MEMBERSHIP AND INCOME OF THE NEW MEXICO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, INCORPORATED AS A TERRITORIAL INSTITUTION IN 1886.

The number of life members is 17; of annual members, 166.

As life membership practically cuts off future income, the society has decided to lay aside half of the sum received from life members as a permanent fund for the purchase of land or erection of buildings in the future.

The total receipts of the society during the past year were $712.40. Life members

Annual members

Admissions..

Subscriptions

Donations.

Premium, less expense

Total...

AGRICULTURE-HORTICULTURE.

$150.00

166.00

169.45

67.50

27.85

131.60

712.40

[George Vestal, agriculturist and horticulturist, New Mexico Agricultural College Experiment

Station.]

AGRICULTURE.

Our agriculture is carried on by the aid of irrigation, and when water is plentiful abundant crops are produced. In San Juan, Rio Grande, Pecos Valley, and other parts of the Territory modern farms exist, and when well managed are profitable. When a system of storing flood waters is put in operation immense areas will be put into cultivation. Alfalfa is the principal crop raised, producing three to four cuttings each season, yielding 3 to 5 tons of hay. It is an excellent feed, and most work horses receive no other at any time of the year, and remain in good condition even when continually worked. Wheat is largely raised, principally by the Mexicans. Rye and barley also do well. The experiments carried on with sugar beets at this station and by farmers in different parts of the Territory during the past year conclusively prove that beets of the highest quality can be produced in nearly every section of the Territory. Beets were produced which showed 10 to 22 per cent sucrose, great numbers of the samples running 14 to 17 per cent. The cultivation of the sugar beet is susceptible of a great development. Kaffir corn has proved to be a good crop in this climate and is largely cultivated in some sections. There are many crops not now cultivated which would prove profitable if attention were directed to them. Many sections of New Mexico, by reason of altitude or other conditions, have climates peculiarly their own, which would prove well adapted to some particular crop which would suggest itself to any live farmer. One great advantage the farmer has here over the Eastern farmer is the ease by which he can preserve his crops. The dry, pure air retards decay to a great extent, and the absence of heavy dews and rains enables him to harvest and store his crops with but little waste.

HORTICULTURE.

It is in horticulture that New Mexico may expect her greatest development. The soil, when properly cultivated and irrigated, and the climate seem to be peculiarly adapted to the production of fine fruit. The soil is supplied with such essential elements for tree growth as lime, potash, etc., in such abundance as to be practically inexhaustible. These fertilizers form a large part of the expense bill of the fruit grower of the humid region. Our sunny climate produces a large, fine-flavored, high-colored, attractive-looking fruit, which greatly adds to its selling qualities.

The fruit industry of the Territory is still undeveloped. True, fruit growing has been largely carried on in San Juan County, the Rio Grande, and Pecos Valley, and large quantities of fruit have been shipped to near-by and distant markets, successfully competing with fruit from other States; but the large area comprising the small valleys, mesas, and level tracts, when supplied with irrigating waters, will produce such fruits as their climates will mature in larger quantities and to a greater perfection than any other part of the United States.

VEGETABLES.

Vegetables of all kinds reach their highest development in the parts of the Territory having climates favorable to their growth, and when properly cultivated yield enormously. The quality of our fruits and vegetables will compare favorably with those produced anywhere. The celery of Bernalillo and Chaves counties has gained a wide reputation for its crispness and fine flavor, and is quite largely shipped to adjoining States. The cabbage of northern New Mexico has been known for years to be as fine as can be produced. The tomatoes of the Mesilla Valley, when canned, are superior to any yet brought to this market, and the demand for them is rapidly increasing.

TEN ACRES ENOUGH.

[W. S. Burke.]

WHAT A MAN CAN DO WITH A SMALL TRACT OF LAND UNDER IRRIGATION.

