THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



141 



of the most valuable data received regarding wells in 

 Xew Mexico has been gained through the experience 

 of the Santa Fe Railway Company in sinking wells for 

 the necessary water supply along its line in our terri- 

 tory and a separate table is made on this subject. (See 

 Table 13.) The tables show, further, the comparative 

 conditions existing in our territory and in other regions 

 from which data has been secured. 



Fig. 30. Competitive test of pumps at the El Paso (Texas) Carnival. January 18, 

 1902. Water pumped from open tank, with lift of nine feet. Slanting pipe from six- 

 inch Johnson Rotary Pump discharging 700 gallons per minute; horizontal pipe from 

 six-inch Byron-Jackson Centrifugal Pump discharging 800 gallons per minute. 



PUMPING PLANTS IN OTHER STATES. 



For the purpose of presenting compara- 

 tive data in this bulletin, a systematic cor- 

 respondence has been conducted, by means 

 of which statistics concerning pumping 

 plants in other parts of the United States 

 have been secured. Tn gathering and com- 

 piling these statistics representative cases, so 

 far as possible, have been taken, and the 

 reader is thus enabled to compare in the 

 same table relative figures as to the cost and 

 the utility of plants as they exist in various 

 regions. 



California leads all other States in the 

 number of acres irrigated from wells. The 

 last census shows that a total of 152,506 

 acres of land were in 1899 irrigated from 

 wells, or more than 10 per cent of the total 

 acreage irrigated in that State. Colorado 

 comes next, with a much lower percentage, 

 7,050 acres irrigated from wells. From these 

 two States representative cases have been 

 used in the compilation of the tables pre- 

 sented herewith. In Louisiana and east 

 Texas the recent development of the rice 

 industry has been the reason for the irriga- 

 tion of enormous tracts of land by pumping 

 plants. Most of these are operated on very low lifts 



a few instances of this kind have been compiled in the 

 tables shown. 



RELATIVE CONDITIONS IN THE U1O GRANDE VALLEY. 



It may not be amiss in this bulletin to call atten- 

 tion to the conditions in the Rio Grande Valley for 

 pumping for irrigation as they compare with other 

 States and regions. In the pumping of water for irri- 

 gation the most important consideration i& 

 a large available amount of water at a rea- 

 sonable depth. From this standpoint alone 

 it becomes apparent to the person who gives 

 any thought to the matter of comparative 

 conditions that hardly any, if any, other lo- 

 cality can show better advantages than the 

 Rio Grande Valley. Water throughout the 

 valley in large quantities may be secured 

 anywhere below a depth of from fifteen to 

 twenty feet and the whole valley appears to 

 be underlaid by, so far as we know, an almost 

 inexhaustible supply of water. This water 

 is of good quality and occurring at so short 

 a distance below the surface of the ground 

 may be raised very economically. It appears 

 probable that in almost any part of the valley 

 sufficiently thick beds of water bearing gravel 

 may be met with to allow the placing of a 

 strainer such as that used in the station well. 

 This being so, it makes unnecessary the ex- 

 pensive strainers that are used in some re- 

 gions to secure water from sand. The cost 

 of the construction of a well need not be 

 heavy. The work of the experiment station 

 appears to have demonstrated the fact that 



Fig. No. 36. Discharge of about 450 gallons per minute thrown from a five-inch pipe 

 by a Byron Jackson No. 4 Centrifugal Pump E. Stoney, Porcher, El Paso, Tex. 



from beds of water under different conditions from 

 those which must prevail in our territory. Through 

 the higher lands, however, pumping is practiced for the 

 irrigation of rice and other crops from deep wells, and 



with a well costing from $100 to $200 an ample supply 

 of water may be secured for the irrigation of a farm 

 of 100 acres or more. 



Probably no part of the country has been more 

 often referred to for successful examples of profitably 



