108 



THE IEEIGATION AGE. 



ulation. The acreage that can be cultivated is immense, 

 and a great system of storage reservoirs will be better 

 than the granaries which Joseph established in Egypt, 

 for they will be a perpetual source of wealth. 



The valleys of the Gila, the Santa Cruz and the 

 San Pedro rivers will furnish a large water supply if 

 wisely developed, and fruit growing, diversified farming 

 and stock raising will attract new settlers. 



Southern Arizona is Agricultural Arizona. It is 

 traversed by the Southern Pacific and its branches, and 

 while the north is high and broken and cold, perpetual 

 summer lingers in the lowlands of the South. Oranges, 

 figs, dates and olives are successfully grown and seven 

 crops of alfalfa in one season invites the dairy, and with 



ten miles wide, and the county is known as the "Garden 

 of New Mexico." As the county is nearly twice as large 

 as the State of Delaware, the size of the "Garden" can 

 be estimated. The Spaniards were here about the mid- 

 dle of the sixteenth century, and it is believed that 

 fully 40,000 acres were anciently irrigated. As this is 

 as many acres as are now cultivated, and as the popula- 

 tion of the county is but 13,000, it is evident that there 

 is room here for improvement and a place for men of 

 enterprise. Much land is still subject to entry under 

 the land laws. There are said to be 100,000 acres in 

 the valley of the Eio Grande in this territory, and only 

 about 40,000 acres under cultivation. There is a tre- 

 mendous underflow of the great river and it is available 



Irrigation Scenes in the West The Thriving Little Town of Roosevelt, Ariz., Is Built Where There Will Be Two Hundred Feet of Water When 



the Dam of the Salt River Project Is Completed. 



this goes hogs and poultry and a quick income. The 

 vast mineral resources and permanent mining camps 

 provide a good home market. 



The same general conditions obtain in New Mexico, 

 and the gardens and populous and prosperous commu- 

 nities which flourished here when Coronado visited it 

 some hundreds of years ago, are to be revived in the 

 valley of the Kio Grande and elsewhere by a wider and 

 wiser use of water. 



The great irrigating dam over the torrential river, 

 provided for in the plans of the National Government, 

 will greatly add to the prosperity of a rich valley. Mid- 

 way of Dona Ana County the valley is from seven to 



at about twenty-five feet, and pumping plants are some- 

 what in use. The Eio Mimbres is also a stream run- 

 ning upside down for much of its course, and an associ- 

 ation has been formed to impound and use the sunken 

 waters. The cost of pumping has been shown by the 

 New Mexico Experiment Station to be not more gener- 

 ally less than the cost of water purchased from water 

 companies. Alfalfa and vegetables can be profitably 

 grown in this way, the Experiment Station showing that 

 onions can be male to produce $500 per acre when sold 

 at 2^4 cents per pound. Wells and windmills and 

 pumping plants of oil or gasoline will irrigate a good 

 deal of territory here, but dependence for the most part 



