per year, using $662,204 worth of raw material per year, and whose annual product is worth $944,576.

POINTS OF INTEREST.

So perfect is the climate hereabouts that there are few days in the year that are too warm or too cold to prevent one from enjoying himself in the open air. Among the interesting places within easy drive of Las Cruces are the old town of Mesilla, 3 miles away, with its surroundings of orchards and vineyards hedged with Osage orange; the agricultural college and college farm, 3 miles from town, and Mesilla Park, the pretty village near the college. Fifteen miles away, and at the cool altitude of about 8,000 feet, is Van Patten's mountain resort, and it is about the same distance to the mining camp of Organ. A local writer has this to say of the climate of Mesilla Valley:

The southern portion of New Mexico has been pronounced the ideal climate for persons suffering from lung, asthmatic, or rheumatic troubles, and, in fact, from any disease for which a dry, aseptic atmosphere is the perfect panacea.

"The Alameda" is a ranch resort for tourists and health seekers, located a mile and a half from Las Cruces, and is surrounded by alfalfa fields, orchards, and grand shade trees, and has its own Jersey cows, chickens, honey, bees, etc. Mr. Baker is the manager, and the already popular resort is, under his progressive management, rapidly growing in popularity. The Alameda caters to the patronage of the people who wish to escape the humidity or the severe winters of other portions of the world and pass the winter months in a dry, mild climate. It provides all the comforts of a home at reasonable rates.

OTHER TOWNS.

Other settlements in the county are Mesilla Park, Donna Ana, the former county seat, La Mesa, Organ, Rincon, Cambray, Chamberino, Leasburg, Victorio, and Earlham, whose citizens are engaged in agriculture, mining, and stock raising. The county has about 150 miles of railroad communication by the Santa Fe route and the Southern Pacific road. They start from El Paso, on the south boundary, and the former runs north to Rincon, and thence branches southwest to Deming. The Southern Pacific also reaches Deming, thus forming the base of a triangle.

LIVE-STOCK INTERESTS.

The county has about 3,000,000 acres of mountain and table-lands, which are devoted to grazing purposes, and furnish grass for horses, cattle, and sheep the year round. Cattle raising receives the most attention, there being 250,000 head in the county. The number of sheep is something over 150,000, and these, with several flocks of high-bred Angora goats in the eastern part of the county, in the Organ and San Andreas mountains, form the basis of a flourishing stock industry. There are still over 2,000,000 acres of land in the county subject to entry under the United States land laws.

MINING INDUSTRY.

Of recent years the mining industry of the county has developed into an important factor of business, the most prominent districts being at Organ, 15 miles east of Las Cruces, on the west side of the Organ Mountain Range, at Gold Camp, and in the San Andreas Mountains.

Extensive shipments are made from these camps, and during the present year two 100-ton mills are being erected. The Bennett-Stephenson and Modoc mines are notable lead-silver producers, and the Torpedo and Excelsior mines are equally as famous as copper producers. In the Torpedo the ore is free mining, and one man with pick and shovel can send up 3 tons of ore per day. The ore as it comes averages 13 per cent copper, though in places it runs over 30 per cent. shaft near by, which is down about 40 feet, has tapped a vein of silver and lead ore that carries over 300 ounces of silver to the ton.

Another

The Excelsior mine is down about 250 feet. Its output yields an average of 13 per cent copper.

In the Gold Camp, on the east side of the Organs, there are large bodies of low-grade sulphide gold-bearing ore. There are a good many claims in the district, though little work has been done on them. The Mormon and Maggie G. groups are now being developed and are shipping ore to the El Paso smelter.

In the San Andreas district a number of copper and lead properties are being developed. Capitalists are becoming interested here and are pushing the work of development.

THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND MECHANIC ARTS.

At Mesilla Park, "the promising college town of the Territory." some 2 miles from Las Cruces, and on the main line of the Santa Fe Railroad, is located the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. This institution is endowed liberally by the United States Government, and receives annual appropriations from the Territorial government. It is well equipped in all lines. It has a group of modern buildings, six in number, all of which are unusually well equipped with the necessary machinery and apparatus for the work prosecuted. In the main building is housed the best library in New Mexico and one of the best in the whole Southwest. The faculty of the college consists of some 30 instructors, specialists in their respective lines, and most of them graduates from the leading universities and colleges of America and Europe. The enrollment of students is over 200, and they come from 15 different States and countries, about 60 per cent of the student body being from outside the locality of the institution and about 75 per cent from the Territory of New Mexico. The college work is arranged in various courses, four of which are regular college courses, equal in rank to those provided by almost any other similar institution west of the Mississippi. Short courses are provided in agriculture, horticulture, mechanics, assaying, and stenography and typewriting. The department of stenography and typewriting has achieved a very wide reputation for its work in training stenographers in both Spanish and English. The college has the finest shops for its engineering department in the Territory; has a farm of 200 acres, most of which is under ditch; the best chemical laboratories in the Southwest, and many other well-equipped departments.

