562 



THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



Annual Precipitation is Sufficient. 



Vernon L. Sullivan, territorial engineer, has expressed 

 the opinion that in this portion of New Mexico, nine 

 inches of water, properly used, in addition to the natural 

 rainfall, will be sufficient on an average farm. On inquiry 

 of the farmers near Maxwell City, Springer and Las 

 Vegas, I have been assured that this estimate is ample. 

 As a matter of fact, irrigation here may be regarded as 

 supplementary to the natural rainfall. The government 

 records of precipitation over the prairie and mesa portion 

 of this area show a great deal more rainfall than most so- 

 called dry-farming sections have, with the precipitation 

 better distributed over the growing season. 



The precipitation at Raton, during 1909, was '.'.3.02 

 inches, of which 17.31 inches occurred in May, June, July, 

 August and September. 



No records have been kept of precipitation <.m the 

 mountain watershed mentioned, but it is much greater 

 than for the lower elevations. 



From such measurements of runoff as have 1 een made 

 from the annual estimated precipitation, and from evidence 

 on the ground of floods in the streams, there can be no 

 doubt that this mountain watershed of many thousand 

 square miles will furnish water to irrigate several hundred 

 thousand acres of land in each of the counties I have men- 

 tioned. 



The government figures'for the runoff from the entire 

 drainage area of the Rio Grande in Colorado are 500 acre 

 feet for each square mile of surface, or a runoff rf nine 

 inches per annum. Estimating the runoff from the moun- 

 tain and foothill area of Colfax county at only six inches 

 at altitudes ,of 7,000 and 13,000 feet gives 1,010,000 acre 

 feet of wat(5r available for irrigating the 512,000 acres of 

 irrigable land, or nearly two acre feet for each acre. The 

 average rainfall being about seven to eighteen inches, this 

 would make a total water supply of forty-nine inches per 

 annum. 



Theoretically, it is possible to store and utilize nearly 

 all of this runoff. Practically it is easily possible to store 

 and utilize more and more of it each year, until, with the 

 increased flow of the springs, the raising of the grounc' 

 water and the increased humidity of the air, caused by ir- 

 rigation of large areas, all the farming land of this entire 

 district can be brought under the highest state of cultiva- 

 tion. 



What Storage Means in Development. 

 What this means to New Mexico may be realized by 

 seeing the wonderful results of irrigation in certain dis- 

 tricts of Colorado, which only a few years ago were tree- 

 less plains used only for grazing purposes. Now they are 

 occupied by a numerous population of prosperous farmers, 

 with a sugar mill every few miles and lands selling at $300 

 to $400 per acre, or fruit districts where land is worth 

 from $1,000 to $4,000 per acre, having full bearing orchards. 

 The native people and settlers of Colfax, Mora, San 

 Miguel and Taos counties have successfully grown certain 

 crops such as wheat, beans, short season corn, sorghum 

 and Kaffir corn, without irrigation, for over fifty years, and 

 the Mexican people have always planted temporal crops 

 above the irrigated lands. 



Irrigation farming has been carried on in some parts 

 of Mora, San Miguel and Taos counties since the earliest 

 occupation by the Spaniards while there are remains of 

 ancient irrigation ditches in Taos county used probably 

 many hundred years before by the Pueblo Indians or by 

 some race which preceded them. 



In Colfax county which was formerly the home and 

 favorite hunting ground of the Ute and Apache Indians, 

 irrigation farming has been practiced for over fifty years. 

 The noted scout and Indian fighter, Kit Carson had a 

 ranch on the Ponil near Cimarron and constructed one of 

 the first irrigating ditches in Colfax county. The irrigated 

 farms and the large stone flour mill at Cimarron. owned 

 by Lucien B. Maxwell, supplied the settlers and the United 

 States army posts with flour in the early sixties. 

 Irrigation Development Just Beginning. 

 Here B. F. Eaton, the pioneer of the great Greeley 

 irrigation district, afterwards governor of Colorado, 

 learned to farm by irrigation on one of Maxwell's ranches 

 near Cimarron. 



