The land of sunshine, a handbook of the resources, products, industries and climate of New Mexico (1904) (14759466486)

Identifier: landofsunshineha02newm (find matches)
Title: The land of sunshine, a handbook of the resources, products, industries and climate of New Mexico
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: New Mexico. Bureau of Immigration Frost, Max, comp Walter, Paul A. F
Subjects:
Publisher: (Santa Fe, N.M.) J.S. Duncan: public printer
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation



Text Appearing Before Image:
^ there was but an unproductive waste. Andyet, this is only the beginning, even for this section of theTerritory. Here, on the Rio Hondo, the United States govern-ment is about to build a $350,000 reservoir and irrigationworks. On the Maxwell land grant in Colfax county, equal progresshas been madejn building irrigation works on scientific prin-ciples^and the results are similar to those achieved in thePecos Valle3^ In San Juan county there are miles upon milesof irrigation canals while many more miles are being addedwithout exhausting the available water supply. For thePueblo, as well as the Navajo Indians, the national governmentisconstructing such reservoirs and irrigation canals; and itw^ill undertake the same work in the near future for the whitesettlers. In the Rio Grande Valley and the valleys of its tri-butaries and along every brook and river are irrigation sys-
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THE LAND OF SUNSHINE. 53 terns, some of them primitive aiifl wasteful, it is true, andsooner or later to be supplanted by scientific irrigation, yet,sufficient to demonstrate that New Mexico is first of all anagricultural commonwealth. It was the first to practice irri-gation and will be the greatest beneficiary eventually underthe reclamation policy so recently inaugurated by the nationalgovernment. But New Mexico does not depend altogether upon waterfrom flowing streams or stored flood waters for themoisture to raise its crops. Besides a number of valleysand mesas where the rainfall is sufficient to raise crops,there are extensive artesian areas, developed to their greatestextent in Chaves and Eddy counties where there are scoresof flowing wells, but existing also in Colfax county and aboutto be developed in other sections. Besides flowing wells,there are inexhaustible wells in which the water does not risequite to the surface, such as have given Deming the name ofthe Windmill Cit3\