THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



171 



SAN BENITO, TEXAS, IRRIGATION DISTRICT 



Acting under the terms of the Irrigation Dis- 

 trict Law passed by the 33rd Texas Legislature, the 

 land owners under the irrigation system of the San 

 Benito Land and Water Company at San Benito 

 have voted to organize an irrigation district and pur- 

 chase the canal system. Only four votes were cast 

 against the formation of the district. 



San Benito Land and Water Company, owners 

 of the irrigation system, has been, since July, 1913, 

 in the hands of a receiver in the United States Dis- 

 trict Court. 



The irrigation system which is the largest in the 

 lower Rio Grande Valley and one of the largest in 

 the southwest was started in 1907 and its construc- 

 tion cost about $1,500,000. It is partially a gravity 

 system, water being available by gravity during high 

 water periods in the Rio Grande. The main canal is 

 37 miles long and averages 300 feet in width and 

 about 200 miles of lateral canals traverse the terri- 

 tory it serves. Due. to the Delta formation in the 

 lower part of the lower Rio Grande Valley v 

 which this system is located the water in the main 

 canal is held in the main canal at five levels, the 

 highest being at the bank of the river from which it 

 is dropped or locked down four feet at a drop to 

 each of the four succeeding levels. 



The newly formed district which is known as 

 Cameron County Irrigation District No. 2, comprises 

 52,000 acres and, in addition to this acreage, the dis- 

 trict has entered into a contract to water 16,000 

 acres of land adjoining the district belonging to the 

 San Benito Irrigation Company. About half of the 

 land in the district proper is in a high state of cul- 

 tivation, the principal crops being cotton, sugar cane, 

 corn, feed stuff, citrus fruit and winter truck. The 

 section has just closed an especially successful truck 

 season. The towns of San Benito, 4,500 population, 

 Los Indies, Rio Hondo and La Paloma are located 

 within the general boundaries of the district, but 

 the towns themselves are excluded from the district. 

 San Benito is on the Gulf Coast Lines, 19 miles 

 north of Brownsville and 8 miles east of the Rio 

 Grande. The district is traversed by the lines of the 

 San Benito and Rio Grande Valley Railway, with 

 headquarters at San Benito, which road does a gen- 

 eral freight and passenger business by steam trains 

 and motor cars. This road operates over about 50 

 miles of line and makes a loop over the district, af- 

 fording convenient transportation to every part of 

 the section included within the district, and has 

 proven of exceptional convenience in handling the 

 heavy tonnage of sugar cane and truck produced on 

 the tract. 



At the election at which it was voted to form an 

 irrigation district, P. R. Foley, Richard Mitchell, N. 

 R. Shafer, J. L. Landrum and Alba Heywood were 

 elected directors and upon organization of the board 

 P. R. Foley was elected president and Alba Hey- 

 wood. secretary. An agreement has been entered 

 into between the directors and a committee of the 

 holders of the balance of $1,050,000 in bonds issued 

 by th San Benito Land and Water Company where- 



by the bondholders' lien will be foreclosed and the 

 property sold on order of the court and re-sold to 

 the newly formed district. Six hundred thousand 

 dollars worth of 6 per cent bonds will be issued by 

 the new district, $360,000 of which will be paid for 

 the canal system as it stands, $150,000 sold at par 

 and accrued interest through the W. R. Compton 

 Company of St. Louis, which company handled the 

 original bond issues by San Benito Land and Water 

 Company, and $90,000 in bonds will be handled by 

 the district through other channels. The property 

 contracted to be purchased includes in addition to 

 the canal system and pumping and intake facilities 

 the office building, a $16,000 building located in the 

 town of San Benito and all equipment used in the 

 operation of the irrigation system, but not does in- 

 clude the utilities plant in the town of San Benito, 

 light, water and phone, which is owned by the San 

 Benito Land and Water Company and involved in 

 the same receivership proceedings with the canal 

 system. 



The $240,000 placed at the disposal of the dis- 

 trict above the purchase price of the canal system 

 will be used in needed improvements and extensions. 

 Improvements which will be made immediately call 

 for the dredging of a part of the main canal lying 

 near the river and the dredging and cleaning of sev- 

 eral miles of laterals. Irrigation projects in the 

 Lower Rio Grande Valley have all had to contend 

 in greater or less degree with silt problems similar 

 to those which have beset canal operators in the Im- 

 perial Valley, the Rio Grande carrying a very high 

 percentage of silt. This silt has deposited in the 

 first few miles of the main channel during the past 

 six or seven years to such an extent as to prevent 

 the taking of gravity water at any but times of very 

 high water in the river. With the opening of this 

 channel by dredging to its original depth the canal 

 system can take a very large percentage of the water 

 required by gravity, thus materially reducing the ex- 

 pense of pumping. The directors of the new dis- 

 trict propose, once this channel is opened again, to 

 keep in operation suction or other dredges of suitable 

 type to keep it open, which they will purchase or 

 contract to keep in operation. Replacements of 

 water gates and conduits will be made with gates 

 and conduits of the latest and most durable type. 

 Such additional pumping machinery as will be in- 

 stalled by the district at the headworks will be in- 

 ternal combustion engines direct connected to cen- 

 trifugal pumps. The contract to water the adjoining 

 16,000 acres of the San Benito Irrigation Company 

 calls for the installation at the expense of that com- 

 pany of pumping facilities at the headworks of the 

 district of this type and for the furnishing of water 

 to their lands in units of 500 acres each as fast as 

 they are equipped with canals and the pumping 

 facilities installed with which to furnish water. 



The San Benito District is the third in the 

 Lower Rio Grande Valley organized under the new 

 Irrigation District law. 



