The land of sunshine; a handbook of the resources, products, industries and climate of New Mexico . the sources of the life giving rivers, without which the Ter-ritory would be a desert. River Systems. The Rio Grande, which bisects the Territory, with its tribu-taries, comprises the most important river system. It risesin Colorado and empties into the Gulf of Mexico, about 500miles of its course being in New Mexico. In its valley andtributary valleys lives one-half of the population of the Terri-tory, and with its tributaries it furnishes the irrigation waterfor one-half of the land under cult
The land of sunshine; a handbook of the resources, products, industries and climate of New Mexico . the sources of the life giving rivers, without which the Ter-ritory would be a desert. River Systems. The Rio Grande, which bisects the Territory, with its tribu-taries, comprises the most important river system. It risesin Colorado and empties into the Gulf of Mexico, about 500miles of its course being in New Mexico. In its valley andtributary valleys lives one-half of the population of the Terri-tory, and with its tributaries it furnishes the irrigation waterfor one-half of the land under cultivation in New flood seasons, it carries an immense amount of waterthat spreads over the lowlands, but during the dry season, itdwindles into insignificance in many places, although a largevolume of water flows under the sandy bed at all times. Inthe northern part of its course the river flows through precip-itous canons, opening into the Espanola Valley, and then be-comes contracted again in the White Rock canon. South ofthis, the valley grows wider and the streaqa more sluggish,. THE LAND OF SUNSHINE. 37 the banks being low or consisting of sand bluffs, excepting inlower Socorro county and in Sierra county, where the Ele-phant Buttes close in upon the stream, which for a short dis-tance flows more rapidly again, but below the Buttes spreadsout into the Mesilla Valley, one of the garden spots of theTerritory. This river has been called the Nile of New Mex-ico and this name is truthful within certain without the Nile would be a desert. New Mexico with-out the Rio Grande would still be a rich and prosperous com-monwealth, although its population would be onlj^ half of whatit is today and instead of being, first of all an agricultural, itwould be more a stock and mining country. The Rio Grande has many tributaries, along which aresituated some of the loveliest and most fertile valleys of theTerritory. Commencing in the north, the most important are
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectlouisia, bookyear1904
