Urriaatiom 67 



show by their death-rates that that supply is bad, and during the 

 greater part of the year is the cause of wide-spread disease. 



Again, much is to be gained by the use of these waters for the gen- 

 erating of power for the use of factories, mines, electric lighting, rail- 

 ways, and street cars, even should one hundred miles or more intervene 

 between the generating plant and the machinery it is proposed to apply 

 to it. 



It seems marvellous that the Mexico of to-day presenting, as it 

 does, more natural resources, a greater variety of climate, cheaper 

 labor, and better facilities for the construction of dams, reservoirs, 

 canals, etc., than almost any other country should be so far behind 

 the times in a matter that has become an absolute necessity before the 

 greater portion of its area can be thoroughly populated. The great 

 increase in value of a piece of land after it is irrigated ought to be in- 

 ducement enough for capital to be invested in such works. Compe- 

 tent engineers contend that Mexico, owing to its topographical and 

 geological features, will be found to present most favorable conditions 

 for the construction of reservoirs, dams, gravitation canals, the erection 

 of pumping plants driven by wind, steam, gasoline, electricity, or even 

 water power, and also for the cutting off and bringing to the surface 

 of the underflowing waters, which are known to exist in greater abun- 

 dance there than elsewhere on the face of the globe, as nature has 

 been very prodigal to it in these respects. 



Irrigation in arid countries is the corner-stone of civilization, and, 

 to make a country self-sustaining, agriculture should be the first aim 

 of its inhabitants. Agriculture must come first ; manufacturing and 

 mining cannot thrive until the food supply is forthcoming. 



With the extension of railway lines and the notable impulse given 

 to agricultural enterprise within the last twenty years, Mexican land- 

 owners have improved more and more upon the earlier methods, and 

 have, to an increasing extent, applied the principles of engineering 

 science to the methodical cultivation of the large tracts into which 

 their holdings are usually divided. 



The Nazas Irrigation. Some notice of an irrigation enterprise in 

 Mexico will show how much we are now doing in this line. 



The great plan of northern Mexico embraces nearly the whole of 

 the States of Chihuahua and Coahuila, being bounded east and west 

 by the sierras of the Pacific and Gulf coasts respectively. It consists 

 of two watersheds, that of the Rio Grande to the north, and the 

 the so-called desert of the Bolson of Mapimi in the south. It is 

 about four hundred miles wide by six hundred long, and maintains 

 a general level of about four thousand feet above the sea, although 

 much broken by local mountain ranges. The Bolson of Mapimi 

 has much the same formation as the basin of the Great Salt Lake. 



