No. 92.

The Secretary of State to the Mexican Minister.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, March 13, 1896.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 6th instant, in which you express the opinion of your Government that the inquiry into the practicability of an international dam in the Rio Bravo del Norte near El Paso, Tex., should be conducted by the present water boundary commission instead of by special commission.

Accept, etc.,

RICHARD OLNEY.

The Mexican Minister to the Secretary of State.

[Translation.]

LEGATION OF MEXICO, Washington, March 21, 1896.

MR. SECRETARY: The residents of Paso del Norte, Mexico, addressed, on the 17th ultimo, a statement to the Government of Mexico, wherein they described the injury which has been done to them by reason of the lack of water from the Rio Bravo del Norte (Rio Grande), which began to be felt in the year 1882; they compute the pecuniary equivalent of said injury, and recommend the construction of a dam across said river, near El Paso, such as has been proposed by Col. Anson Mills.

As this matter now forms the subject of negotiations between the two Governments, I have thought proper to send you a copy of that statement, which I have just received from the Government of Mexico, wherein they described the injury which has been done to them unfortunate situation of those inhabitants, which arises from the use of the water in the upper portion of the Rio Bravo del Norte.

Be pleased to accept, Mr. Secretary, the assurances of my most distinguished consideration.

(Inclosure:) Copy of the statement referred to.

M. ROMERO.

[Inclosure-Translation.]

To the Citizen Secretary of State in the Department of Foreign Re

lations:

We, the undersigned, agriculturists and landowners, in our own behalf and in that of the agricultural interests of this district, re

spect fully appear before you and in due form make the following statement:

In view of the great depression suffered by agriculture in this district, owing to the lack of water in the Rio Bravo, during a period of about twelve years, there not being sufficient water for domestic use in the towns situated on the right bank of the Rio Bravo throughout an extent of more than twenty leagues, we applied to the district court of this city in order that an inquiry might be made which should furnish credible evidence of the facts, and we have the honor herewith to inclose a copy thereof, number one, whereby the following facts are shown:

1. By the testimony of five American citizens of good character who have resided on this side of the frontier for many years it is proved that, previously to the year 1881, there was no lack of water in the Rio Bravo, and that, since the year 1883, the water has almost constantly failed to such an extent that the greater part of the land had to be left uncultivated, and in the part that was cultivated the crops were lost after the grain had formed.

2. By the report of the seven municipalities comprised within the zone irrigated by the waters of the Rio Bravo it is clearly shown that the population of this entire district, which was formerly 18,630 souls, has now diminished to 8,540, which is equivalent to a diminution of 53 per cent from the population that there was in 1882; that $22,840,000 have ceased to form a part of the public wealth; that the farmers have sustained a net loss of $12,845,500, not including in this latter sum the amount which the flour mills have failed to produce, which we feel safe in saying has not been less than $80,000 in the last 10 years.

In order not to be accused of exaggeration in presenting these figures, we will take the liberty to base them on the following data: As regards the number of inhabitants, the census that was taken on the 20th of October last left no doubt of the enormous diminution in the number of the inhabitants of this district, which diminution is likewise evident from the large number of deserted houses which are now to be seen.

As to the loss in public wealth, it is due to the fact that our rich lands have, for the most part, been left uncultivated for the reason that the farmers do not feel at all certain that they will have the water necessary to irrigate them; and as to the net loss which the farmers have suffered, that is due to the fact that a large portion of the land that was formerly cultivated has now been left without cultivation; it is also due to the total or partial loss of the crops during the past ten years.

The authorities of the municipalities comprised within the agricultural zone irrigated by the waters of the Bravo compute the area of cultivable land at 25,000 hectares, which is nearly equivalent to 61,540 acres. It may easily be proved that this computation is correct because, for this purpose, it is not sufficient to consider that the land situated in the extreme east of the town of San Ignacio is almost opposite to the station known as Madden, on the Southern Pacific Railroad, the exact distance from said station to the city of El Paso, Tex., opposite to this town, being 63 miles, and, the mean breadth of the valley of the Rio Bravo on the right bank, being considered as 2 miles, we have an area of 126 square miles, or 80,640 acres, inasmuch as each mile contains 640 acres. It thus appears that the estimate made by the various municipal authorities in their reports placing the cultivable area at 61,540 acres, is at least moderate.

As almost all the land was left uncultivated, and the cultivated portion was cultivated at a loss, since the crops did not suffice to pay expenses, the net loss of the 25,000 hectares represents, annually $1,204,500, that is to say, $51.30 per hectare, which is equivalent to $20.80 per acre; and as the present value of our money is 52 cents in gold to the dollar, the loss is $10.82 in gold per acre. The inclosure marked No. 3 contains the details elicited by the inquiry.

In our country, where we have adopted the silver standard, where laborers' wages are paid in silver, and the price of farm products is higher than in the United States, an acre of land ought to give a greater yield than in that country. In order to prove our assertion, we will take as our basis the official report of the State of California, published in 1893, a copy of which we have the honor to enclose (Enclosure No. 4). We will also consider that the climate and the price of cereals in that State of the American Union are about the same as with us, and we shall thus obtain the following results:

1. That the price of wheat in that State has been, on an average, for ten years, $1.47 per hundredweight, or 88 cents per bushel (a bushel being 60 English pounds).

