raised anywhere else in the United States, and the fact that it leads all competitors in every market it has reached would seem to verify the assertion, particularly when it is known that it came in competition with the product of the most famous celery farms in the whole country. The soil of the valley seems to possess to a marked degree the constituents which impart to this table delicacy the peculiar nutty flavor so much sought after by epicures. The Spring Brook farm has proven a full success, both in the production of the vegetable and in marketing it to financial advantage. The Roswell Register notes this fact in a recent paragraph, which says:

W. M. Farmer has just received returns from his last shipment of celery. The total figures show that, in addition to supplying the local demand, he shipped out 88,815 pounds. The express bill on this was $1.389.80. The gross income realized at the farm for the crop of 20 acres was over $6,000.

The planting on this farm has been increased to 25 acres this season, while all over the valley farmers are putting in beds of greater or less extent.

FANCY TOBACCO SEED TO BE DISTRIBUTED AMONG NEW MEXICAN FARMERS BY THE COMMERCIAL CLUB OF ALBUQUERQUE.

The following letters relative to the culture of tobacco have been received by the Commercial Club of Albuquerque, and the seed mentioned is now at the club rooms awaiting distribution. The seed will be issued in small quantities to all farmers who wish to raise tobacco and who will agree to give the intelligent care and attention necessary to insure successful cultivation. The letters are self-explanatory:

CHICAGO, ILL., December 22, 1897.

COMMERCIAL CLUB, Albuquerque, N. Mex. GENTLEMEN: Not long ago Mr. Chambers, general freight agent, sent me a sample of the tobacco raised in the vicinity of Albuquerque, which I sent to an expert grower in Virginia, who reports on same as follows:

The tobacco you sent to me has an excellent flavor, but owing to the fact that it was cut before being thoroughly ripe, it cured up green. In as dry a climate as New Mexico, with the proper kind of seed to begin with, tobacco ought to cure a splendid bright-red color without using any fire at all. But in order to get the right color and flavor, two things are necessary-the right kind of seed, and allowing the plant to become thoroughly ripe.

In New Mexico the plant bed should be made in February, and should be from 20 to 50 yards square, according to the size of the crop contemplated, and should be irrigated. The plant bed should be gotten in thorough order and the seed should be sown in it by the 1st of March.

The plant should be ready to set out in June, and, if the ground is in good order, one rain or one irrigation will make the crop. Tobacco requires less water than any other plant I know of. The great trouble with us is that we have too much rain, which makes it cabbage or bunch up. If we could have moisture just when we wanted it, and not too much, and such soil as you have in the West, we would make the finest tobacco in the world.

Hoping to hear from you soon, I remain, your friend,

"W. G. PILKINGTON."

Comment is unnecessary. Tobacco is one of the most important and most profitable of crops. On the strength of the opinion above given, by one qualified by long experience as a grower and manufacturer to speak knowingly, I would warmly advocate your body's taking up the matter of careful experimentation in tobacco culture, with a view to its becoming established on a sound basis as one of New Mexico's products. I will be glad to render any assistance in my power to that end. I have written for information as to the best seed to use.

Very respectfully,

JAMES A. DAVIS,

Industrial Commissioner, A., T. and S. F. Rwy. Co., Chicago, Ill.

ALFALFA HAY.

The remarkable development in the West of the species of hay known as alfalfa, within the past few years, can not fail to interest the farmer immigrant. Special attention is now given here to the cultivation of that crop, and it has proved a great success. It is a plant of wonderful power of growth. As a rule, three cuttings a season are made in the North and five in the South, which will average for the season one and a half tons per acre to each cutting.

It is a species of lucern, a perennial, an enormously prolific grower, containing a very high percentage of nutritive matter, and is of such a hardy, aggressive character that once it is firmly rooted it requires little attention other than an occasional irrigation and harvesting of the heavy crop of hay which it produces. It is the fodder plant of this region and the one factor that will permit stock raising and fattening to be successfully carried on upon modern scientific principles, in what has heretofore been known as the "arid region.".

