly drawbacks accompanying the Re- 

 clamation Project, however, form subjects for so 

 many animated arguments that I prefer to steer 

 away from rather than into them. 



And always must there be water. Any ranching 

 person who has striven with the exasperating an- 

 cient methods of obtaining this life giving necessity 

 could not do otherwise than welcome law and order 

 as administered under the present regime, even with 

 its drawbacks. Yes — even if he has to watch the 

 beloved and mysterious acequias stripped bare by 

 the ruthless hand of Progress; to behold the tall 

 canes and cottonwoods, threaded by whispering, 

 meandering paths, laid low ; to be able to follow no 

 longer those secretive ways within sight and sound 

 of brown and swirling waters and indulge in weird 

 jungle dreams — even so, he must perforce submit; 

 and after all is said, and thought, he is in the small 

 minority, that very small minority which would do 

 better to harbor no tastes but the material. For 

 that which represents to the artistic eye ruin and 

 despair, is to the eye of the practical ranchman Im- 

 provement writ large. 



In former days the law of the acequia was a by- 

 word in the market place — not, let me hasten to add, 



