Several nice ranches exist in its vicinity. The precinct is credited with 736 people. Glorieta is a mountain and railroad town with 250 inhab itants. It is also the center of an extensive lumbering industry. It is the starting point of most of the travel and traffic for the Pecos River and the Pecos Forest Reserve, and near it are large iron deposits and the interesting ruins of the abandoned Pecos pueblo.

Northern Santa Fe County has a number of prosperous agricultural communities, including the business center of Espanola, the latter being an important railroad shipping point for the wool and other products of northern Santa Fe and Rio Arriba counties. It has 550 inhabitants and boasts of several fine business buildings. The agricultural communities of that part of the county are Pojoaque, with 798 inhabitants; Santa Cruz which, has 674 inhabitants; Tesuque, 348 people, the latter being across the divide 9 miles from Santa Fe: Agua Fria, with 484 people, a suburb of Santa Fe; Cienega, 400 people, also tributary to Santa Fe; San Ildefonso, 390 people, near which the Government has just completed an extensive ditch system for the San Ildefonso Pueblo Indians. Chimayo, in the extreme northwestern part of the county, is credited with 319 people, and Canoncito or Lamy, 17 miles southeast of Santa Fe, with 323 people. The latter is a railroad junction point and near by is the great Onderdonk live stock ranch. A quarry of building and lime stone is situated near Lamy. While these latter are not incorporated towns, yet they all have public schools and are the center of fertile agricultural or mining districts, or are railroad towns which some day with more improved irrigation systems and more capital invested in mining and commerce will become flourishing to ns.

There are five Indian pueblos in the county, all very interesting for their primitive and quaint characteristics. The largest is Santa Clara, with 223 people; San Ildefonso, 137 inhabitants; Nambe, 81; Tesuque, 80, and Pojoaque 12.

FUTURE PROSPECTS.

It is not so much what Santa Fe County has been or what it is as what it promises to be in the future that marks it as one of the most remarkable sections in the Southwest. Its superb climate in itself means eventually the establishment of many sanitaria for health seekers, the founding of summer resorts, and the building of hotels and homes for people who seek an ideal summer and winter resort. Its large area of grazing lands must sooner or latter bring cattle to cover its thousand hills and sheep by the hundred thousand to browse upon its mesas; its perennial water supply, which is increased enormously at a certain season of the year, must lead to the building of irrigation systems that will make the county rich in farms and orchards: its undeveloped mineral wealth must in time make it one of the richest mining districts in the West, giving employment to thousands of miners; and, last but not least, its industrial possibilities are such that even a Pittsburg might envy. Its large beds of fuel that can be mined cheaply; its possibilities for the development of water power; its comparatively dense population which would furnish labor; its climate so conducive to continued activity; its nearness to the Oriental, Mexican, and South American markets; its great supplies of raw material, such as wool, hides, lumber, mica, ores; its transportation facilities, which will be added to from year to year, mark Santa Fe County for a manu

facturing center that must bring the population of the county up to ten and twenty fold its present number. Woolen factories, beet-sugar factories, canneries, brickyards, tanneries, smelters, furnaces, steel mills, potteries, glove, shoe, and furniture factories are a few of the manufacturing possibilities of this section so richly endowed by nature and evidently designed by Providence to be a center of great industrial activity. The future can not be painted in too glowing colors, for the example of Massachusetts, of Pennsylvania, of Ohio are before the world-Commonwealths much less favorably situated, with fewer natural resources, which have become industrial empires in less than fifty years. New Mexico, and Santa Fe County especially, have within them the great natural capital which is bound to make them prominent in the industrial world, and the wise man who invests his capital in such enterprises at present, before the grind of competition is felt, will reap a rich harvest. There is the making of many millionaires in the latent industrial possibilities of Santa Fe County.

SOCORRO COUNTY.

Socorro, the largest of New Mexico counties, with its grand mountain masses, its grass-covered plains and table-lands, its resources, its river courses, its climate, its scenery, its inhabitants, and its history, is typical of the great Spanish-American Southwest, more so, perhaps, than any other county in New Mexico. Here the Titanic forces of nature seemingly have had their playground, for they reared mountain mass upon mountain mass, not running in parallel ridges, but consisting of apparently independent groups and knots thrown up in a haphazard fashion until one-third of the county is mountain and there is scarcely a spot within its boundaries from which mountains can not be seen on every side. Here canyons, parts of which the sun seldom touches, carry the waters from the hills; arroyas or dry water courses, which become raging torrents after a rain, have made deep incisions into the loose soil; volcanoes in past ages have thrown up enormous masses of lava, covering many hundred square miles of land, forming caves and frozen billows upon which vegetation finds but a sparse subsistence; there are salt lakes, reputed to be bottomless; vast stretches of grass-covered plains and laughing, fertile valleys; mountain torrents and perennial rivers; forests that cover large areas and again desolate alkali flats and barren plains. A wonderful county, indeed, rich in everything that mountain, mesa, and valley can produce: gold, silver, copper, lead, and other minerals; cattle, sheep, goats, and horses and other live stock; orchards, farms, towns, a peerless climate, mineral springs and scenery which can not be surpassed for grandeur and for variety; a county developed only in a few spots and offering untold opportunities to those with capital to invest or with energy and intelligent efforts to apply.

