During the year ending June 30, 1900, 214,053 head, mostly steer cattle, were sold and removed from the Territory, amounting at current values to upwards of $4,000,000, and during the same period there were brought into the Territory to remain 13,095 head, of which 5,391 were from the Republic of Mexico. All of which is respectfully submitted.

JULY 7, 1900.

J. A. LA RUE,

Secretary, Cattle Sanitary Board.

FOREST RESERVES.

The forest reserves of New Mexico, two in number, the Pecos River and the Gila reserves, cover an area of 160 townships, or 3,701,040 acres. The Pecos River Reserve of 431,040 acres is situated north of the central part of New Mexico, partly in Santa Fe, San Miguel, and Mora counties. It was created to protect the head waters of the Pecos. Several ranges of mountains, running from north to south, and from 8,000 to 13,000 feet high, cover the reserve. The Gila Reserve, 3,270,000 acres, is located in southwestern New Mexico, in Grant and Socorro counties. It protects the head waters of the Gila River and its tributaries. The Mogollon, the San Francisco, the Tularosa, the Black, the Little, and the Diablo mountains are the most important mountain ranges on that reserve. The establishment of a third reserve in the Capitan and White mountains in Lincoln County, in southern New Mexico, is spoken of by departmental officials, and is intended to protect the head waters of the Bonito, Eagle Creek, Rindoso, and Rio Hondo. The area of this proposed reserve is to be 250,000 acres. There is also talk of establishing a reserve in the Zuñi Mountains in western Valencia County, in the western part of the Territory.

The 5,782 square miles covered by forest reserves in New Mexico is a magnificent domain. It is as large as Rhode Island, Delaware, and one-half of Connecticut taken together, an area that supports over 1,000,000 inhabitants, or fully five times the present population of this Territory. It is a domain which in lumber alone is worth great wealth. But on the reserves are also some of the largest and richest mineral deposits in New Mexico. Some of the best grazing lands are found on their mesas and hillsides. Good agricultural lands exist along the river bottoms, in the cañons, and in the valleys between the ranges. The ground cleared of forest growth makes very fertile farm land, as has been demonstrated in the Sacramento Mountains. There is an abundance of running water on these reserves, a higher average of rainfall than elsewhere in the Territory, and many natural reservoir sites which might have been utilized to reclaim thousands of acres of fertile but arid land.

The creation of forest reserves retarded and in some respects ended all prospects of utilizing for settlement some of the most desirable parts of all New Mexico. The lumber industry on the land included in the forest reserves, of course, has been destroyed.

The growth of agriculture and horticulture is out of question, for all land within the reserves has been withdrawn from settlement and much of the agricultural land already settled is being relinquished to the Government. The storing and utilization for irrigation purposes of the flood waters on the reserves at present can not be thought of. Mineral exploitation has been retarded owing to restrictions as to the use of timber, because food and other supplies had to be hauled a long distance and because railroads are not likely to be built, for the present

at least, over public land that has been withdrawn from homestead entry. There remains only the stock industry, dependent upon good grazing, that might continue to make its home upon the forest reserves, but under present restrictions it also is doomed to be wiped out within a few years.

It will thus be seen that New Mexico lost heavily in prospective growth and wealth through the establishment of forest reserves. Nevertheless the people of the Territory acknowledge the great good (some of which, however, is still problematical) desired to be accomplished by forest reserves. It is readily seen that forests afford some protection to the head waters of streams. A continuous supply of water is furnished by the trees retaining the snow in the mountains until a late period of the summer season. The trees shade the banks of the river from the sun and prevent the rapid evaporation of the water. The withdrawal of the land from settlement prevents the diversion of the head waters of streams for irrigation purposes. The snow lying on the ground late in spring on forest reserves acts as a cover for the young growing shrubs and small growth of timber. The forest growth affords protection against the chilly blasts of frigid winds that sweep across the prairie. It also gives shelter to live stock and herders in time of storm. Last, and certainly not least, the forest reserves are ideal resorts in summer and excellent hunting and fishing ground at all times.

But all these aims can be attained and these benefits secured without burdensome, meddlesome, and unnecessary restrictions or total prohibition of grazing upon the reserves. The damage caused by the grazing of sheep and goats in wooded regions has been greatly exaggerated, and in some respects is imaginary. It certainly is small when compared with the benefit it confers upon the reserves and the material profit that it means to their owners and indirectly, also, to the Territory. In the first place the prohibition of the grazing of sheep and goats upon the reserves works untold hardship and is bringing material ruin to many settlers who were upon the land before it was set apart as forest-reserve ground. For many generations back their ancestors lived upon the same ground, and their herds and flocks are their sole wealth, accumulated through several centuries of hardships, danger, and exposure. Their capital and means of livelihood is the range round about them. They settled in those sections because they believed, and had cause to believe, that they would remain unmolested in their grazing privileges. Now, after such long undisputed possession, the United States Government steps in and evicts these settlers in the most heartless manner. The range beyond them outside of the forest reserve has been taken up by others or is valueless on account of drought or other untoward circumstances. The homes they have built and the wells they have drilled are worthless to them, for they must now sell their flocks and herds, if they can find a buyer, or they must allow them to perish, and then they themselves must leave the homes of their fathers to find means for making a livelihood elsewhere. The forests have existed for decades and so have the flocks and herds, and not until the present day have they been thought to interfere with each other

The sheep and goats have been the protectors of the forest. By nibbling short the grass and undergrowth they have created barriers

against forest fires. Trees on the reserves, with some notable exceptions, are not at all dense in their growth, and forest fires could not spread unless by the grass and undergrowth. In addition, the presence of herders on the reserves aids in the quick detection and extinguishing of any incipient forest fires. The herders know that it is to their interest to assist in preserving the forest growth and extinguishing fires. They can be of great aid in that respect to the force of rangers, which, even if it were ten times its present number, would still be inadequate for reserves so vast that they cover 6,000 square miles. It is simply a matter of getting as much material benefit out of the forest reserves as possible without interfering with the purpose for which they were created.

