IRRIGATION, POLITICS, AND SECTIONALISM 75 



which the odour is atrocious. The Mexican 

 likes irrigating ; whether because, if he so 

 choose, he can do it well, or for reasons less 

 ambitious, the evidence is not sufficient to 

 accurately record. 



This matter of irrigation is an all-important 

 one with us. Our rainfall is practically 

 limited to one season of the year, although 

 it may surprise us at other seasons. In 

 amount it cannot be depended upon ; it may 

 rain too little, or, again, it may even rain 

 too much quien sabe? The Rio Grande, 

 which has its source in the far mountains of 

 Colorado, and is fed by the rains and snows 

 of those regions, as well as by tributary 

 streams descending from our own mountains, 

 is our principal dependence, and, as has been 

 intimated, of late years an unreliable one. 

 Not only that, but in my experience it has 

 elected to go dry early in the summer, when 

 water is most needed, and not in the fall, as 

 is often inaccurately stated for ' boom ' pur- 

 poses. The fertilizing properties of this 

 muddy stream, however, are so great that 

 the progressive farmer is spared one big 

 item of expense in the purchase of fertilizers, 



