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<br />1-5 <br /> <br /> <br />In the decade from 1880 to 1890 most of the large canal systems <br />were constructed to irrigate lands in the Valley floor. Farming and <br /> <br />ranching became profitable enterprises and the economy of the area <br /> <br />changed. Prior to the development of the large irrigation systems <br /> <br /> <br />the products of agricultural pursuits were locally consumed and the <br /> <br />area had a subsistence level economy. <br /> <br />This change was not made painlesSly. The wet years from 1880 <br /> <br /> <br />to 1890 were followed by a dry cycle. Many of the farms and ranches <br /> <br /> <br />relying on water from the new irrigation systems found the supply <br /> <br />of water inadequate to continue their operations. Mexico had diver- <br /> <br /> <br />sions from the Rio Grande at and below El Paso. The river channel <br /> <br />ply of water. <br /> <br />at these diversions was often dry or with a totally inadequate sup- <br /> <br />As a result of protests by the Mexican government the United <br /> <br /> <br />States commissioned W. W. FOllett to make a study of the Rio Grande <br /> <br />from El Paso to its head waters in the 1890's. The conclusion <br /> <br />reached was that the increased use of water in the San Luis Valley <br /> <br />had depleted the flows of the Rio Grande and deprived Mexico of her <br />rightful water. As a result, a treaty between the two countries <br />was signed in 1906 in which Mexico was to receive annually 60,000 <br /> <br />acre feet of water from the Rio Grande, except as a result of extreme <br /> <br />or unusual conditions. <br /> <br />". - .~ :"J <br />L~ ,,' .. ~ <br /> <br />'""---"~-,. ~, <br />