UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
AGRICULTURE UBRARY 
IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE IN THE 
SAN LUIS VALLEY. 
By V. M. CONE and ALVIN KEZER 
LOCATION AND TOPOGRAPHY. 
The San Luis Valley lies in the south central part of Colo^ 
rado. An arm of the valley extends a few miles into New Mex¬ 
ico, but is of little importance so far as irrigation is concerned. The 
eastern rim of the basin is formed by the Sangre de Cristo range, 
and the western rim by the Conejos mountains, La Garita hills, and 
the Saguache mountains. The junction of the Saguache mountains 
and the Sangre de Cristo range closes the valley in the north. The 
valley proper is about ninety miles long and forty-five miles wide, 
and is roughly elliptical in shape. 
The principal streams entering the Valley on the west are 
the Rio Grande, Conejos and Alamosa rivers, and La Jara and Sa¬ 
guache creeks. Entering from the east are the Culebra and Trin- 
chera rivers and Cottonwood, Spanish, Willow, Crestone, Rito 
Alto and Cotton creeks. San Luis creek flows south from the 
upper end of the Valley. The streams on the east are small and 
usually lose themselves in the sand a short distance from their 
canons except when flooded. The streams on the west have much 
larger drainage areas and carry more water than those entering 
This bulletin is based upon results obtained from field investigation 
and experimental farm work in the San Luis Valley, and is intended to 
be a popular presentation of those results. The Colorado Experiment Sta¬ 
tion in co-operation with the Office of Experiment Stations of the United 
States/Department of Agriculture, has been carrying on experiments and 
field work in the San Luis Valley for the past three years. Field plat 
experimental work in crops and irrigation methods have been conducted 
on the farms of the Costilla Estates Development Company, with head¬ 
quarters at San Acacio. In this location three farms of forty acres each 
were divided into plats, upon which crop, soil and irrigation experiments 
were performed. The authors have spent considerable time upon experi¬ 
mental work and made many trips to various sections of the valley during 
tllG t-tirO© SG3<S0I1S 
The Experiment Station is indebted to the Costilla Estates Develop¬ 
ment Company for courtesies extended which permitted the collection o 
much valuable data. In 1912 the experimental plats were taken care of 
by Mr Roy Hice. Mr. E. H. Thomas was responsible for the resident 
work in 1913 and 1914. Much of the general irrigation information was 
collected by Mr. R. G. Hemphill during the years 1912 and 1913. 
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