Excerpt from Ground Water in the Animas, Playas, Hachita, and San Luis Basins, New Mexico: With Analyses of Water and Soil Every traveler on either of the southern transcontinental railroads is doubtless impressed as he Speeds across southern Arizona and New Mexico by the vastness of the Upland plains. If he passes through this region during or soon after the short rainy season of summer or early fall, when the range grasses are at their best, he may wonder at the scarcity of farms in a region that is apparently so inviting to agriculture. The luxuriance of the forage grasses seems to belie the reputed aridity of the climate. In this region nature has for centuries been at work evolving certain types of drought-resisting and quick-growing plants suited to the Climate. Perhaps the most valuable of the native forage plants are the so-called grama grasses, some varieties of which mature in six weeks from the time the seed is sprouted. These desert grasses have made the region a great and valuable cattle range, but to the extent that it remains a cattle range it yields only a very small income to the acre. Only as the soil can be made productive when cultivated can the region provide permanent homes for a considerable population. The dry farmer and the irrigation farmer are working hand in hand, the one to perfect valuable drought-resistant and quick-maturing 'crops and to develop methods of farming by which the natural mois ture in the ground may be conserved and used to the best advantage, the other to make up the deficiency in precipitation by utilizing sur face and ground waters for irrigation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.