It is no uncommon thing-in fact, it is more or less the rule-for the orchardist to denude his trees of at least half the fruit that clusters on the branches. As in the case of peaches here, no tree can hold up the ripe fruit that a favorable season places on its limbs.

THE VALLEY TOWNS.

The Pecos Valley Railroad is lined with thriving and growing towns. They are for the most part not yet ten years old, but all of them can boast of their orchards and driveways, shaded by the cottonwood trees that attain a growth in five or six years equal to that made by the maple, chestnut, and elm of the Eastern and Northern States in twenty or thirty years.

Malaga is the first attractive town that the tourist encounters on his way from Pecos northward through the valley. It is properly named, too, for its soil is thoroughly congenial with the famous grape after which it is called.

CARLSBAD.

The town of Carlsbad, formerly known as Eddy, lies 16 miles north of Malaga, the intermediate distance for the greater part being a continuation of rich farms and orchards and miles of shaded roads. In this particular part of the valley the irrigation company has done its very best work. In all directions, branching off from the grand canal, may be seen their laterals and smaller ditches, and the bright green of the alfalfa fields testifies strongly to the results that may be achieved on these arid plains of the West by a well-organized and properly equipped system of irrigation. It has assuredly transformed these silent, treeless plains into an oasis where men can find employment and as the years go by reap a rich reward for their labor.

As to the town of Carlsbad itself, it is a densely shaded and active town of some 2,000 people. It has a partial sewerage system, waterworks, and a first-class electric-light plant and telephone system. It can also boast of a large wool-scouring plant. An ice factory is in immediate prospect. The wheels of the great beet-sugar factory have been silent for the past year, but it is thought that business will be resumed there in the near future. This plant cost over a quarter of a million and the time is coming when it will be one of the best-paying investments of this thriving town.

Carlsbad possesses another attraction that not only benefits the town itself but has a very beneficial effect on this entire section, and that is its grand hotel. This house was built by J. J. Hagerman some ten years ago, at a cost of over $60,000, and having been properly maintained by its subsequent owners, is to-day attracting people from the North, who find it a comfortable winter home.

The town maintains two banks, one the First National, with a capital and surplus of $31,500, and the other the S. T. Bitting Bank, organized under the laws of the Territory, with $40,000 paid in. The volume of business done by these two institutions shows clearly the steady and legitimate increase in the population and financial resources of the valley and the town of Carlsbad.

SHEEP.

New Mexico is now credited with 5,000,000 sheep. Eddy County can lay claim to at least 300,000 head, and the results to the owners of

the herds have been in the main satisfactory. It is singular to relate that in this part of the Territory, as an exceptional instance, a most decided one, no conflict has ever been known between the cattle and sheep men. It may be that the range is broad enough and wide enough for both with their antagonistic interests, but it remains a fact that the sheep herder and the cattle man have thus far slept peacefully side by side.

This seems to be an ideal feeding country. Mr. H. Webster, of the Vineyard Stock Farm, just south of Carlsbad, who has been experimenting for the past two or three years in the fattening of lambs for market, says that in his opinion lambs can be fed in this country with less risk than in any other section of the country. The climate is salubrious, there are no heavy snows or fierce north winds or extreme cold, and the water is abundant and good. His experience is that they can finish their product in a shorter time, and with infinitely less loss, and that they will use nearly one-third less corn for fattening than the feeders of Colorado, Kansas, or Nebraska.

Mr. Webster has also been experimenting with Kafir corn and Milo maize, both of which are grown abundantly in this country, as a substitute for Indian corn for fattening lambs, and he says that the result has been eminently satisfactory. No loss was experienced from indigestion, the lambs took readily to the feed, and their progress was almost phenomenal. It might seem that there would be a large shrinkage of weight and value in getting the lambs to market; but Mr. Webster says his lambs reached Kansas City without loss or inconvenience and with a shrinkage of not full three pounds per head, despite the 900mile haul; that he succeeded in "topping the market," that the killing test at Kansas City averaged as high as 54 per cent, and the flesh was pronounced fully equal to that of the finest Indian corn fed lamb.

HOGS.

The opinion seems to prevail that this is a good breeding country for hogs and that they also can be fattened satisfactorily with profit on the alfalfa and grain that are grown in the Territory, and there has already been considerable experimenting that apparently justifies the opinion. Mr. George H. Webster, of the Vineyard Stock Farm, among others, has tried the experiment in a small way and says that he has done exceptionally well with the few that he has on his farm.

