derstorms farther south. The precipitation benefited the ranges greatly, and all reports indicated that stock of all kinds were in very good condition.

years.

Dry, clear weather characterized December, with warm days and cool nights. With the exception that the first part of the month was disagreeably windy, it was one of the most pleasant Decembers experienced in New Mexico for several The cold snap from the 12th to the 15th brought the lowest temperatures in the vicinity of the middle Pecos Valley that have occurred in December for many years. The precipitation was hardly a fifth of the average amount for the month, causing much trouble and some loss to stockmen depending on "outside" or temporary water for their flocks and herds. As a rule, however, stock wintered the month in better condition than usual. At the close of the month there was much less snow than usual about the head waters of streams, the highest mountains only having a slight snow covering on the shady side.

Annual summary of meteorological data, Santa Fe, N. Mex., 1901.

NOTE.-Special warnings telegraphed to J. F. Hutchinson, Springer, and Ross McMillan, Socorro; and Emergency warnings" to thirty-six postmasters in the Territory.

WATERS OF THE RIO GRANDE.

The international dam project at El Paso, Tex., and Juarez, Mexico, fostered by a few Texas statesmen and the Mexican authorities, continues to be a grave menace to New Mexico's future. This is an undertaking backed by powerful political influences and designed to invade the most sacred rights of the people of this Territory by securing control of the waters of the Rio Grande, under the guise of international comity, and for the sole use and benefit of a syndicate of real estate speculators on the Mexican border. Vast interests will be destroyed if the use of the waters of this stream be inhibited for irrigation purposes in New Mexico. During the first session of the present Congress many citizens, including the Territorial executive, appeared before the House Committee on Territories and presented strong protests against the legislation proposed in the interest of these land speculators. Sound and cogent reasons were offered in defense of New Mexico's rights in the premises, and especially strong and clear was the argument presented by Dr. Nathan E. Boyd, a Virginian and former resident of this Territory, who had undertaken to introduce some millions of capital into central and southern New Mexico and render productive

a large area by the construction of a mammoth dam at Elephant Butte, but was enjoined by the National Government, at the instance of these international land conspirators, on the absurd ground that the Rio Grande was a "navigable" stream-a most preposterous claim. Dr. Boyd's argument serves to throw much light upon the history and present status of the case, and for this reason the following extracts therefrom are here given:

"ELEPHANT BUTTE DAM" A PUBLIC UNDERTAKING OF IMMENSE IMPORTANCE TO NEW MEXICO.

For more than a quarter of a century our people looked to Congress for financial assistance in storing the flood waters of the Rio Grande; and whilst we have not altogether abandoned hope of some day receiving some form of national aid for the development of our arid lands, with an energy characteristic of the West we have demonstrated that, with or without Federal assistance, we are quite capable of financing and carrying out a great irrigation undertaking, so long as our right to appropriate the flood waters of our streams is not threatened by Congress.

No

The normal flow of the Rio Grande has been used more or less for irrigation in New Mexico since the Spaniards first founded colonies in that part of "New Spain" over three hundred years ago; but the system of irrigation practiced is but a primitive one at best, and is carried on chiefly by means of "community ditches." attempt was made to impound the flood waters of the Rio Grande by building great storage dams until 1893, when, despairing of Federal aid, a public company was incorporated under the laws of the Territory for the purpose of building a storage dam at Elephant Butte, in Sierra County, and irrigating the valley and mesa lands below as far as Fort Quitman, Tex. All the requirements of the Territorial and Federal statutes were complied with in order to establish the reservoir rights essential to the undertaking, and the landowners in the valley, almost without exception, entered into formal contracts conveying to the company part of their lands and transferring to the company their rights in the existing "community ditches," thus creating a valuable property basis for the necessary bond issue.

Finding it impossible, in the then condition of the money market in this country, to raise, at anything but prohibitive rates, the large amount of capital required to carry out the proposed works, and being largely interested in the undertaking personally, I went abroad with a view to placing the company's debenture bonds in Europe. Unfortunately, the mistrust of American industrial securities, especially of irrigation securities, had become so universal that, notwithstanding large sums were expended in properly presenting the enterprise to capitalists, none would risk investment, although all admitted the obvious merit of the undertaking.

In England, the directors of a public company, individually and collectively, are responsible to investors for good management; and finding that foreign investors would be more likely to intrust their money to an English board of directors, an English company was formed (by my personal friends) to issue 8 per cent preference shares and 5 per cent debenture bonds, the former at par and the latter at a premium of 5 per cent, to be secured by a lease of the American company's undertaking. An exceptionally influential board, the members of which invested extensively in the enterprise, was secured, and largely upon the strength of the high rank and representative character of the members of the English directorate, the necessary capital was underwritten and subscribed—subject to calls to be made from time to time, as needed.

