made out, one firm alone having shipped 28,000 head of cattle in March previous, which was more than one-half the total estimate in June.

Of sheep there were 64,390; goats, 7,787; horses, 2,780; mules, 102. There were also 257 burros and 4,148 hogs in this county listed for taxation. Owing to the long distance from a suitable market but little attention has heretofore been given to agriculture. Only enough grain and vegetables have been raised to supply the local demand. The county now has 10,883 acres of land under cultivation, the larger portion, of course, lying along the watercourses and subject to irrigation, though in certain localities, notably along the eastern foothills of the White Mountains, a large tract has been producing abundant crops for the past five years without any moisture whatever except that retained by the soil from the winter snows and the annual rains. There can be no possible doubt that deep plowing, with subsoiling and thorough cultivation, would cause much of the land in this region, especially that contiguous to the mountain ranges, now classed as "arid," to grow most of the cereals and all kinds of vegetables at a very fair profit. No finer fruit, either in size, quality, or flavor, can be produced in any country than that gathered from the orchards around the White Mountains in Lincoln County. Now that a market has lately been opened up by the coming of the railroad, fruit raising will receive much more attention, and in a few years will form quite an item in the freight shipments to El Paso and other points.

The phenomenal success of the Coe Brothers, on the Rio Ruidosa, A. C. Austen and P. G. Peters on the Rio Bonito, Mrs. S. E. Barber on the Three Rivers, and many others throughout the county, has stimulated other ranch owners in their vicinity to plant extensive orchards with the best varieties of fruit trees adapted to the soil and climate, so that the time is not far distant when the valleys and even waste places will burst forth into a fragrant cloud of peach and apple blossoms.

Lincoln County is, perhaps, more abundantly favored by nature than any other section of equal scope in the Southwest. Aside from its vast areas of grazing and agricultural lands, which are as yet but little more than half utilized on account of an inadequate supply of surface water, its other resources are enormous. From the Gallinas Mountains on the north to the White Mountains on the south, a uistance of about 80 miles, there lies a practically inexhaustible mineral belt. There is not a mountain range within its border where the precious metals, in some form, do not crop out on the surface. This fact has been well established for years, but the long distance from any line of railroad communication has prevented the development of these vast resources of wealth, as the transportation of other than gold ore was made impossible.

Only in cases where the deposits have proven to be so enormously rich that they have paid for their own exploiting from the surface down, and a dividend besides, has the work been prosecuted with any kind of system or continuity. It can be safely asserted that no mine in this whole mineral belt, with one or two exceptions, is being worked at the present time where the output of the mine itself has not paid the expense of operating and development, together with the cost of machinery for reducing the ore.

The Old Abe mine at White Oaks is an example in point. This mine is now down to the 1,200-foot level; no water has yet been encountered, neither is there any intense heat perceptible. This is probably the deepest dry mine in the United States. At this great

depth the vein is less broken than near the surface and carries about the same amount of free milling ore with a large increase in the value of the refractory ore. It has always paid a handsome profit over the ordinary mining expenses when systematically and economically worked. During the past year the present management has purchased a coal mine, and put in working order for supplying the necessary fuel a 50-ton cyanide plant to work the tailings as they come from the mill, with many other improvements, and the mine has paid for them all with ore taken from development work, as but little sloping has been done.

The North and South Homestake mines in the same district are down to the depth of 1,000 feet and 600 feet, respectively, with a large amount of underground development work, and always paid a handsome dividend when properly managed.

The Lady Godiva, Little Mack, Rip Van Winkle, and many other mines in the White Oaks district, have been exploited sufficiently to show that they are of about the same character as the mines already demonstrated by deep workings.

In the Jicarilla Range, 12 miles northeast of White Oaks, the gulches are full of placer gold, estimated at several million dollars, but as yet are worked only in a crude, spasmodic way, owing to the scarcity of water, which has to be hauled several miles in order to obtain the gold by panning. This when obtained is rather coarse and almost pure. A plan is now on foot to pipe the water from the Capitan Mountains, a distance of 21 miles, in sufficient quantity to wash out this gold by hydraulic process.

In the Gallinas Mountains, still to the north, there are many fine prospects carrying copper carbonates and sulphides; also lead carbonates and galena, carrying as high as 40 per cent lead and 20 per cent silver per ton. This is comparatively virgin ground on account of the long distance from any base of supplies and the expense of shipping ore.

In the central eastern portion of the county is the El Capitan range of mountains almost entirely unprospected, although some very fine ore, carrying both copper and gold, has been located in that region.

The Nogal and White Mountain ranges, in the southern end of the county, contain a veritable network of mineral-bearing leads, much of it low grade, it is true, but in immense bodies, which, after all, are considered the more valuable in the eyes of experienced miners. Among the more productive mines in this Nogal district might be noted the American, where its original locator, Billy Gill, ground out a fortune with the aid of a mule and an arrastra; the Hellen Rae, from which old man Rae carried a gunny sack of ore down to his cabin daily and pounded out enough yellow metal in a mortar to wear a silk hat and a syndicate smile the remainder of his days, and then sold the claim to St. Louis parties for $10,000. The owners have since put in a reduction plant.

The Hopeful, generally called the Parson's mine, where a mountain of low-grade ore lies dormant because the heirs could never agree to work it themselves or fix a price on the property so that its volume of gold may be added to the whole product.

