Bids on the earthwork for the distribution system were opened February 1, 1906, and the contract was awarded to T. F. Cazier, of Roswell, N. Mex.

Bids opened February 1, 1906 for earthwork on distributing system, Hondo project.

TELEPHONE LINE AND OFFICE BUILDING.

A telephone line has been built from Roswell to the reservoir. This line is located through the center of the farming section, and will be available for use by the farmers as well as the Government's operating employees. The length of the line is 14.7 miles. A five-room house has also been built at the reservoir. This has been used by the engineers, and will be the residence of the watchman and gate keeper during the operation of the system.

IRRIGABLE LANDS.

The land is now mostly in the hands of people ready to begin active farming whenever water is delivered. Several places are now being improved, and some crops were planted during the past year.

EXPENDITURES.

The expenditures on the Hondo project are shown in the following tables:

Expenditures, according to physical features, on Hondo project to June 30, 1906.

218 FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF RECLAMATION SERVICE.

Expenditures, according to purpose and nature, on Hondo project to June 30, 1906.

PROPOSED LAS VEGAS PROJECT.

The Third Annual Report contains a description of this project. It is located at Las Vegas, N. Mex., and contemplates the irrigation of 10,000 acres by diverting waters of the Sapello and Gallinas rivers, Sanquijuela Creek, and Arroyo Pecos, and storing them in a reservoir in the valley of the Little Sanquijuela. The only work done during the present year has been stream measurements. The expenditures are summarized in the following table:

Expenditures, according to purpose and nature, on proposed Las Vegas project to June 30, 1906. [Total, $4,233.30.]

PROPOSED URTON LAKE PROJECT.

This project is described in the Third Annual Report. It is located in Leonard Wood County and contemplates the irrigation of 60,000 acres by diverting water from Pecos River near old Fort Sumner, and conveying it in a canal 35 miles long to Urton Lake. This lake is a natural depression in which 190,000 acre-feet of water can be stored. Surveys and estimates have been made and the project has been reported on by a board of engineers.. The only work done during the present year has been stream measurements, for the purpose of getting all the information possible concerning the water supply. The expenditures are summarized in the following table: Expenditures, according to purpose and nature, on proposed Urton Lake project to June 30, 1906. [Total, $17,762.24.]

PROPOSED LA PLATA VALLEY PROJECT.

This project is located in the northwest corner of New Mexico and is described in the Fourth Annual Report. No work has been done during the present year. The expenditures are summarized in the following table:

Expenditures, according to purpose and nature, on proposed La Plata Valley project to June 30, 1906.

NEW MEXICO-TEXAS.

RIO GRANDE PROJECT.

LEASBURG DIVERSION.

GENERAL STATEMENT.

A summary of the principal data relating to the Leasburg diversion is given below:

Summary of principal data relating to Leasburg diversion.

County: Dona Ana.

Latitude: 329.

Longitude: 106° 47'.

Townships: T. 22 S., R. 1 E.; T. 23 S., Rs. 1 and 2 E.; T. 24 S., R. 2 E.

Irrigable area: 15,000 acres.

Watershed area: 37,000 square miles.

Average rainfall: 9.4 inches.

Estimated run-off: 500,000 acre-feet past Lascruces; 800,000 acre-feet past Engle.
Range of temperature: Maximum, 110°; minimum, 0°.

Average elevation: 3,850 feet.

Principal products: Alfalfa, corn, fruit, vegetables, and melons.

Nearest railroad: Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe runs through tract.

Nearest stations: Lascruces, Dona Ana, and Mesilla Park.

Principal market: El Paso, Tex.

Kind of headworks: Concrete diversion wier in river, with sluice and head gates.
Duty of water: 21 acre-feet per acre on land.

Height of dam: 5 feet.

Length of dam: 600 feet of concrete and 1,500 feet of earth embankment.

Type of dam: Concrete weir and earth embankment.

Length of canals: 6 miles.

Ownership of lands: Private.

Character of soil: Fertile alluvium.

Value of irrigated lands: $100 to $150.

Date of completion of Leasburg diversion: March, 1907.

The Third Annual Report contains a full discussion of the interstate and international problems involved in an equitable division of the waters of the Rio Grande, and sets forth in detail the features of the Rio Grande project. It is proposed to build an immense storage dam across the Rio Grande near Engle, N. Mex., that will form a reservoir with a maximum water depth of 175 feet, a length of 40 miles, and a storage capacity of 2,000,000 acre-feet, and to build a system of diversion dams and canals along the river below in New Mexico and Texas. Water will be provided for 180,000 acres-110,000 acres in New Mexico, 45,000 acres in Texas, and about 25,000 acres in Mexico.

In order to make the project feasible, Congress has extended the provisions of the reclamation act to the State of Texas, and a treaty has been entered into with the Republic of Mexico in which the United

a For general map, see Third Ann. Rept. Reclamation Service, Pl. XLVII.

States agrees to furnish in the river bed at the head of the old Mexican Canal near El Paso 60,000 acre-feet of water per annum to be used in Mexico. This is approximately the amount of water that has been used for about three hundred years in the old Mexican Canal prior to 1880, since which time irrigation by American citizens on the headwaters in Colorado has caused a deficiency in the low-water flow of the river at the head of the canal. In return, the Mexican Government has waived all other claims to water in the Rio Grande above the town of Fort Quitman, Tex., and all claims for past damages from shortage of water. Following is the text of the act extending the reclamation act to Texas:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the provisions of the act entitled "An act appropriating the receipts from the sale and disposal of public lands in certain States and Territories to the construction of irrigation works for the reclamation of arid lands." approved June seventeenth, nineteen hundred and two, be, and the same are hereby, extended so as to include and apply to the State of Texas.

Approved June 12, 1906.

The treaty with Mexico is as follows:

The United States of America and the United States of Mexico being desirous to provide for the equitable distribution of the waters of the Rio Grande for irrigation purposes, and to remove all causes of controversy between them in respect thereto, and being moved by considerations of international comity, have resolved to conclude a Convention for these purposes and have named as their Plenipotentiaries:

The President of the United States of America, Elihu Root, Secretary of State of the United States; and

The President of the United States of Mexico, His Excellency Senor Don Joaquin D. Casasus, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of Mexico at Washington;

Who, after having exhibited their respective full powers, which were found to be in good and due form, have agreed upon the following articles:

ARTICLE I.

After the completion of the proposed storage dam near Engle, New Mexico, and the distributing system auxiliary thereto, and as soon as water shall be available in said system for the purpose, the United States shall deliver to Mexico a total of 60,000 acre-feet of water annually, in the bed of the Rio Grande at the point where the head works of the Acequia Madre, known as the Old Mexican Canal, now exist above the City of Juarez, Mexico.

ARTICLE II.

The delivery of the said amount of water shall be assured by the United States and shall be distributed through the year in the same proportions as the water supply proposed to be furnished from the said irrigation system to lands in the United States in the vicinity of El Paso, Texas, according to the following schedule, as nearly as may be possible:

In case, however, of extraordinary drought or serious accident to the irrigation system in the United States, the amount delivered to the Mexican Canal shall be diminished in the same proportion as the water delivered to lands under said irrigation system in the United States.