Connected with the college is the New Mexico Experiment Station, an institution endowed by the Federal Government, and existing for the purpose of making practical investigations along agricultural and other lines, and solving the problems of the farmer, ranchman, and fruit grower. The amount of work done by this experiment station is not generally realized, nor is its importance to the horticultural and other interests of the Territory. The station has demonstrated the superi

ority of New Mexico sugar beets, as grown in certain localities of the Territory over any other sugar beets grown in the United States. It is doing much to develop the natural resources of the Territory, and to show their possibilities. In entomological, chemical, and botanical, as well as in agricultural and horticultural lines, results of the station's work so far obtained are of remarkable interest and value. The fertilizing value of the Rio Grande, which deposits annually some $29 worth of fertilizing material on each acre of land it irrigates, is but one interesting feature. The station has published 39 bulletins of popular and scientific interest; any of which are sent free of cost to any citizen of the Territory upon request. The present efforts of the station are devoted to work with soils, irrigation, orchard management, tests with grasses and forage crops, and the extensive sugar-beet investigations.

Among the resources of Dona Ana County must be mentioned the phosphate cave near Lava station, in which millions of bats have in past ages and are at present depositing phosphate that is in great demand for the orange groves and orchards of California and is even shipped as far as the Hawaiian Islands to be used there as a fertilizer in the sugar-cane fields.

CENSUS FIGURES.

The census gives Las Cruces a population of 2,906 and its suburbs of Mesilla and Mesilla Park 1,274 people. Dona Ana, the former capital of the county, has 748 inhabitants. Then come the following precincts in order according to population: Colorado 740, Anthony 689, San Ysidro 665, Chamberino 597, Bosque Seco 559, La Mesa 498, San Miguel 448, Santa Teresa 413, Rincon 276, Organ 259, San Augustine 96.

EDDY COUNTY.

Eddy County may properly be said to comprise the garden spot of the great Pecos Valley, which extends north and south some 120 miles and east and west, between the foothills, anywhere from 5 to 30 miles. Much has been written of this section, but facts are what health seekers and investors want in these days of steel and iron. People have ceased spending their money on suppositions.

Now, as to the facts of this Pecos River country, otherwise Eddy County. It can be said that its altitude, its dry and benign climate, almost entirely devoid of humidity, offers to the invalid a guaranty for renewed health that can not be found elsewhere on this continent. The altitude is 3,025 feet above sea level, and such impediments to health as fogs or mists are entirely unknown here. In common with other sections of the arid region it can not be said that the Pecos Valley district, otherwise Eddy County, possesses in its mild and benign atmosphere the attributes that will cure any case of lung complaint, or asthma, or throat disease, but if the afflicted will let go their hold in time on their home associations and visit this country, they can not but be benefited.

The average winter temperature is 55° above, and in summer the average is below 80°. This is year in and year out, with very little variation. The nights are cool, sometimes too cool for summer, and the song of the mosquito is so seldom heard in this pleasant valley that one almost fails to recognize its melody.

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As a matter of fact, people have come into this valley from noted health resorts, these $10-a-day places, and having partially recovered after a short sojourn, left here and died, whereas a few more months would have made a definite and decided cure.

IRRIGATION FACILITIES.

Aside from the claims of Eddy County as a health resort, it can boast to-day of having nearly, if not quite, the largest bodies of storage water for irrigation purposes of any section in the arid region of the United States. These are two lakes. One is known as the "McMillan Lake," some 18 miles north of Carlsbad, and the other is known as "Lake Avalon," 6 miles from the town, both formed by damming the Pecos River.

The McMillan Lake is some 13 miles long, and contains within its boundaries sufficient water yearly to supply the entire lower valley with an ample supply of water without the assistance of rain. The lower lake, known as the "Six Mile Dam," is 7 miles long and from one-quarter to 1 mile in width. Its piers, head gates, and waste ways are built in masonry and are practically indestructible. Such a thing as a breakage of the dams on either lake is decidedly done away by ample spillways.

