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" , ) -' 02~79 284 Since 1889 three treaties of considerable impor- tance relating to these boundary rivers have been 'negotiated, The tr~aty of March 20, 1905 (35 Stat. 18(3) provided for the elimination from the effects of the treaty of November 12, 1884 of certain categories of bancos or cut-offs,' The following year there was signed, on May 2~ (34 Stat.,2953), a treaty by the terms of which the United States allocated to Mexico 60 thousand acre-feet of water from the Rio Grande at Ciudad Juarez,' After an, additional quarter of a century of difficulties occa- sioned by the meanders and floods of the Rio Grande in the EI Paso-J uarez Valley, the' two countries signed, on February 1, 1933 (48 Stat, ,1621), a treaty by the terms of which the river channel between El Paso-J uiirez and Box Canyon , was rectified and controlled by means of levees. One other treaty, the arbitral convention of June 24,1910 (36 Stat. 2481), related to the,boundaiy rivers only to the extent that it provided for the settlement by arbitration of the so-called "Chami- zal dispute" involving a small tract of land built up by accretion on the EI Paso side of the Rio Grande. This effort proved futile, and the prob- lem of the Chilmizal still remains to be settIed~ It will be noted that, with the exception of the treaties of 1848 and 1853, the practical importance of most of these treaties is restricted chiefly to the Rio Grande. This is understandable when it is considered that the boundary runs along the Rio Grande for more than 1,200 miles, whereas the Col- orado River divides the two countries for only 18 'or 20 miles. Had navigation on the Colorado be- come important, the diplom~tic history of this strea,m might have taken another turn, but it re- , mained for the development of irrigation in both countries to bring this river to the forefront in both interstate and international relations. As a matter of fact, wi'th the exception of the treaty of 1906, none of these conventions relates directly to the use of the boundary streams for irri- gation. This indicates that agricultural develop- ment in the boundary region was not significant at the time the treaties were negotiated, although it is true that for centuries before the Spanish occupation of the Southwest the Indians had prac- 1 An acre-foot of water Is the quantity required to cover one acre to the depth of one foot. ' DEPARTMENT OF STATE BULLETIN ticed some irrigation in the Upper Rio Grande Valley and in the Gila basin, and that a consider. able increase in irrigated acreage accompanied the establishment of Spanish villages' along the Rio Grande. Soon after the United States acquired the Southwest, agriculture, based very largely upon irrigation, began to develop in the upper basin of the Colorado River. Beginning in the 1880's the use of water for irrigation in the basins of both the Rio Grande add the Colorado increased so rapidly that the Rio Grande system now' irri- gates about 1,500,000 acres in, the States of Colo- rado, New Mexico, and Texas, and 100,000 to 200,000 acres in Mexico, and the waters of the Col. orado River system are now ir~igating about 2,500,000 acres in the seven States of the Colorado basin and an additional 300,000 acres in Mexico. The result has been that the natural flow of each of these streams no longer suffices to insure enough water for the present irrigated areas, not to men- tion projects calling for a great expansion of acre- age, It became necessary, therefore, not only to consider means to conserve and control the avail- able water supply of these rivers blit also to reach agreements for the equitable, apportionment of,the supply, hoth among the States of the Unit~d States and between the United States and Mexico. As between the United States and Mexico the first critical situation developed in the EI Paso- JURrez Valley, in which irrigation has been carried on for more than 300 years. }Iere the rapid up- stream development in New Mexico and Colorado endangered the irrigation project in the Mexican part of the valley, with the result that after years of diplomatic exchanges and technical investiga- tions the, two countries conchlded the treaty of 1906, which solved the problem by allocatin" to Mexico 60,000 acre-feet each year from the U;per , Rio Grande.' , Shortly thereafter, lrrigation development be- gan in the delta of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and proceeded so rapidly that by 1940 several hun- dred thous,\nd acres were under irrigation in that area, whIch now supports a population of over 200,000 and has a capital, V1lluation of approxi- mately $300,000,000. So long as there were no ' large developments on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, there was no serious danger of a pro- longed water shortage in the Lower Valley of