Col. W. J. Engledue, R. E., an eminent authority on irrigation engineering, who was for many years identified with the Imperial Irrigation Works in India, visited the Rio Grande Valley on behalf of the English investors, and carefully investigated the engineering features of the undertaking and the rights and titles of the American company. Work on the proposed dams and canals was begun; a great colonization system was organized; branch offices and agencies were established in Great Britain and on the Continent; an immense amount of printed matter (in English and French) descriptive of the climatic and other advantages offered to settlers in the valley, and of the resources of the Territory was widely circulated, and contracts for the sale of large blocks of land for fruit and vine culture were made, the company undertaking to provide water within two years.

Lands in the Rio Grande Valley, irrigable from the company's system of canals, previously worth but little more than a few dollars per acre, rapidly appreciated in value, large blocks being contracted for by subsidiary companies and sold to settlers

at $100 an acre. Widespread interest in the enterprise in particular, and in the resources of the Territory in general, was aroused both in this country and in Europe. For nearly ten years certain parties in Old Mexico and Texas, interested in lands just below our southern boundary, have been scheming to have the Federal Government inhibit the use of the flood waters of the Rio Grande and its tributaries for irrigation above El Paso; and in the absence of any legitimate ground for legal proceedings against the Rio Grande Dam and Irrigation Company, the action instigated as above was based upon the preposterous allegation that the company's works would interfere with navigation in New Mexico. Such was the alleged ground for the attack upon our territorial water rights; but our enemies made no attempt to disguise the fact that the real object was to reserve the whole of the flood waters of the Rio Grande in New Mexico for the proposed "international dam" to be built at El Paso, Tex. The absurd contention that the construction of storage dams in New Mexico would interfere with navigation above El Paso was soon abandoned, the suggestion that the Rio Grande is navigable in New Mexico being ridiculous in the extreme. But the action was continued on the ground that our use of the waters of the Rio Grande for irrigation in New Mexico would seriously affect the "navigable capacity" of that river some 1,200 miles or more below (measured by its sinuosities), where the alleged "navigation" is represented by one old stern-wheeler of about 18 inches draft, which during a few months in the year occasionally succeeds in “navigating," with much travail, the sand bars and shallows between Brownsville and Rio Grande City, 170 miles above the mouth of the river.

At first our people treated the action as a huge joke, believing, of course, that so soon as the true characteristics of the Rio Grande were made known, through the medium of the court, to the heads of the departments at Washington the suit would be abandoned, for, manifestly, the impounding of the flood waters of the Rio Grande and their distribution over the land by means of irrigation ditches would improve the normal flow of the river below.

It is a well-established fact that the use of the flood waters of torrential streams for irrigation invariably improves the normal régime of the stream below the district irrigated. This has been demonstrated in Colorado, where practically the entire flow of the head waters of the Rio Grande is appropriated for irrigation in the San Luis Valley, also in other parts of the arid West, in Europe, and in India. Prof. L. G. Carpenter, of the United States agricultural college at Fort Collins, Colo., has made a thorough study of this question, and has shown that, despite the fact that practically the whole of the water of the Rio Grande in Colorado is diverted for irrigation, the normal flow of the stream below where it passes into New Mexico has been improved rather than diminished.

But notwithstanding the well-known facts that were presented to the trial court, which decided that the Rio Grande is not navigable within the meaning of the law, and that "the soil of New Mexico is not burdened with a servitude in favor of the Republic of Mexico," the Government appealed. The action was dragged on from year to year by the Government appealing again and again; and it has now become unmistakably evident that the suit has been maintained, not in the interest of navigation some 1,200 miles below, but in the interests of the "international dam" project. In other words, New Mexico-the "Cinderella" of the United States-is to be deprived of practically her sole source of water supply for agricultural purposes, her most precious heritage, in order that the proposed "international dam" at El Paso may lay claim to the whole of the flood waters of the Rio Grande and its affluents in New Mexico.

Now, we in New Mexico do not care how many "international" dams are built below our southern boundary, provided always that we above El Paso are not restricted from impounding and using for irrigation and mining purposes the waters of our catchment area. We do not seek, nor do we desire, to restrain Colorado from appropriating the head waters of the Rio Grande, waters of her catchment area; and we maintain that we in New Mexico are equally entitled to the waters of our catch

ment area.

THE RIO BRAVO DEL NORTE NOT NAVIGABLE,

The Rio Grande is not a navigable river in New Mexico, nor is it navigable for over 1,200 miles below our southern boundary; and conclusive proof has been submitted in the courts that, even under existing conditions, without storage dams, our torrential floods do not reach the so-called head of navigation in substantial quantitiesi. e., in sufficient amount to improve materially the "navigable capacity" of the stream. It is a matter of record that the great floods that pass down the Rio Grande in New Mexico in the spring and autumn do not affect substantially the flow of the stream below the alleged head of navigation, the waters of the lower Rio Grande coming chiefly from the Rio Pecos and a number of Texan rivers, and from the Rio