170 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



MILLIONS RUNNING TO WASTE. 



BY G. L. SHUMWAY. 



In the southwest country of our United States lies 

 hundreds of thousands of acres of as fertile soil as may 

 be found anywhere. Above it smiles the glorious sun, 

 radiating vitalizing energy. Meandering for miles and 

 miles across it is a river which annually carries to the 

 sea a million acre feet of water and the great volume 

 runs during the summer months. 



Land- sunshine water : the emperial triumvirate, 

 which separate are non-producers, but combined bv the 

 modern alchemist, the irrigator, create magic gardens 

 and bowers and supplies a hungry world with food. 



This land whereof I speak is in San Juan County, 

 New Mexico, and the river is the San Juan and its 

 tributaries. One railroad only has found it the D. & 

 R. G. which is a pioneer in railroading. Anyone who 

 rides upon it and whisks around its curves, wanders 



Foot Bridge, Farmington, N. M. Imperial millions running to waste 

 underneath it. 



through fertile valleys and canyons deep and gorges, 

 climbs perilous cliffs or over mountain tops, must mar- 

 vel at its engineering feats. 



At Durango, Ouray and Silverton, or other places, 

 one is inclined to wonder how they ever found the hid- 

 den nooks wherein to build those teeming, bustling 

 cities. 



"Beyond the Alps lies Italy," and the sunny San 

 Juan is over the continental divide, beyond several hun- 

 dred miles of intermountain railroad. 



Along the rivers the San Juan, Animas and La 

 Plata, which converge and unite near Farmington, are 

 many small private and community canals, and con- 

 siderable areas are planted to orchards. Happy commu- 

 nities dwell under spreading Alamos and weeping wil- 

 lows, but a large percentage of them are hardly con- 

 scious of that ideal climate, their splendid environment, 

 or the country's possibilities. 



Plans are being formulated for canals covering 

 higher mesas. Blair Burwell and George Gray Ander- 

 son, engineers of indomitable energy, have accomplished 



much preliminary work in connection with the proposed 

 Eden Canal, which means the reclamation of a beau- 

 tiful mesa lying east of the Animas River. Mr. Spath 

 is hard at work developing the Citizens Canal, but the 

 most gigantic of undertakings is by Jay Turley, who 

 proposes to reclaim over 100,000 acres of the higher 

 mesas south of the San Juan. 



A Cliff Dwelling near Farmington, N. M. 



Mr. Turley was outlining his plans and showing me 

 over some of his proposed work, and the stupendous- 

 ness of the undertaking induced me to remark: "Mr. 

 Turley, you have before you more than the work of a 

 few years; it is a life endeavor." 



His answer: "Can you imagine a better service to 

 which I can devote my life?" illustrates more than any- 

 thing I have ever heard, the spirit that actuates the 

 living, breathing West. He is a prototype. He and 

 his wife have left behind them the dress suit and the 

 drawing room, for which they have ample endowments, 

 and the glory of the builder shall be theirs. 



A Show Window, Farmington Times Hustler, Farmington, N. M. 



Send $2.50 for The Irrigation Age 

 1 year, and The Primer of Irrigation 