Sweet potatoes of most excellent quality yield abundantly in all the valleys of the central and southern portions of the Territory, and constitute one of the best crops that the farmer can raise, because they enable him to realize a good return for his season's work from a very small tract of land, which is an important consideration to a farmer anywhere, but especially so to one in an irrigation country. The soil and climate of this country seem to be peculiarly adapted to the growth of the sweet potato: the quality of the product is fully equal to that of the famous potatoes of New Jersey, and a fair average crop will give from 900 to 1,000 bushels to the acre with proper cultivation. They never sell for less in the fall than $1 a bushel, and those that are kept into the winter usually bring as much as $2. From this it will be seen that 1 acre cultivated to sweet potatoes in New Mexico will yield the farmer as much money as he can hope to realize in a good year from 80 acres of corn or wheat in Kansas or Nebraska, and since the results are to be measured by dollars and not by acres, it will be apparent to anyone that the irrigation farmer, although he may not be able to cultivate fields as broad as those of his neighbor in the rain belt, has a better prospect of success and a decidedly better chance of a bank account at the end of the year.

The onion is another product that seems to be peculiarly adapted to this section of the country. The large white Spanish onion, which grows to greater perfection in the Southwest than anywhere else in the United States, affords one of the most profitable crops that can be grown in this Territory, and requires irrigation to bring it to perfection. On account of its beautiful silvery color and its peculiar nild flavor, this onion finds ready sale in any part of the country, and always brings the highest market price. The yield is about 500 bushels to the acre, under proper cultivation, and the price at home ranges from $1 to $2.50 per bushel. Celery and asparagus are also articles which are especially adapted to the soil nd climate of this country, and attain here a degree of excellence rarely found such articles grown elsewhere.

The New Mexico celery is far superior to that grown in California, and is pronounced by all who try it fully equal in all respects to the famous Kalamazoo product, which is noted throughout the country for its superiority.

And when it comes to asparagus New Mexico can fairly claim to "beat the world," for nowhere else on the American continent is there raised asparagus which can at all compare with that grown in the valley of central and southern New Mexico. In many places there are large quantities of saltpeter in the soil (the American settlers call it "alkali," because it comes to the surface after a rain and makes the ground white, causing it to resemble the alkali of the north). This article, which is deleterious to many kind of vegetables, is the favorite food of asparagus and obviates the necessity of applying salt to the ground, as has been done wherever this vegetable is grown in the Eastern or Middle States. It also causes the plant to attain a degree of excellence and flavor in this country which is unknown elsewhere. During April and May, the months when the cutting is done, the shoots will attain, under favorable conditions, a growth of about 6 inches in a day, every particle of which is edible; there is no woody portion to be thrown away; the whole stock is as soft and tender as green peas, and the flavor is proportionately superior. Sample lots of New Mexico asparagus have been sent to many parts of the country, and the verdict is everywhere the same, The best I ever saw." It is not only better than that grown in the East, but is so much better that its superiority is noticeable at once, even to the casual observer. Actual experience has shown that it will bear shipping to Portland, Me., and that is as far away from New Mexico as you can get in the United States; so the whole

country is open to us as a market, and that the article can be sold wherever it is introduced goes without saying-it will sell itself.

An asparagus bed of 1 acre will yield, after the third year, about 200 pounds a day for sixty days, which is as long as it is wise to cut it; this will bring an average of 10 cents a pound during the season. An acre in sweet potatoes will yield 900 bushels, worth $1 a bushel at least, as soon as they are dug. An acre of onions will yield 500 bushels, worth never less than $500, and an acre of celery can be relied upon to bring as least $600. A man needs 2 acres in alfalfa and 2 in corn or oats for his horse and cow and 2 acres for house lot, orchard, and kitchen garden. That makes 10 acres in all, which is as much as any man needs to farm for profit, and is fully as much as the most industrious man can cultivate properly. There is an abundance of good land for such purposes to be had in all parts of the Territory. Take, for example, the Rio Grande Valley, the oldest portion of the Territory in point of settlement, a section that has been settled for more than three hundred years, and yet not one-fourth of the available land in this section of the country is under cultivation at the present time. Beginning a little above Bernalillo and going down to a point a little below San Marcial, we have one of the most desirable and fruitful sections of the famous valley and lying right in what may properly be called the agricultural center of New Mexico, a district of about 150 miles in length and with an average width of about 5 miles, embracing 750 sections, or 480,000 acres; and yet a careful writer, who has traveled frequently over the district of country in question, says: "If we concede that one-tenth of the land is now under cultivation, we are making a very liberal estimate." But if we should almost double this very liberal estimate, we should still have in the district referred to about 400,000 acres of unused land-enough to furnish homes and profitable employment to 400,000 families, or more than the entire present population of the Territory. And there is no waste land in this district named; it is all arable and all tillable and needs only the application of water to make it as productive as the best land in any part of the world. The Rio Grande carries water enough for the cultivation of the whole of this tract without encroaching in the least upon the rights of those who live farther down the river. True, there would not be water enough under the system of irrigation at present in use-a system that was adopted three hundred years ago, when economy in the use of water was something wholly unknown and totally unnecessary, and under which the water wasted is at least five times as much in quantity as the water used-but it is not to be supposed that this system will continue many years longer. Modern systems of irrigation are being introduced in all other sections of the country where farming is done by irrigation. New Mexico will not remain long behind the times. The system practiced in California and Colorado, and in the Pecos Valley in our own Territory, which puts the water upon the cultivated fields and not upon the waste places and the wagon roads, will soon be adopted in this section, and then, as we have said, the Rio Grande will furnish water enough to irrigate all the lands in its valley and will support more people than are now in the whole Territory.