CATTLE.

The Pecos Valley and its vicinity presents to-day more inducements for the breeding of fine cattle than any known district in the Southwest, with its sheltered location, its utter freedom from blizzards and the extremes of heat and cold, and, above all, its abundant water. These advantages have been taken advantage of by such men as Col. C. C. Slaughter, Gen. R. S. Benson, and other breeders of fine cattle, and they have established their stock farms here and are now producing as fine and clean-bred Herefords and Shorthorns as can be found in Missouri, Kansas, or Illinois. The prices they get indicate that. The time is not far distant when all these large farms now devoted to miscellaneous agriculture will boast of thoroughbred herds, the product of which will go to improve the immense cattle ranges of the "Staked Plains," east of here, and the western Panhandle country

THE PECOS IRRIGATION COMPANY.

Of this corporation it can be said that to its existence is due the fact that the Pecos Valley is an agricultural and stock-growing center to-day. Had it never been, the desert would still have been, with its sagebrush, its grease wood, its coyotes, and its native goat herders. It enacted a transformation scene on the formerly dull and dim desert expanse, vegetation took the place of dry weeds, and clean, bright homes usurped the place of mud hovels. In common with many another arid section of the United States, this valley to-day owes its origin, growth, and present prosperous existence to water. With all the various vicissitudes that this great corporation has been called upon to encounter in its brief life of some ten years, it has been steadily faithful to the trust it undertook and at no time during its existence has the farmer been able to complain that his crops failed because of negligence on the part of the irrigation company or a lack of water.

Land values have increased nearly 100 per cent during the past year. First-class lands now bring readily $15 to $50 an acre. The water right is sold with the land, and the yearly water tax is but $1.25 per acre, said to be the lowest in America for the service rendered. It may be said of these lands that the farmer can run his plow through them every day in the three hundred and sixty-five, as the frost in the coldest winter known here seldom penetrates more than half an inch below the surface.

FISHING AND HUNTING.

Bass, channel cat, and perch are plentiful in the rivers and lakes and are becoming more so yearly, as the citizens of the county not only closely observe the game laws, but see that strangers do it as well. The winter season fills the marshes and water courses with mallard and teal duck and English (jack) snipe, and it is by no means an unusual feat for a man to bring in 100 birds as the result of a single day's hunt.

Deer, antelope, and bear are found in the foothills and in the deeper and more distant ravines. Wild turkeys are still abundant.

To conclude, the Pecos Valley is at once the home for the rich man who desires to enjoy life under the clearest sky and in the most invigorating atmosphere, and for the poor man who, with his few dollars, desires to build up a home for himself and his children.

A RETROSPECT.

In looking over these giant cattle ranges in this fruitful valley, one feels a vague and indefinite regret as his mind reverts to the old pastoral days when the original Mexican owner of the land slumbered peacefully in the sun and allowed his "peons" and his long-horned cattle and his herds of skinny goats to support the family and maintain its dignity. No doubt it is better as it is, but, nevertheless, as one drives now through the shaded lanes and among the well-kept farms of this "hacienda," a vagrant "adobe" chimney standing solitary on the hillside in the perspective, or a heap of smoke-burned stones, his mind naturally reverts to another and a quieter age than that in which we now live.

MINERAL RESOURCES.

Eddy County is not a producer of ores or minerals, but in the Guadalupe Mountains, in the southwestern portion of the county, exist indications of gold and copper ore. But little prospecting has been done thus far, but there is promise for the future.

From the Texas boundary to within a few miles of Carlsbad are fine indications of oil, and if oil in paying quantities is discovered in New Mexico within the next few years it will probably be in Eddy County, for there the indications, according to geologists. are the best of any in the Territory. A number of local companies have been organized to develop these oil indications.

AREA AND POPULATION.