AREA AND POPULATION.

Socorro County is bounded on the north by Valencia County; on the east by Lincoln and Otero counties; on the south by Otero, Donna Ana, Sierra, and Grant counties, and on the west by Arizona. Its area is 15,386 square miles, being fifteen times as large as the State of Rhode Island; over seven times as large as Delaware; over three times as

large as Connecticut; over twice as large as Hawaii or New Jersey, and considerably larger than Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, or Maryland. The States of New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island could all be placed in the county without taking up all of its area. This great domain is but sparsely inhabited. The average population per square mile is but 0.8, and taking away the eight principal settlements the average population is but 0.4 per square mile. Settlements are far apart, and in several sections post-offices are 40 to 45 miles from each other. In the area east of the Rio Grande, almost 3,000 square miles, there are but two post-offices, one at the mining camp of Estey City and the other at a little settlement called Clyde. Thus far many of the vast plains have no permanent habitations, only great herds of cattle and flocks of sheep traversing them from time to time or grazing peacefully upon them the year around, while the lonely mountains are uninhabited except where mining camps have sprung up or where a prospector may have reared his tent. It is for this reason that Socorro County offers such great opportunities to the newcomer with capital, for the county is undoubtedly enormously rich in resources and can sustain many times its present population. According to the census of 1900, there are 12,195 people in the county. The population of the towns and precincts is as follows: Socorro, 1,512; San Marcial, 1,018; San Antonio, 642; Kelly, 616; Mogollon, 599; Santa Rita, 536; San Juan, 473; San Acacio, 460; Middleton, 452; Lemitar, 428; Polvadero, 417; Mangus, 400; La Joya, 342; Sabinal, 317; Magdalena, 300; Valverde, 300; Luis Lopez, 299; Escondida, 297; Paraje, 282; Luna Valley, 278; San Pedro, 276; La Mesa, 267; Ranchos de la Joya, 211; Gila, 199; Canta Recio, 193; Tularosa, 165; Las Nutrias, 159; Rosedale, 146; Contadero, 142; Alma, 128; Bosquecito, 128; Frisco, 98; Cherryville, 67; San Francisco, 48.

Of the total area 8,374,744 acres are still subject to entry under the Federal land laws, 6,299,614 acres of that area being surveyed and 2,146,130 acres unsurveyed. Only 1,033,248 acres have been appropriated thus far and the greater area of that is within private land grants, of which Socorro County has quite a number. A part of the Gila River forest reserve is situated in Socorro County and 278,008 acres are reserved for various other purposes.

The county has an assessed valuation of $2,062,250, or over $175 per capita, being about the average per capita assessment for New Mexico. There are 127 miles of standard-gauge railroad in the county and 199 miles of telegraph. These figures indicate the amount of development, or rather the great room for development, within the rich domain.

RIVERS.

Outside of the independent river courses which lose themselves in the sand, such as the Mangus, Largo, Datil, Aito, and Chupedero, the county is drained by the Rio Grande and its tributaries, the Gila and its tributaries, the San Francisco and its tributaries, the Tularosa. Diamond, and Middle Fork, which latter, in their course through Socorro County, are mountain streams. The Rio Grande flows largely over a bed of quicksand. The river bed at times shifts its course, settlements having, even in recent times, changed their situation from one side of the river to the other, or, like in the case of Rincon, are now quite a distance from the river, although originally built on its banks.

The Rio Grande's principal tributaries in Socorro County are the Puerco and the Salado.

AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE.

Socorro County can not be called an agricultural county, only a very small part of its area being under cultivation, but in the broad valley of the Rio Grande, along other river courses and in a few isolated valleys, farms and orchards give indications of the possibilities in the agricultural line. Around Socorro, San Marcial, San Antonio, and other settlements there are beautiful orchards in which the fruits of the Temperate Zone reach a perfection not attained anywhere else outside of New Mexico. The wheat raised in the Rio Grande Valley in Socorro County is of excellent quality, and vegetable gardening yields rich returns. Owing to the small area under cultivation and the prosperous mining camps and cattle ranches in the county there is always a good market for orchard and garden products.