2. That the annual yield of this cereal per acre is from 20 to 40 bushels, the average value of which is $26.40.

3. That the yield of barley is from 30 to 35 bushels an acre, the price of barley being 63 cents per bushel, i. e., $20.48 per acre on

an average.

4. That the yield of Indian corn is from 60 to 125 bushels per acre, the price thereof being 61 cents per bushel, the value of the yield per acre thus being at the rate of $55 in American money.

5. As to the yield of fruit of various kinds, the same report furnishes the following data: The yield of peaches amounts to from

$100 to $150 per acre; that of grapes is from 4,000 to 8,000 pounds per acre, and as each pound of that fruit is worth from 1 cent and a quarter to 2 cents per pound, the value of the yield of each acre is $90.

6. Apart from other productions to which we will not refer, in order not to lengthen this paper unduly, we will mention only the beet, the value of the yield of which is $75 per acre, and a profit of $50 per acre is obtained.

The foregoing data are taken, as has already been remarked, from the report published in 1893 by Governor H. R. Markham. They are to be found on pages 114, 115, 116, 128, and 137. We likewise inclose both the original and a copy of a letter from Mr. F. C. Barker, editor of a paper called "The Southwestern Farm and Orchard," published at Las Cruces, N. Mex. (Inclosure No. 7.), from which we take the following data: An acre in that region annually produces fruit worth from $100 to $300, at a cost of from $30 to $50; lucern worth from $20 to $25, at a cost of from $12 to $15, and cereals worth from $15 to $25, at a cost of from $5 to $10; deducting the cost of production, there is a net profit per acre, each year, of $101 in American money on fruit, of $9 on fodder, and of $12.50 on cereals. So that the estimate of our loss ($10.82 in American money per acre) is a moderate one.

The losses which we have sustained, both in population and in public wealth, are mainly to be attributed to the law passed in 1881 by the Legislature of the State of Colorado, which authorized the use of the river water by priority of right, and in pursuance of that law a very large number of trenches were dug for irrigation, as is shown by the data taken from the semiannual report for the years 1883 and 1884, made by the State of Colorado, a copy of which we inclose. (Inclosure No. 6, p. 23.)

That report shows that from 1881 to 1884 a large number of trenches were dug, which supplied the enormous volume of 15,195 cubic feet of water per second, not to speak of those which have been dug since the year 1884 up to the present time, which undoubtedly furnish a much larger volume of water. These trenches are, for the most part, from the Rio Bravo and its affluents. The same report shows that, between the years 1880 and 1884, 2,581,566 acres of public land were sold in the State of Colorado, of which the United States Government, during the same period, sold 1,628,339 acres, which sale must have brought several millions of dollars into the Federal Treasury, thereby enormously increasing the public wealth of the United States.

As a consequence of this increase of the number of acres of land under cultivation, the population of New Mexico and that of Colo

rado have increased in the following proportion: in the year 1880 New Mexico had a population of 113,000 souls, while Colorado had a population of 195,170 souls. The census taken in those States (sic) in the year 1890 showed that the population of New Mexico was 153,593 souls, and that of Colorado 412,193 souls. It thus appears that the population of Colorado more than doubled in 10 years, while its public wealth increased in the same proportion. On the other hand, our population on the right bank of the Bravo diminished in the same proportion, both in population and wealth, and our rich lands are now uncultivated and abandoned; agricultural property is heavily mortgaged and otherwise burdened; the inhabitants have emigrated, and this is solely due to the almost entire lack of water, which is the only element of life in this essentially agricultural region.

The laws of all countries, both ancient and modern, have upheld the principle of priority of right in the use of public water, and this principle prevails in all its force in the United States of America, as is to be seen by the Revised Statutes of that nation. In this connection we will copy section 2339 of that collection of laws, which is as follows:

"Whenever, by priority of possession, rights to the use of waters for mining, agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes have vested and accrued, and the same are recognized and acknowledged by the local customs, laws, and decisions of the Courts, the possessors and owners of said vested rights shall be maintained and protected in the same, and the right of way for the construction of ditches and canals for the purposes herein specified is acknowledged and confirmed."

The law regulating the use of public water in the State of Colorado, in section 511, states the case as follows:

"The right to divert unappropriated waters of any natural stream for beneficial uses shall never be denied. Priority of appropriation shall give the better right as between those using the water for the same purpose; but when the water of any natural stream is not sufficient for the service of all those desiring the use of the same, those using the water for domestic purposes shall have the preference over those claiming for any other purpose, and those using the water for agricultural purposes shall have the preference over those using the same for manufacturing purposes."

The irrigation law of the State of Texas is nearly the same. In its fifth section the words occur " as between appropriators, the first in time is the first in right." Very well. As Ciudad Juarez is the oldest town of those that are situated on the Rio Bravo, its right to