A country like New Mexico, where all kinds of fruit and vegetables can be grown to such perfection and in such profusion, is the place for canning factories, and it is safe to say that there is hardly a settlement in the Territory in which there is not at the present time a good opening for an establishment of this kind. The genial climate, the long seasons, the almost perpetual sunshine, and the rich soil, which is further enriched at every irrigation by the valuable sediment which is brought down from the mountains, all combine to produce conditions which are not surpassed in any part of the world for the successful growing of garden vegetables, and the yield of these is so enormous that it would hardly be believed by anyone who does not possess a practical knowledge of the subject. There is a reliable home demand for all such products, and everything of that sort that can be grown here will be needed to supply the wants of our own people; but there are comparatively only a few vegetables that can be kept for winter use without preserving or canning. It is a well-known fact that the people who live in the cattle and sheep camps and the mining camps and villages of the West are the largest consumers of canned goods in the world: many of them practically live out of tin cans. The area of country in the Southwest that can be used for inining and grazing purposes is so much greater than the area that can be cultivated, and such a great number of people must always find employment in those occupations, that all the vegetable products of the country will always find a ready market at home. But, as is well known, it is necessary for the greater part of these products to be canned in order to be utilized. At present we are not producing one-fourth of the vegetables we consume for want of proper facilities for preparing them for market, and while we are able to produce more and better

vegetables than any other section of the United States, our people are fed mainly upon the inferior products of other sections. If this condition of things had to be permanent it would be rather discouraging; but it will not continue very much longer; the good openings that are presented in all parts of the Territory for the establishment of canning factories will soon be taken advantage of by men who are looking for good business opportunities. The only reason why such industries have not already been established in all sections of the Territory is the fact that our present careless and haphazard system of irrigation renders the supply uncertain; but given a reliable modern system, such as will soon be introduced in every section where there are intelligent, progressive people, and it will be but a little while before we have canning factories enough established in the Territory to take care of all the vegetables we can raise, and the large sums that we now send abroad every year to pay for stuff that we buy from other sections will be kept at home for the benefit of our own people.

With respect to canned goods. woolen goods, and all other articles which can be manufactured successfully here, we will not only have the advantage of a market at home for all we can produce, but the Territory is so far away from any other manufacturing center that the cost of transportation on goods shipped in from abroad is great enough to give the home manufacturer a good "protective tariff" which no Congress can repeal.

CANAIGRE.

An industry that is exclusively adapted to the arid Southwest, and especially adapted to New Mexico, is the production of the canaigre plant.

The following extract from Bulletin No. 21 of the Arizona Experiment Station will give the information asked by many as to whether canaigre may be grown in their respective localities:

The best conditions for the growth of canaigre are a cool but not freezing climate, a moderate amount of moisture, sandy, fertile soil, and probably also a sunny and arid atmosphere. These conditions are nowhere combined more perfectly or for a longer period of the year than during the six or seven cooler months in the arid Southwest. * * * A mean temperature of about 70° or less is required for the growth of canaigre. Above this, even though there be abundant rain, as was the case in August, the roots will not do more than sprout feebly, and various attempts to make them grow in warm weather have failed. This seems to limit canaigre to the Southwest, for nowhere else, excepting possibly in some of the Southern States, is there so long a period of mild weather. It has been grown experimentally in Florida with some success, but in the Northern States the interval between the severe cold of winter and the extreme heat of summer is too short to allow of much root development. The sprouting of the roots in August, under the influence of rain, suggests that, in the culture of canaigre, one or two summers would prepare the plant to grow more promptly on the advent of cool weather. The growing plant will stand a good deal of cold. When frosted the leaves lie prostrate on the ground, but immediately regain position when thawed out by the sun. The root also will endure freezing. It has been left in the ground all winter 60 miles north of New York City, subjected to a temperature as low as 15 below zero, without injury. At Lincoln, Nebr., the roots stood a very severe winter without any damage whatever. At Peoria, Ill., plantings made in 1892 were still alive in 1895, and similar results are noted at Washington, D. C., and Garden City, Kans. The new root development, however, is stated in a number of cases to be insignificant under such conditions