IRRIGATION.

Socorro County has no extensive irrigation systems. The ditches and laterals which served their purpose a hundred years ago are still doing service. There is room for the investment of capital in storage reservoirs and irrigation canals as well as in the development of water by means of pumping. In the American Valley a large storage reservoir is to be built, and a considerable area is to be brought under cultivation. There are about 25,000 acres under cultivation in the county, but there is water supply, if carefully husbanded and distributed, to irrigate twenty to thirty times that area.

LIVE-STOCK INTERESTS.

It is in the live-stock industry, however, that Socorro County is one of the leading counties of New Mexico. Its ranges are vast in extent and upon them graze 150,000 head of cattle, 50,000 head of horses, 15,000 goats, and some 250,000 head of sheep. The mild winters and the abundance of grass the year around make the live-stock industry very profitable.

TIMBER.

The timber area of the county is principally west of the Rio Grande. The Gila forest reserve includes all the fine timber in the southwestern part of the county, in addition to large areas of agricultural and grazing land. But even outside of the forest reserve there are virgin forests of pine and other trees in the Frisco, Elk, Black, San Mateo, Magdalena, and Gallina ranges. There are probably 1,000,000 acres in the county covered with merchantable timber. But little has been done thus far to exploit these timber lands.

MOUNTAINS.

The continental divide runs through the county. The mountains of Socorro County are a part of the Rocky Mountain system, which here is splintered into many mountain ranges, groups, and knots, the principal of which are: The Oscuras, San Andreas, Tucson, San Mateo, San Francisco, Mogollon, Little Mogollon, Tularosa, Datil, Ladron, Manzano, Socorro, Lemitar, Magdalena, and Bear mountains. In

most of these mountains there are abundant indications of mineral wealth, which has been developed at but a comparatively few spots.

MINERAL RESOURCES.

It is probably, as a producer of mineral wealth, that Socorro County is best known. The names of the principal mining districts are Socorro, Water Canyon, Magdalena, Cat Mountain, Rosedale, Black Range, Cooney, Mogollon, Kelly, Oscura, San Andreas, Pueblo, Gallina, Santa Rita, Hansonburg, Abbey, and La Joya. The principal mining camps are Magdalena, Kelly, Rosedale, Mogollon, Cooney, Graham, and Estey City. There are nine stamp mills, two concentrators, and three reduction works in the county. The city of Socorro was at one time a great smelter center for New Mexico, although in late years its smelter has been idle through a deal with the lead trust. The vast bodies of free fluxing silver-lead ores in the Kelly and Mogollon districts have become famous in New Mexico's mining history. Large deposits of gold ore, much of it free, in Water Canyon, Rosedale, and in the Black Range, as well as rich copper discoveries in the Black Range, Oscura, and San Andreas mountains, have added to the fame of Socorro County as a mineral producer. Out of the Mogollon district $5,000,000 in gold have been taken, and one or two of the best paying mines in New Mexico are in that district, despite the fact that it is farther away from railroad facilities than any other mining district in New Mexico, and that it became famous first as a silver producer. Several fortunes have been made by the mines at Kelly, 30 miles west Socorro. Magdalena district, too, has been worked for quite a number of years, and has produced a large amount of ore. Yet, the mineral wealth of Socorro County has scarcely been touched. There exist splendid chances for the investment of vast sums of capital and good rewards for the intelligent prospector and miner in every mining district of the county.

COAL.

Coal exists in vast quantities in Socorro County, but it is only at Carthage, near San Antonio, that coal is being produced at present. The Carthage mines last year produced 13,000 tons of coal. This year an additional new mine that was opened last year is being worked to its fullest extent and about 150 men are now given employment. In northwestern and southeastern Socorro County there are coal beds from 6 to 12 feet thick.

Onyx, alum, salt, kaolin, besides gold, silver, copper, lead, are among the mineral products of Socorro County and will some day be great sources of wealth for those who will exploit them.

SCHOOL OF MINES.

The New Mexico School of Mines is doing great work not only for the mineral resources of Socorro County but of the whole Territory, It offers a course in chemistry, metallurgy, mining and civil engineering equal to that of any other school of mines in the country. Short special courses are also offered and they have much to commend themselves to the busy young man or to the prospector and practical miner. The board of regents of the college is striving to make the school the