Arriba, is one of the finest valleys in the country, and highly producAnd again, the valleys of the tributaries to the Chama, the Brazos, Nutritas, Gallinas, Puerco, El Rito, Ojo Caliente, Bear Creek, and others are all highly susceptible to cultivation. The valley of the Puerco of the East, and the Rio Jemez, with its many tributaries. afford fertile lands, already for centuries under cultivation.

ADVANTAGES OF IRRIGATION.

When the Eastern farmer sees all the work entailed in laying out a wheat field for irrigation and the subsequent labor of applying the water, he is often heard to exclaim, "If all that work is necessary, I have no use for irrigation." It is useless to attempt to disguise the fact that irrigation entails much expense in the cultivation of crops. Of course, that expense varies with the kind of crop raised; but the question may be asked whether the value of the extra quantity produced is not in excess of the extra expenditure.

Let us take the case of alfalfa. The yearly expense per acre for irrigation, as has already been shown, is $2.15; but four crops of hay are raised in the year in lieu of one without irrigation, or say 3 tons instead of 14 tons. The farmer therefore gets an extra 2 tons of hay for an expenditure of $2.15 in water. Add $2 for the cost of harvesting these 2 tons, and you have an extra 2 tons of hay, costing $4.15, or $2.08 per ton.

In the case of wheat crop it is not easy to give exact figures, but I have no hesitation in saying that the crop will be double what it is in countries where irrigation is not practiced and where fertilizers are not used. This is due in large part to the fertilizing properties of the river water, to which reference has already been made, which insures the permanent fertility of the soil. One must also bear in mind the fact that wheat and almost all farm products are worth more in the irrigated districts of the West than they are farther east.

No farmer would consider it a waste of money to put 10 tons per acre of barnyard manure upon his land every year, even though it cost him $6. For half this expense he can, where the river water is of the same quality as that which irrigates the Mesilla Valley, not only apply fertilizers equal to the contents of 10 tons of barnyard manure, but he gives the crop the exact amount of water required for a full yield, insures it against loss by drought, and gets a better price than could be obtained elsewhere. Irrigation farming means intensive farming, and it is intensive farms which pay in the long run.

If the question is asked, as it often is, What is the most profitable product to raise in New Mexico? the answer generally made is that apples, peaches, grapes, or some fancy crop will pay the most money, and dazzling figures are given showing the number of pounds per acre and cents per pound, resulting in a rapid fortune from 40 acres of land.

THE CANADIAN RIVER SECTION.

This agricultural district lies between the Raton Mountains on the north and the Pecos River on the southwest. The Canadian flows through it for about 150 miles in a southeasterly direction to near old Fort Bascom, and from there easterly (a little north of the thirty-fifth parallel of north latitude) for about 50 miles. Most of its tributaries

flow in from the west. As the western part of this entire section has a slope toward the east with a general descent to the southward, the highest localities are in the northwest corner and the lowest in the southeast, with a falling altitude of from 5,000 to 3,000 feet. portions of this river have a fall of 9 feet per mile. Of its tributaries the Little Cimarron and Vermejo creeks afford considerable breadth of arable land, the former having a valley from 25 to 30 miles long and from 1 to 6 miles wide, and the Vermejo one of the same length and about 2 miles wide. Both of these valleys are very fertile, with plenty of water for irrigation. The Rayado Creek has a good valley, but it is subject to overflows. Ocate Creek Valley, formed by erosion, is also very good agricultural land. The Mora River Valley is doubtless the finest in this section. It has a length of from 60 to 70 miles and a breadth of about 4 miles. Its upper portion, from 8 to 10 miles in length, is about 3 miles wide.

GILA AND COLORADO RIVER SECTION.

This section embraces a belt of land of from 50 to 100 miles wide along the whole of the western line of New Mexico. It is watered by the Rio Puerco of the West and the Zuni River in the north, and by the Gila and its many tributaries and the Rio San Francisco in the south. There are rich and extensive valley lands along the bottoms of these rivers, the most fertile being that of the Rio San Francisco.