This whole vast mineral belt, which in its entirety contains almost every known mineral, is now open to the world. It never has been thoroughly prospected. The land practically belongs to the General Government, and perfect title can readily be obtained, as there is not a land grant in Lincoln County.

The building of the El Paso Northeastern Railroad into the heart of this region has stimulated all manner of enterprises more than any event in its history, and many fortunes will be made here in the next few years by those who have the courage to venture and the capital to invest.

In addition to the precious metals, there are in the vicinity of White Oaks, which is the natural business center of the county, ledges of black, gray, and white marble over a mile long. Here, as well as at the Salado and in the Jicarilla Mountains, are immense bodies of iron ore running from 50 to 70 per cent. Nature, to more especially endow this portion of the great domain, has underlaid 200 square miles of it with a vein of bituminous coal, the quality of which can not be excelled west of the Mississippi River. Openings have been made in these coal measures at White Oaks, at Salado, and at other points, sufficient to prove their quality and continuity. Inside of two months this county will be supplying El Paso and the Southwest with fuel of a very superior kind at greatly reduced rates. So cheaply can this coal be mined that at White Oaks the very best quality is being delivered to consumers at $2.75 per ton.

In the county there have been forty-three school districts already organized, and there are 1,438 children of school age.

The

At White Oaks is a school building which was erected at a cost of $10,000, with four rooms furnished. Nogal, Lincoln, and Picacho each have public school buildings suitable for two departments. other districts are all supplied with school buildings of fair capacity. For the past few years much interest has been taken in educational matters throughout the county, and the per cent of illiteracy is growing rapidly less each year.

Being in direct communication with the outside world, this long isolated region will now receive a great influx of money and capital to aid in developing its unlimited resources and to uncover new mines of wealth.

As to the climate, the General Government settled that when it established a marine hospital at the Old Fort Stanton Military Reservation, near the geographical center of the county, where it proposes to test the agency of mild and pure air, tempered with the greatest amount of ozone, in the treatment of tuberculosis.

SALADO COAL FIELDS, IN LINCOLN COUNTY.

The present terminus of the El Paso and Northeastern Railroad will be Gray, a village in the center of the Salado coal fields, Lincoln County, N. Mex. Here are thousands of acres of coal, connected by a railroad to a region where coal is at a premium-the region surrounding El Paso.

As soon as the railroad became a certainty men were put to work .at once in the Salado mines, and many tons of coal are now waiting the welcome whistle of the locomotive to be carried to El Paso, where the market is sure and steady.

The coal is excellent for steaming purposes, and is destined in time to be used most exclusively by the different factories and smelters in Pass City, and also in the northern and interior of the Republic of Mexico.

The railroad having now reached the coal fields, it is expected that within six months from this date more than a thousand miners will be working in the Salado district.

MORA COUNTY.

The county of Mora is bounded on the east by Union County, on the north by Colfax, on the south by San Miguel, and on the west by Rio Arriba and Taos counties. This county has an area of over 2,000 square miles, consisting of well-watered and as fertile and productive agricultural and horticultural, as well-grassed pastoral, as rich mineral, and as densely wooded timber lands as can be found in any other locality in the great Southwest.

A choice of remunerative occupation is offered to either the farmer, gardener, or stockman; or, should the home seeker prefer to prospect for mineral, or be a lumberman, he can find among the mountain ranges of the western portion of the county, on Government land, free and open to all comers, sufficient inducement for that necessary labor which accumulates wealth in bringing to light the hidden treasures of the hills or in felling the giants of the forest.

The eastern portion of this county, all public domain, is entirely devoted to stock raising. The great plains lying between Union County and Red River support numerous herds of sheep, aggregating hundreds of thousands during all the year. This immense stock range is well watered, and, with sufficient shelter afforded by the many brakes and canyons, comes near to being the stockman's ideal of what a summer and winter range should be. The grass is black gramma, well known to be the most nutritious of grasses.

From Red River westward the country is broken by cedar-clad hills and open parks and glades; is dotted with picturesque stock ranches and small farms until the lower valley of the Mora is reached at Cherry Valley, from which point to the head waters of the Mora River large tracts of land are farmed, and all under irrigation systems, yielding heavy crops of alfalfa, the principal forage plant grown. Other crops successfully raised are meadow hay, oats, wheat, corn, and, in fact, all small grains give a greater return per acre in bushels, and many more pounds to the bushel, than any of the famous wheat or corn States.

From Watrous to the western boundary line of Mora County, on all the streams and throughout all the many beautiful valleys, very large amounts of grain and hay are annually harvested. Las Vegas is yet, and has been for decades, the principal market and distributing point for all crops raised in the upper Mora and tributary val leys, as well as the receiving and distributing point for all material timbers used by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and sent for hundreds of miles north and south over its line.

The town of Mora is the county seat, and is situated in the midst of extensive valleys, thickly populated with prosperous and industrious inhabitants, the visible evidence of whose labor contributes in a marked degree to the prosperity of the community at large, and with the remarkable result that not less than 40,000 wagonloads of products from farm and forest, and of merchandise, agricultural implements, etc., are exported and imported annually.

As yet railroad communication between Mora and the outside world is lacking, but recently there has been incorporated the Las Vegas, Mora and Taos Railway Company, with principal office at Las Vegas, which intends to link those towns named in its title and bring them into close connection by means of a standard-gauge electric railway, thus giving to Mora all the advantages of being practically on a trans