Formerly, from the want of some cheap fattening food, the far West was entirely dependent upon the agricultural States for its fattened beef. Cattle were shipped from New Mexico to Kansas or Missouri, fed there on corn, and then sent back as beef in refrigerator cars, to be eaten, perhaps, close to the place in New Mexico from which a few months previously, the thin ox had been shipped, thus necessitating a double journey of 600 to 1,000 miles, and an additional expense of 4 to 6 cents per pound for carriage alone. To-day a good percentage of the beef eaten in New Mexico is fattened here on alfalfa, and in the future, as more land is placed under irrigation, the proportion will be largely increased, for the profits are necessarily large, the cost of the double journey of the corn-fed beef being so greatly in favor of the New Mexico farmer.

Another, and perhaps a greater, revolution is being brought about by alfalfa, enabling New Mexico farmers to breed high-grade and thoroughbred bulls. Formerly ranchmen were obliged to go to the Middle States for the large number of high-class bulls they required for the improvement of their herds. The acclimatization of these upon the Western plains was accomplished by enormous loss, chiefly owing to the great difference in climate and pasture. To-day, with the aid of alfalfa, breeding such cattle is fast becoming an important industry in New Mexico. The climate here being the same and the grass similar to that upon the great cattle ranges, the mortality during acclimatization is slight, and cattlemen willingly give a higher price for a New Mexico than for an Eastern bred bull.

Another important consideration to the advantage of this grass is that as cattle can largely depend upon the nutritious native grasses during the winter, the New Mexico farmer has three great factors in his favor: First, a higher value for what he raises; second, less cost of production; and third, a practically unlimited market at his door, with no heavy freight charges to pay when shipping to the buyer-a combination of advantages that must soon drive his Eastern competitor out of the market, and leave alone in his hands a large and profitable business.

For all these reasons there will, for a long time to come, be an immense demand for alfalfa for cattle-raising purposes.

The same conditions apply to hog raising, and with equal force. It will doubtless sound strangely to the Eastern farmer to be be told that hogs are here fattened for the market on alfalfa hay, but it is neverthe

It is

less true, and the meat thus produced is fully equal to, if not better than, corn-fattened pork. It seems to be as good for hogs as for cattle. becoming the rule here, and such hogs command high prices, as “hog cholera" is not known in these mesa regions.

Alfalfa is a perennial plant, and when once sown will last for many years. It is difficult to say how long it is profitable to keep the same field in alfalfa, but there are many instances of land that has borne crops of alfalfa for twenty years, and even for a longer period, without showing any signs of depreciation.

The seed is usually sown in February, on land already seeded to wheat, and oats are also frequently sown with the alfalfa in order to act as a shade to the young plants. But quite as good results have been obtained by sowing the alfalfa alone. The seed may also be put in the ground at the end of September. The young plants will soon appear above the ground and will continue to grow, in roots if not in leaf, during the greater part of the winter.

The cost of seeding an acre of land with alfalfa, from an estimate made in the Mesilla Valley, is as follows:

This makes the cost of the hay in the stack $1.60 per ton and not quite $4 baled and delivered on cars. Hitherto most of the alfalfa has been sold as hay, but much better returns are obtained by feeding it to live stock, for raising hogs, and dairy produce, which undoubtedly constitute the best products for the farmer. Alfalfa usually gives four cuttings in the year, but with care and plenty of water it would be possible to get five cuttings, yielding altogether five or six tons of hay. Owing, however, to a somewhat slovenly method of farming and the occasional lack of water, the writer places the average yield in the valley at 34 tons per acre.

MAKES GOOD PORK.

Wherever alfalfa can be raised the best as well as the cheapest pork and bacon can be produced, for alfalfa gives growth to the muscle, making the lean meat that is the best and sells the best. And while growing in the alfalfa fields the hogs get the exercise needed for healthy development. Wherever it will grow it may be made a highly profitable crop, and one that will get out of the swine industry its biggest possible results.

RANGE GRASSES.

There are about thirteen or fourteen different plants indigenous to New Mexico that, curing on the stalk, without cutting or labor of man,