THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



149 



CORRESPONDENCE 



Editor IRRIGATION AGE, 



Chicago, 111. 

 DEAR SIR: 



The town of Grandfalls is located in one of the richest 

 and most fertile spots of the Pecos valley, of Texas. The 

 lands are a light sandy loam and when brought under irriga- 

 tion and cultivation produce almost phenomenal crops of all 

 kinds of products indigenous to this climate. The population 

 of the town and surrounding community will aggregate about 

 one thousand. The town has two general stores, one family 

 grocery store, one drug store, one hotel, one blacksmith shop, 

 one lumber yard, one barber shop, one restaurant, one livery 

 barn, two meat markets, a telephone line and the canal office. 

 There is a splendid two-story school house, the upper story of 

 which is used by the Masonic lodge. A splendid school that 

 necessitates three teachers runs for nine months in the year. 

 At present local option is in force and in about a month a 

 vote wilj be taken to place the county under the action of 

 the prohibition law, which no doubt will be carried by a large 

 majority. There are five religious denominations represented 

 in the town, the Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Christian or 

 Disciples, and the Catholic. All denominations except the 

 Catholic worship in the school house, thus giving services 

 every Sunday. People of a higher moral and religious char- 

 acter cannot be found 



The canals that supply water for irrigation purposes ag- 

 gregate over one hundred miles in main line and laterals. 

 The main line is thirty feet wide and about five feet in depth, 

 the laterals are about one-third the carrying capacity of the 

 main line, forming one of the best and most thoroughly 

 equipped systems in use on the Pecos river. The head of 



the week. There is a new town springing up on the railroad 

 ten miles from Monahans and to the west, from which we 

 are soon to have an automobile line that is to make two trips 

 a day each way. Many people are coming into this section, be- 

 ing attracted here by the cheap lands that are being sold by 

 the state, but none of these lands come under any^of the 

 canal systems. What we need and what we want is men 

 who have means sufficient to purchase forty or eighty acres 

 of land and build up homes where they can enjoy the fruits 

 of labor and live to a good ripe old age in this land where 

 malarial troubles are unknown. The canal system is owned 

 and operated by the people who possess the lands, and when 

 one buys a home he also becomes a stockholder in the com- 

 pany. It is known as the Mutual Irrigation Association, the 

 president being Jno. T. Sweatt, the secretary and treasurer, 

 J. Decker. S. H. PARKER. 



Grandfalls, Texas, Feb. 17, 1908. 



Buffalo, Wyo., Feb. 17, 1908. 

 Editor IRRIGATION AGE, 



Chicago, 111. 

 DEAR SIR: 



I want to express my appreciation of your last number, 

 and particularly of what you had to say on the leasing ques- 

 tion. There are bound to be differences of opinion on ques- 

 tions of this kind, according to the point of view from 

 which the question is considered, but the rule of "the greatest 

 good to the greatest number" must ultimately determine the 

 question. 



The industries affected are so extensive and important, 

 and the welfare of so many people is concerned that hasty 

 legislation should be avoided. The west has prospered, and 

 the great majority of its people, both new settlers and old 

 timers, have profited by this prosperity; then why not let 

 well enough alone, at least until some measure can be pro- 

 posed less likely to invite disaster than anything thus far 



Sluice Way and Hydraulic Pipe Line of Terrace Reservoir. 



the main line is about thirteen miles abo've the town and 

 empties back into the river seven miles below the town. 

 The elevation of the country is about twenty-six hundred feet, 

 making this one of the most ideal climates in the south- 

 west, for all kinds of pulmonary and bronchial troubles. The 

 products of the soil are alfalfa, maize, oats, barley, cotton 

 and fruits, such as the peach, pear, apple and all varieties of 

 California grapes. Alfalfa produces five and six crops per 

 year, of a ton to a ton and a half per acre each cutting. 

 Peaches pay an annual profit of one hundred to one hundred 

 and fifty dollars an acre. Grapes pay a net profit of one 

 hundred dollars and more per acre. Cotton produces from 

 three-fourths to a bale and more per acre each year, and it 

 has been recently discovered that the long staple varieties 

 will grow in this climate to a most perfect maturity, and it 

 rarely ever sells below 25 cents per pound. Alfalfa rarely 

 ever sells below $10 a ton, and at this writing it is worth 

 $16, with none in the market for sale. 



The lands under the irrigating system can be bought for 

 $40 to $75 an acre. The growth on the lands is mesquite, 

 that costs about $5 an acre to be grubbed off, the wood being 

 worth the money. Land taken in the rough and prepared 

 and seeded to alfalfa will aggregate an outlay of about $55 

 an acre and every year thereafter one can safely count on 

 n net income of $50 for each acre that he has. The town is 

 eighteen miles from the T. & P. Ry, and Monahans is the 

 nearest point. We have a daily mail line for six days in 



offered. Laws are supposed to aid and encourage those in- 

 dustries best adapted to the country, to the end that all its 

 resources may be utilized to the fullest extent, and the great- 

 est number of people be benefited thereby. The sheep and 

 wool industry is pre-eminently the industry of the arid re- 

 gions. It has probably produced more wealth, three times 

 over, than the cattle business ever did, even when cattlemen 

 held undisputed possession of the range. Cattle have ever 

 been an easy prey to wild animals and a temptation to thieves, 

 and the seeming and uncertain profits to their owners have 

 been swept away by hard winters. 



Sheep, on the other hand, are always under the watchful 

 care of herders. In the early spring they are guided to the 

 mountains, and the lambs, almost from birth to maturity, 

 are developed and fattened on the grasses and herbage of 

 the parks and slopes, vegetation for the most part inaccessible 

 to other stock, and which would otherwise go to waste (and 

 by the way, thousands of dollars have gone to waste in the 

 forest reserves from which sheep have been needlessly ex- 

 oluded). As winter approaches the sheep are guided to the 

 plains, the wether lambs and surplus stock are shipped to 

 market and the remainder are held to graze on the distant 

 divides, where, if the winter is favorable, the scattering snow 

 drifts take the place of water, and enable them to thrive on 

 the natural cured grasses till the spring storms come, when 

 the owners drive them to distant valleys, where hay has been 

 (Continued on page 152) 



