Normal University of New Mexico, Las Vegas. Feeding Sheep on Otis Brothers' Farm, Roswell.. Cadet Battalion Drill, New Mexico Military Institute, Roswell, 1901. REPORT OF THE GOVERNOR OF NEW MEXICO FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1901. EXECUTIVE OFFICE, Santa Fe, N. Mex., September 14, 1901. SIR: In obedience to your request I have the honor to transmit herewith my annual report on the Territory of New Mexico, showing its progress and development during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1901. I desire respectfully to call special attention to the following subjects contained therein, to wit, population, statehood, education, financial condition, work of the land commission, industrial advancement, immigration, irrigation, railroads, mining, horticulture and agriculture, cattle, sheep, wool, forest reserves, and public buildings. I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant, The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, MIGUEL A. OTERO, Governor of New Mexico. Washington, D. C. NEW MEXICO. GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION. New Mexico covers 5° of the north temperate zone, extending from the thirty-second to the thirty-seventh parallel. Thus it corresponds in length and latitude with the two Carolinas and the major part of Georgia on the Atlantic coast, or with Tennessee and the upper twothirds of Alabama and Mississippi coming inland. Only Florida, of all the States in the Union, lies wholly south of New Mexico's lower boundary, while but 74°, or one and a half times the Territory's own length, would extend that boundary to the northern limit of the torrid zone. In Europe but the extreme southern parts of Spain and Greece lie within New Mexico's latitudes. All of the great health resorts of France and Italy, Spain and Greece, with their celebrated skies, boasted climes, delicious fruits, and rare flowers, lie decidedly farther north. By location, New Mexico is distinctly and emphatically a southern country. 5 TOPOGRAPHY OF THE TERRITORY. The topography of the Territory is unique, interesting, and complex. In shape a parallelogram, with an average breadth of 335 miles and length of 367 miles, it lies, so to speak, broadside to the sun, sloping from north to south, with an elevation of 7,000 feet above sea level in the former, sinking down to 3,500 feet in the latter, while many mountain peaks, with gently sloping sides, reach a height varying from 8,000 to 13,000 feet. These peaks and their connecting ranges are so scattered as to form the Territory into five distinct watersheds, with their respective valleys. The Rio Grande divides New Mexico from north to south into very nearly equal portions, and is, with its broad and fertile valley, to this country what the Nile is to Egypt. On the northeast the Canadian River forms an outlet for the waters of that section into a tributary of the Mississippi, while on the southeast the Pecos has eroded a valley second only in extent and richness of soil to that of the Rio Grande, of which it is the chief tributary leading to the Gulf of Mexico. In the northwest the San Juan and in the southwest the Gila rivers collect the waters ultimately reaching the Pacific Ocean. Each of these main rivers has quite a number of affluent streams; so great in fact that New Mexico is more largely supplied with water courses than is any other State or Territory in the Rocky MountainPacific group. Along each stream are valleys; beyond the valleys rolling foothills and high table-lands, called mesas, and beyond these the mountain ranges proper. In the mountains and in many of these mesas are deep gorges or canyons with almost perpendicular walls. These serve the useful purpose of collecting the water from the melting snows and conveying it to the streams ramifying the mountain sides and valleys in all directions, whence it is caught in storage reservoirs and held until wanted for use by the farmer or fruit grower in the irrigation of his crops or taken up by the canals and conveyed through gently inclined laterals to the farms and orchards. Such, then, is the topography of New Mexico-sheltering mountain peaks and chains on the north and west, high table-lands, rolling foothills, and lower lying valleys, falling away to the south-the general slope of the country is on an average of about 10 feet to the milethus providing a southern exposure throughout its vast extent of 122,580 square miles, or an area 100 square miles greater than the land surfaces of all New England, New York and Maryland combined, or 1,241 square miles larger than all England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. PECULIARITIES OF TOPOGRAPHY. Notwithstanding its southern geographic location, the general elevation of the Territory, averaging as it does about 5,000 feet above sea level, insures for it that purity of atmosphere and coolness, even in midsummer, characteristic of elevated regions. Another important feature also connected with the general southern slope of the whole country is that while it serves to interrupt and weaken the force of the cold northern currents, it admits the warm air currents from the south to precipitate their moisture on the higher slopes in the form of summer rains and winter snows. Hence we have in these elevated districts a climate favorable to the growth of trees and a fairly equable distribution of moisture throughout the year especially adapted to the production of nutritious grasses and the cultivation of grain, with out resorting to irrigation in some localities, especially in the higher altitudes, but always giving a two-fold greater yield where irrigation is provided. The most desirable climatic features are especially noticeable always along the elevated mountain slopes, where magnificent pine forests are agreeably interspersed with beautiful grassy valleys and parks, numerous springs, and a delightfully invigorating atmosphere. The general course of the mountains, valleys, and streams is from north to south, with the tendency to a deflection from northwest to southeast, or toward Mexico and the Isthmus of Panama; hence the climate is considerably varied by the changes of latitude. and by the elevation of the surface of the country, though at all times salubrious to a remarkable degree, and constitutes, in reality, one of the Territory's most attractive features. The malarious maladies common in some localities of the Mississippi Valley and elsewhere, where the soil is imperfectly cultivated and rank vegetation allowed to decay on the surface, are entirely unknown in New Mexico. Numerous thermal and other springs, both hot and cold, abound, and the natural scenery is beautiful and most attractive. The principal forests of the Territory are confined to the mountain ranges, being constituted chiefly of pine, cedar, spruce, and other varieties of evergreens, also ash, box elder, and scrub oak, but on the foothills extensive tracts of pinon, cedar, and mesquite are found, and in the river bottoms, fringing the margins of streams, are belts of cottonwood, sycamore, and other deciduous trees, while in the southern part of the Territory groves of oak and black walnut abound. CAUSES OF ARIDITY. The aridity of New Mexico arises partly from her location, partly from her altitude, and partly from her topography. Her location is in the midst of the formerly so-called "Great American Desert," her borders about equidistant, or 500 miles each, from the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean at their nearest approach. The Gulf of California, at its northern extremity, lies some 150 miles closer, but its water surface is inconsiderable. The low-lying plains east of the Rocky Mountains draw the moistureladen winds from the Gulf of Mexico, causing them to pass eastward of this section, but at the same time drawing over the Territory the winds from the Pacific and from the Gulf of California. Before these can reach New Mexico, however, they must climb, height by height, the ascending plateaus of Arizona, culminating in the bald-faced peaks of the Continental Divide. All know that the warmer the air the more water it will hold; and, on the other hand, the more the air is chilled the more it parts with its moisture. Every succeeding altitude but wrings more water from the air, just as each stronger grip of the hand squeezes more water from the sponge. When these almost desiccated winds reach New Mexico only the mountain chains and peaks can draw further moisture from them, leaving the valleys and table-lands with but the scantiest of scant supplies. This is why the average rainfall in the valleys of this Territory will not exceed an inch per month, two-thirds of the entire supply falling during the summer. Compare this with an average yearly precipitation at New York of 43 inches, Boston 45, Savannah 48, and the smallness of the rain supply will begin to be appreciated. But altitude increases aridity by decreasing atmospheric pressure, and thus accelerating evaporation. The elevation of New Mexico |