As to locality, canaigre is found more commonly in sandy washes where water is more abundant. With irrigation it will make a good growth in any fertile, tillable ground, but the influence of soil conditions on actual production has been little studied. It seems to stand considerable alkali, and is even reported in the salt-grass meadows of Tia Juana Valley, near San Diego, Cal.

The tanning materials in canaigre remain pretty constant throughout the growing season, with, however, a small but distinct increase after the plants become established in vigorous growth: The amount of this increase in mature roots from year to year was further shown by taking four samples of wild roots, comprising every age up to about 5 years, dividing the samples as nearly as possible into successive years' growth and analyzing. It was found that the average increase of tanning materials from year to year, in ten instances, was 1.64 per cent in water-free material. In one set of cultivated samples the averages of the first and second year's roots differed 2.64 per cent. This indicates a small but constant

increase in the per cent of tanning materials from year to year, but holds true only so long as the roots retain their vitality. When they die the tanning substances quickly disappear. Although the percentage does not increase remarkably from year to year, the roots themselves become larger, so that the actual amount of tanning materials is much greater.

A factory for extracting tannin from canaigre is located at Deming, 230 miles from Albuquerque, and directly tributary to El Paso; but arrangements are made to start a tannin factory at San Antonio, N. Mex. Parties interested have been very busy in San Antonio for the past several weeks taking options on land, selecting a site for the factory, and perfecting other arrangements attendant upon immediate construction.

The factory at Deming has been depending upon its supply of canaigre from the wild root which grows in the greatest abundance in southern New Mexico, and is gathered by the natives and shipped. Now, however, it is proposed to cultivate the plant, and already options have been secured on 3,000 acres in the immediate vicinity of San Antonio, with 2,000 acres more to follow, thus making 5,000 acres altogether. This immense tract of land will be placed under a complete system of irrigation, for, although the canaigre plant grows wild in the most arid regions, it takes five years to assume mature growth, while under irrigation a good crop can be produced annually. Canaigre grows only six months in the year, and, strange to say, this is during the winter season from October to April. This plant has been used by the Mexicans for centuries in tanning their leather, but always in a dry form. Now, however, there has been discovered a process by which the acid can be extracted from the green root so that a new supply can be taken from the fields every day and converted into tannic acid, thus making the root worth from $80 to $90 per ton in any market.

San Antonio was selected as the most suitable place on account of its irrigating facilities and its rich coal fields. The coal mines of the Hilton Mercantile Company lie not very far distant, and the fuel can be had at a very nominal rate. The factory will employ 50 or 60 men, while the cultivation of the plant will give work to an additional force of 250 men. The capitalists who are interested, it is said, will spend a quarter of a million of dollars before they get the factory in running order. This will undoubtedly make it one of the most important enterprises in the Territory, and will mean a great era of prosperity for the San Antonio Valley.

CELERY PRODUCTION.

A product in which the Pecos Valley is gaining special distinction is its celery. It is an industry which is developing rapidly and constantly acquiring new markets. The most extensive production of this delicacy is near Roswell, on the Spring Brook Celery farm. The farm is watered by a great spring of water bubbling from mother earth, which, combined with the continual sunshine peculiar to the Pecos Valley and the saline nature of the soil, makes a combination for growing a high grade of celery not possessed by any other country. The constant sunshine, which blushes the apple, crimsons the cherry, ripens the golden grain, colors the flowers, and flavors the fruits with the choicest essence of nature's brewing, is no less potent in storing up those essential qualities in celery that raise it to a standard excellence, surpassed by none, equaled by few, and may be well said to bear the same relation to the celery trade as gold to the monetary system. The celery raised in the Pecos Valley is pronounced by those qualified to judge superior to that