Abstract |
New Mexico is severely deficient in irrigation water supplies for expansion. Limited (expensive) water should be used on the most productive soils. This report which updates a 1968 publication shows the distribution and acreage of irrigable land in Curry County in eastern New Mexico. Based on soil qualities, approximately 94 percent (or 840,000 acres) of the county, or five times the acreage of presently irrigated land, is suitable for irrigation. Irrigable land is widely distributed in fairly extensive areas. Irrigation will be limited by water supplies and economic restrictions rather than by the availability of suitable soils. A detailed soil survey of Curry County was published by the Soil Conservation Service (1958). Irrigable acreage was determined by cutting out and weighing each delineated soil-mapping unit from the map sheets in the survey report. Soil-mapping units were rated according to five classes of irrigability, using federal Water Resources Council criteria of texture, moisture retention, depth, permeability, erosion, slope, surface smoothness and drainage. Tables show soil-classification criteria, irrigable and non-irrigable land percentages, acreage and extent of 48 soil types and percentages of land in various irrigation classes. (WRSIC abstract) |