So, while the people of New Mexico acquiesce willingly in the losses the Territory necessarily sustains by withdrawing such large areas of good land from homestead or desert-land entry and from purchase by settlers, they ask that the restrictions hedging in these reserves be not made unnecessarily severe; that the force of forest rangers be increased so that each ranger can give his attention solely to a limited area; that streams be restocked with fish and that game be protected; that the land not strictly forest land be again thrown open to entry, and that cattle, sheep, and goats be allowed to graze upon the forest lands, if necessary in limited number and within necessary regulations, but free of charge and without burdensome restrictions.

OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT OF FORESTRY,

Santa Fe, N. Mex., May 23, 1900.

MY DEAR SIR: I am in receipt of your communication of May 7, addressed to the superintendent of forest reserves, New Mexico, calling for a complete report of existing conditions on the two forest reservations in the Territory, viz, the Gila and Pecos. I have waited until now in order that this report might be made by the superintendent proper, Hon. W. H. Buntain, who has been away from his office since March 20 on a leave of absence, and who is thoroughly conversant with the work; but I am officially notified that Mr. Buntain has resigned, and that I am to remain in charge as acting superintendent until his successor is appointed. I therefore feel called upon to take up the matter of the report called for by you and give you such information as I have in my possession, which of course will be limited, for the reason that I have had charge of the office only since April 30, and the data from which my report is made is gathered from reports of forest supervisors on these reservations, and I shall attempt only general summary of the conditions.

First, as to the Gila River Reserve. The timber is in good and healthy condition, and the undergrowth, small pine, over the entire reserve is growing nicely, due in a large measure to the excessive precipitation which for the month of April, as reported by M. M. Mulhall, was 0.85 of an inch.

No fires of any consequence have been reported on this reserve since January, and specific instructions were issued in this office to-day, May 23, to Supervisors Langenberg and McClure, to so systematize their force of rangers as to preclude the possibility of any large fires this summer, which reorganization, it is hoped, will prove effective and accomplish the desired end.

The order excluding sheep and goats from this reservation was temporarily suspended by telegram from Honorable Commissioner-General of the Land Office, dated January 10, pending an investigation which the superintendent of forestry was directed to make at once. Because of ill health and subsequent resignation of Superintendent Buntain, this investigation and report has not been made, and will doubtless occupy the attention of the new superintendent at an early date. Meanwhile sheep and goats are grazing on this reservation.

This office is also in receipt of numerous petitions from settlers on the Gila River Reserve, for the elimination of townships 13, 14, and 15 south, ranges 19, 20, and 21 west, setting up the fact that the country embraced in this territory is a high, rolling mesa, cut up by low mountains and long draws and ravines, and contains no timber growth, except scattering scrub oaks and occasional small juniper and pine,

and is not adapted to forest growth, and is in no sense a forest, or of such a nature as to become forest land, but is purely and solely high, dry, open, broken mesa land, adapted only to grazing purposes.

The honorable Commissioner, in letter of date April 3, has directed superintendent of forestry to go upon and personally examine and make a detailed report upon the requested elimination of said land, and I shall call the attention of the new superintendent to this order immediately upon his arrival.

In the matter of the Pecos River Forest Reserve, I would most respectfully report the forest, like that of the Gila, in splendid condition, and the undergrowth of small pine and all manner of vegetation in excellent condition for holding moisture, due in part to the fact that last year sheep and goats were excluded from the reservation, and the further fact that during the month of April the precipitation was the largest known on this reservation since the records have been kept by the local weather bureau at Santa Fe. The amount of snow that remained on the ground was the largest on record, total precipitation for the month of April being 2.10 inches.

No fires have occurred on the Pecos Reserve during the year of any consequence. The only timber depredations reported since 1st of March have been committed along the eastern border of the reservation, where the line of the reserve is not well marked. The trespasses have been small, and were reported to the Federal grand jury at Las Vegas last week by Forest Ranger Charles T. McGlone, who has charge of that part of the reserve.

By reason of an order which issued from the General Land Office April 17, 1900, all persons desiring to graze cattle and horses upon the reservations of New Mexico will be required to make application for the granting of such privilege, agreeing in their application to pay for pasturage such reasonable compensation as may subsequently be fixed by the honorable Secretary of the Interior, if their applications shall be approved. The number of cattle and horses admitted to graze during the grazing season for this year has, however, been limited and fixed as follows:

Among the Pueblos the houses were communal as well as the lands, the building consisting of from two to five stories, each successive one receding several paces from the face of the one immediately below it, and each entered only from above by means of scaling ladders let down or taken up for that purpose. These edifices were constructed of adobe (sun-dried bricks), cobblestones held together by adobe mortar, or matched stone without mortar, the numerous rooms being ceiled with beams covered with earth. Each village or community usually contains two or three of these buildings, which looked more like fortresses than dwellings, though indeed designed for both purposes.

One such structure at Weqwgi was 700 feet in circumference and contained 99 rooms. Pueblo Bonito was 544 feet long by 314 feet wide, with 300 apartments. The pueblo of Penasco Blanco was 1,700 feet long and comprised 112 rooms. Among the remains of the sacred city of Pecos are the ruins of the temple, which for ages preserved the holy fire of Montezuma. Its dimensions are 191 feet in length. 35 feet in breadth, and 50 feet in height, encompassed by walls 6 feet