The area of Eddy County is 4,320,000 acres, or 6,750 square miles, an area almost equal to that of the State of New Jersey and larger than that of Connecticut, over three times the size of Delaware, a little larger than Hawaii, and more than six times that of Rhode Island. Of this area 4,032,522 acres, of which 2,253,741 acres are still to be surveyed, are Government land, subject to homestead, desert, or mineral entry. This in itself is a domain almost six times the area of Rhode Island. The county is the sixth in size in the Territory, the twentieth in population and in density of population of the twenty-one counties of the Territory, the census giving it 3,229 inhabitants, more than 2 square miles to each inhabitant. Carlsbad, the county seat, has a population of 963. Its suburbs have a population of 1,259. The population of the other four precincts is as follows: No. 2, 242: No. 3, 299; No. 4, 339; No. 5, 128. The principal settlements outside of Carlsbad are Miller, Penasco, McMillan, Seven Rivers, Lake View, Otis, Francis, Florence, Malaga, and Reed Bluff, and are all small agricultural hamlets on the Pecos Valley and Northeastern Railroad. The assessed valuation of the county is over $514 per capita, being exceeded only by two counties in the Territory.

GRANT COUNTY.

Grant County, which occupies the southwestern corner of New Mexico, is one of the most rapidly growing and richest counties of the Territory. It is bounded on the north by Socorro County, on the east by Sierra and Luna counties and the Republic of Mexico, on the south by the Republic of Mexico, and on the west by the Territory of Arizona. Its area is 4,750,614 acres, about two-thirds of its original area, part of the county being taken in 1884 toward creating Sierra County and part again in 1901 to create Luna County. Its area at present is about that of New Jersey. Of that area less than 600,000 acres have been appropriated, while almost 4,000,000 acres are still subject to entry under the United States land laws. The northwestern part of the county forms part of the Gila Forest Reserve.

According to the census of 1900 the population of the county is 10,246, it being the ninth county in point of population, although the fourth in area among the twenty-one counties of New Mexico. Its population is a little more than 1.3 to the square mile.

Grant County is preeminently a mining county, although it also leads

most of the other counties in the cattle industry. Agriculture, sheep and goat raising, smelting, and railroading form the other industries which give employment to the people of Grant County. It is this diversity of industries which makes Grant County one of the richest and its people the most prosperous in the Territory. The assessment returns for 1901 show taxable wealth of $3,108,427.50 in the county, or over $300 per capita, which far exceeds the taxable returns of any other county in the Territory except those of Luna, Chaves, Eddy, and Union counties.

The census returns credit Grant County with 33 manufacturing establishments, with $248,631 capital invested, and employing 221 persons, who earn annually $150,000 in wages, and the value of whose products is $944,576.

RIVERS AND STREAMS.

The principal river in Grant County is the Gila, which enters from Socorro County, cuts across the northwestern part of the county, flowing into the Colorado in Arizona, being one of the largest rivers of that Territory. Its principal tributaries in Grant County are the Sapello, the Black River, the Mogollon, Bear Creek, and Duck Creek. Next in importance to the Gila River is the Mimbres, whose headwaters are in eastern Grant County, with its tributaries in Grant County of the Gavilon and Chicken Creek. The headwaters of some of the tributaries of the San Francisco River are also in Grant County, and there are a number of independent water courses, such as the Animas, the Cloverdale, Walnut Creek, Deer Creek, Hanover Creek. Copper Creek, and many others. The waters of the Gila and the San Francisco alone reach the ocean, while outside of the Mimbres all the other streams are dry water courses during part of the year, although after heavy rains they become raging torrents which carry immense volumes of water.

MOUNTAINS.

Grant County is one of the most mountainous in the Territory. While but few of its peaks are very high compared with the altitude of the peaks in some of the other counties, yet they are imposing, and the mountain masses are grand. The principal ranges are the Diablo or Devils Range, the Black Range, the Mimbres Range, the Mogollon Range, the Burro Mountains, the Pyramid Mountains, the Peloncillo Mountains, the Hachita Range, the Big Hatchet Mountains, and the Animas Range. The mountains are mostly of volcanic origin, and are treasure houses of great mineral wealth.

AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE.

In the county are probably 150,000 acres that can be reclaimed and irrigated by water in sight. On the meadow lands and plateaus along the Gila, on the Sapello, Copper, Duck, and Mogollon creeks, there are about 5,000 acres under cultivation, one-fifth of it by the Gila Farm Company, which, besides raising all of everything needed for home consumption, produces many varieties of fruits of the finest grade. The region is noted for its corn and potatoes. A small apiary on this farm produces 10 tons of honey annually. With a dam properly constructed and storage reservoirs, the area of tillable land along