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* C«-0-P-Y Las Vegas, Aug.25,1914. Mr.H.C.Nutt: Referring to your letter icSf August 10th in regard to artesian wells and development of land around Las Vegas, I have tried to get some authentic information and as near as I can find out we have, in and around Las Vegas within the artesian belt, about 18500 acres of good cultivatable land and about 35000 acres of land that is not so good but might in time be improved with proper fertilisation and care. The artesian water belt shows developments to date of an underground supply about 14 miles long and from 1 to 4 miles in width. The depth of the different wells are from 800 to 550 feet, mostly cased with a 8 inch casing and there are, at this time, about 100 wells drilled and the flow varies from a small volume of six miners inches to 120 miners inches. The last 5 wells drilled which have been drilled to the underground channel and are about 5 miles northwest.of Laa Vegas, flew over 1000 gallon per minute. This underground channel, it is estimated, will furnish water for many thousand acres of land as the wells bored from 600 to 700 feet apart do not seem to lessen the flow of adjoining wells and the pressure of these wells seems to remain about the same which is 14 pounds to the square inch. The underground channel where this water is found is thought to be an old river bed and the gravel is the same as in the fuxnaa® surface streams. The character of the same material that forms the mountains to the North and Wes'.t of the valley. The amount of land that has been placed under irrigation to date is something very close to 1200 acres and all of this has been done in the last 4 years. Before that only a few acres has been experimented with and that on the old ranches. It is thought by some of the pr©sent land owners thaS the beginning of an era of development should begin this Fall as the water supply is growing to be one that can be depended on now which, prior to this time was one feature lacking in its permanency. If you so desire, I can go more into detail in furnishing data in connection with this matter and advise you what crops are now being raised and what ones are best suited for the soils of this valley, being most productive, etc. But, as your letter only inquired concerning artesian wells and acreage, I will not write further on this matter. Yours truly, (Signed) Walter R. Bracken. C-O-P-Y,