But the methods of irrigation, seeding and cultivation 

 were crude and wasteful comDared to modern methods 

 now in use in the irrigation districts in California, Utah 



and Colorado, and until quite recently no efforts have been 

 made to store and utilize the vast quantities of flood water. 



It is only within a few years that the great irrigation 

 possibilities along this watershed have been given any at- 

 tention. The reason for this is that the greater part of 

 the land in these counties was included in land grants 

 owned by a few individuals and companies and used for 

 grazing purposes. The owners did not want to divide the 

 land into small tracts for settlers. In fact settlers were 

 just what they did not desire. But the settler has come. 

 This means that there will soon be a cultivated farm on 

 the area of ground formerly required for the maintenance 

 of a single steer. 



The crops grown under irrigation in this district are 

 chiefly alfalfa, sugar beets, wheat, oats, barley, beans, peas, 

 corn, timothy and orchard grass, Kentucky bluegrass and 

 all kinds of garden vegetables, including melons. 



It is a fine fruit country, particularly for high priced 

 apples and pears. The apples are thin-skinned, crisp and 

 juicy, of finest flavor and keeping qualities. There are a 

 lew good orchards that have been bearing for 35 to 5fl 

 years, with very few failures during that time. 



Favorable for Sugar Beet Production. 



All the conditions are exceptionally favorable for- 

 sugar beet culture under irrigation. The temperature of 

 the summer months, the mean for June, July and August 

 being 70 degrees, followed by a long period of cool dry 

 weather, for ripening and harvesting, are ideal for produc- 

 tion of a high tonnage and sugar percentage. 



For the past two years sugar beets have been raised 

 near Las Vegas, Watrous, Shoemaker, Miami, Springer 

 and Maxwell, at the last named place in both an experi- 

 mental and a commercial way. The averge sugar percent- 

 age of the 1908 crop of New Mexico exceeded that of any 

 other state or territory in the United States. The 1909 

 crop made an actual commercial test for beets shipped of 

 over 17 per cent. 



But irrigation here, under systematic, modern methods, 

 depends upon storage, reservoiring for reserve supply and 

 is in its incipiency. Several large enterprises are projected 

 and some haye progressed sufficiently to begin coloniza- 

 tion. In the "class are those of Springer Ditch Company, 

 at Springer; Farmers' Development Company, at Miami; 

 French Land & Irrigation Company at French, and Max- 

 well Irrigated Lands Company, at Maxwell, all in Colfax 

 county, New Mexico. 



These projects, though not completed, show the enor- 

 mous water supply furnished by the Sangre de Christo 

 watershed. Taking as one instance, the Maxwell Irri- 

 gated Lands Company, which will take water by large 

 ditches from both the Vermejo and the Red rivers. The 

 Vermejo ditch is completed and from this ditch alone ten 

 large reservoirs were filled the present season by the 

 middle of May and there has been a large amount of 

 water running to waste down the Vermejo which could not 

 be utilized. 



The Red river ditch is being constructed and when 

 completed this company will have much more water than 

 can be stored and used by the reservoirs in their system. 



New Projects Now Under Way. 



There are three other projects which have not got 

 much beyond the formative 'stage of perfecting titles to 

 water rights, surveying and engineer's estimates of costs 

 of construction. There are the Las Vegas project, now 

 under construction by D. A. Camfield, the noted irriga- 

 tionist of Colorado; the Lake Charette projects; controlled 

 by Hornstein and Hartoey of Springer, and the Eagle's 

 Nest project, controlled by Charles Springer of Cimarron, 

 New Mexico. 



This Eagle's Nest enterprise will, without doubt, be- 

 come one of the greatest in the west, covering as it will 

 over 100,000 acres of exceptionally rich land, with low 

 construction cost and an abundant supply of water. 



None of these is government project and I cannot say 

 much concerning any one of them except that every one 

 will bear the closest scrutiny by persons who desire to 

 come among us and make their future homes here. 



There are great possibilities for irrigation in the rich 

 vallevs of the Mora and in the Taps country. 



It is to this country that we invite the people of the 

 world to help in making the greatest state in the Rocky 

 mountain region. 