These large bodies of water furnish the Pecos Valley with such an amount of water, as, even in dry seasons, has enabled it to raise as large alfalfa and fruit crops as were ever known in America. The waters of the Pecos, the river which supplies these reservoirs, is full of sediment, carried down from the mountains and thence deposited in the canals and ditches that irrigate and fertilize the rich lands which border the river from Roswell, where the valley ends, some 40 miles south of Carlsbad.

It is a strange feature of this great river that although it does not sink and then reappear, as is the case with many of these Southwestern streams, notably the Red River and the Canadian, its bed for miles is simply a bed of springs. Not the small seepage springs that one looks for in the streams and water courses of the North and East, but huge affairs, emitting sufficient water in many places to almost produce a river by their own flow. For instance, the great spring at the head of Blue River, known as the Blue Spring, furnishes not only water enough to irrigate some 20,000 acres of land, but forms a very respectable river besides. This bright water falls into the Black River some 20 miles below Carlsbad.

A spring well known for its medicinal qualities bursts forth from the bank of the Pecos River, 2 miles above Carlsbad, and flows over 1,000 gallons a minute into the great river. Its properties are well known here, and the water from this healing spring is now being scattered broadcast, and multitudes of dyspeptics are deriving benefit

from it.

During the year 1900 there were in this immediate neighborhood 8,646 acres of land watered and made profitable by the irrigation system. It was divided as follows:

Alfalfa lands

Corn

Cane and forage plants

Orchards and vines..

Gardens, etc

Acres. 3,483 3, 660. 05

554.05 359 589

On these lands thus irrigated the following summary of results may be considered as authentic: Cane and forage, 3 to 6 tons per acre; corn crop, 20 to 50 bushels, and alfalfa, 3 to 6 tons.

In all during that season the irrigation company supplied to the farmers exactly 28,786.59 acre-feet of water. An acre-foot of water

means 12 inches of water placed on an acre of land.

As to the alfalfa here in the valley, when under irrigation it will safely stand four cuttings a year and occasionally five cuttings, and each harvest will yield from three-quarters to 1 tons to the acre. Other forage crops grow here luxuriantly-that is to say, millet, kaffir corn, indian corn, and sugar cane, or sorghum, as it is called. Melons, asparagus, and celery thrive here, and money awaits people who will engage in the cultivation of these apparently small avenues to wealth. There is just enough salt in the water to admit of asparagus growing, as one might say, as a weed. It grows rank, and Colorado Springs pays 30 cents a pound for it. The same may be said of celery. It needs little or no cultivation, and the results to the grower are large. It ripens earlier and lasts longer in this soil than does either the celery of Michigan or that of California. The market for these two high-priced products of the valley are Denver, Colorado Springs, and Kansas City.

FRUITS.

The fruit orchards of the Pecos Valley, young as they are, show every evidence of becoming, in time and with care, one of its greatest resources. It is not so much the magnitude of the crops they bear as it is their quality. Peaches here ripen early and attain a size equal to the largest peach grown in California and possess a flavor not excelled by fruit grown anywhere. An acre of land accommodates just 108 trees, when planted properly, and at the age, say, of 6 years the crop from each tree, if properly handled, will be $9, without deducting the expense of irrigation, labor, and other expenses which will possibly cut it down one-half. This, of course, takes into consideration only good years, for the valley, in common with other sections, must make allowances for late frosts; but as to fruit pests, it may be said that thus far the orchards are without them. The absence of these bugs and worms is properly attributed to a dry atmosphere that is not congenial to the propagation of these harmful insects, which devastate at times the orchards north and west. A six-year-old peach orchard in this valley, of say 20 acres, may rightly be considered as an independence to the man who will properly care for it.

Pears, apricots, and prunes do well here, as also do strawberries. The Bartlett pear finds a congenial home in this soil. With proper cultivation it is a sure bearer.

As to apples, it would appear that they found a natural home in this valley. Frost rarely troubles the blooms, and as to the "codlin moth," it has never yet put in an appearance here. In fact, a "specked" apple is an unknown quantity in this country. The apples raised here compare favorably with those marketed from any point or district west. of the Missouri River. The fruit is large and firm, some orchards producing apples that measure 15 inches around. The "Ben Davis" does well here, and that is the favorite southern winter apple. It appears from the records that there has not been a failure in the apple crop in this section of the valley since the trees were old enough to bear fruit.