NEW MEXICO SOIL.

The soils of New Mexico, as a rule, are quite different from the soils of the Eastern States and possess many advantages not possessed by the latter.

The power of the soils to produce plants depends upon many conditions. among the more important of which may be mentioned a proper control of the moisture, the climate, and the amount of available plant food present.

In regard to moisture control, soils depending on irrigation for their moisture, as do those of New Mexico, have a decided advantage over soils depending solely upon rainfall. While the valleys of New Mexico have an average annual rainfall of probably some 10 or 12 inches, and the greater part of this usually comes in the summer during the growing season, it is still quite insufficient for the needs of ordinary farm crops, which must depend for the greater part of their moisture upon irrigation. The supply of moisture to irrigated soils is under almost absolutely perfect control, provided the water supply is constant. The advantages of such a control of the moisture must be apparent to anyone.

HOW TO OBTAIN TITLE TO PUBLIC LANDS.

The following information is furnished by the register of the United States land office at Santa Fe, N. Mex.:

There are nearly 57,000,000 acres of unappropriated public land in the Territory of New Mexico. Agricultural publie land is subject to entry only under the homestead and desert-land laws. The homestead laws of the United States secure to qualified persons the right

to settle upon, enter, and acquire title to not exceeding 160 acres of public land by establishing and maintaining residence thereon and improving and cultivating the same for the continuous period of five. years. A homestead entryman must be the head of a family or a person who has arrived at the age of 21 years and a citizen of the United States or one who has declared his intention of becoming such, and he must not be the owner of more than 160 acres of land in any State or Territory. A wife who has been divorced from her husband or deserted by him can make homestead entry. Payment of $16 fees and commissions must be paid at the time of entry, and final proof can be made at any time when five years' residence thereon and a cultivation of a portion of the land can be shown. The cost of making final proof, including publication of notice, taking testimony, and commissions, is from $14.25 to $15. A party can, at the time of making homestead entry of 160 acres, enter 160 acres under the desert-land act. He will be required to pay 25 cents per acre at the time of making the entry, after which he is required to expend $3 per acre ($1 per acre each year for three years) in labor or money in improving the land and constructing reservoirs, canals, and ditches for irrigating and reclaiming the tracts entered; and the party may make final entry at any time prior to the expiration of four years on making the required proof of reclamation, of expenditure to the aggregate amount of $3 per acre, and of the cultivation of one-eighth of the land and making a final payment of $1 per acre.

BEET SUGAR IN NEW MEXICO.

The pronounced success in beet-sugar production in the Pecos Valley has occasioned widespread popular interest in the cultivation of sugar beets throughout New Mexico.

During the past three years, from beet seed furnished by the Agricultural Department in Washington, under the direction of the College of Agriculture at Lascruces, the better class of farmers in the Territory have been raising sugar beets with uniform success. The fact is clearly demonstrated that on all the valley lands in New Mexico, with irrigation, may be grown the finest crops of sugar beets of the most satisfactory quality for the manufacture of sugar.

It appears that beets of large size, of small sugar content, may be grown almost anywhere with the ordinary attention given to a crop of corn or potatoes: but special conditions of soil and climate seem to be necessary to produce a crop of beets rich enough in sugar to be profitable for purposes of manufacture of sugar. In determining the presence or absence of these conditions, our Territory has occasion for congratulation in the zeal and good work of the College of Agriculture at Lascruces.

Throughout the Rio Grande Valley, from El Paso to the Colorado line, results appear to be uniformly satisfactory. In the central portion of the Territory, in the high valley region about Santa Fe, the conditions of soil and climate appear to be specially suited to this crop. Here the uniform temperature and almost perpetual sunshine during the growing season seem to develop a larger percentage of sugar in the beet than in almost any other section of the United States in which tests have been made. It appears from tests made at the experimental station last year that Santa Fe grown beets weighing over 10 pounds