Copy of register.

SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith the ninth annual report of the New Mexico board of dental examiners.

The annual meeting of the board was held in the office of the president at Albuquerque on March 24 and 25, 1902.

Dr. Williams, of Las Vegas, being unable to attend meetings of the board, resigned, and Dr. F. E. Olney, formerly a member of the board for six years, was appointed to fill the vacancy.

There was one applicant for examination who passed satisfactorily to the board and was granted a certificate.

There were 21 applicants for registration, gradates of colleges recognized as reputable by the National Association of Dental Examiners. Of these, 18 were granted certificates and three refused, they having left the Territory and their addresses unknown.

There was one application from a reputed graduate of an alleged college once located at Beloit, Wis., and known to the board to be thoroughly disreputable. The application was denied and the fee returned.

No violation of the law was reported during the year.

THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.-VAST AREAS AWAITING SETTLERS.

SANTA FE LAND DISTRICT.

The area of the Santa Fe land district, which comprises, approximately, three-eighths of all New Mexico, is 31,468,590 acres, of which 13,098,541 acres have thus far been appropriated by homesteaders and others under the various Federal land laws, an area three times

that of New Jersey, more than twice that of New Hampshire, more than twice that of Maryland, almost three times that of Massachusetts, more than three times that of Hawaii, five times that of Connecticut, eleven times that of Delaware, more than twice that of Vermont, and more than twenty times that of Rhode Island.

Reservations, land grants, Indian lands, etc., cover 5,364,562 acres, leaving the vast territory of over 13,000,000 acres still subject to entry within this district alone. During the past year a total of 101,325 acres were entered upon, and the cash receipts, fees, and commissions of the Santa Fe land office were $29,062.01. Appended is a statement of the business transacted at the office during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1902:

Area in acres entered under the homestead laws, 96,874; under the desert-land laws, 4,805 acres; mineral entries, 189 acres; coal lands sold, 515 acres; lieu selections, 933 acres.

The following have been the entries by counties:

Bernalillo: Homesteads, 5,427 acres; desert lands, 240 acres; coal lands sold, 155 acres; mineral lands, 35 acres-a total of 5,856 acres.

Colfax County: Homesteads, 9,343 acres; desert lands, 80 acres; total, 9,423 acres. Guadalupe County: Homesteads, 26,582 acres; desert lands, 280 acres; lieu selections, 373 acres; total, 27,235 acres.

McKinley County: Homesteads, 720 acres; coal lands sold, 280, acres; total, 1,000

acres.

Mora County: Homesteads, 4,343 acres; desert lands, 726 acres; total, 15,105 acres. Rio Arriba County: Homesteads, 3,039 acres; mineral lands, 106 acres; total, 3,145

acres.

San Juan County: Homesteads, 3,482 acres; desert lands, 2,920 acres; coal lands sold, 80 acres; lieu selections, 40 acres; total, 6,522 acres.

San Miguel County: Homesteads, 19,742 acres.

Santa Fe County: Homesteads, 4,298 acres; desert lands, 524 acres; mineral lands, 40 acres; lieu selections, 160 acres; total, 5,022 acres.

Socorro County: Homesteads, 1,240 acres; lieu selections, 120 acres; total, 1,360

acres.

Taos County: Homesteads, 519 acres; mineral lands, 17 acres; total, 536 acres. Valencia County: Homesteads, 8,410 acres; lieu selections, 240 acres; total, 8,650

acres.

LAS CRUCES LAND DISTRICT.

The annual report of the Las Cruces Federal land office for the past fiscal year indicates that there are still 60,000,000 acres of public land in Dona Ana, Grant, Otero, Sierra, the southern part of Socorro, and Luna counties subject to entry. This is an immense domain, equal to the State of South Carolina, larger than the State of Maine, and three times the size of the Kingdom of Belgium, which supports over 6.000.000 people. For the year ending June 30 last the total entries of land in this district were 25,786 acres. Following are figures from the annual report of the office:

Dona Ana County: Surveyed land, 1,439,122 acres; unsurveyed land, 528,347 acres; total open to entry, 1,967,469 acres; reserved, 335,378 acres; appropriated, 144, 153 acres; land entered during the fiscal year under homestead law, 11 entries, 1,133 acres; act of June 4, 1897, 80 acres; mineral entry, 46 acres.

Grant County: Surveyed, 3,210,532 acres; unsurveyed, 860,882 acres; total subject to entry, 4,071,214 acres; reserved, 7,414 acres; appropriated, 785,372 acres; 42 entries during the fiscal year under homestead law, 6,146 acres; under desert-land act, 520 acres; under act of June 4, 1897, 520 acres; mineral entries, 530 acres.

Luna County: Surveyed, 1,058,000 acres; unsurveyed, 616,000 acres; total subject to entry, 1,674,000 acres; appropriated, 42,000 acres; land entered during the fiscal year under homestead law, 22 entries, 2,980 acres; under desert-land act, 1,480 acres; under act of June 4, 1897, 200 acres.

Otero County: Surveyed, 1,380,167 acres; unsurveyed, 1,196,000 acres; total subject to entry, 2,576,167 acres; appropriated, 155,833 acres; entered during the fiscal

year under the homestead law, 49 entries, 6,684 acres; under the desert-land law, 160 acres; under the act of June 4, 1897, 200 acres.

Sierra County: Surveyed land, 1,514,204 acres; unsurveyed, 274,379 acres; still subject to entry, 1,788,583 acres; reserved, 74,875 acres; appropriated, 109,542 acres; 19 entries during the fiscal year under the homestead law, 2,187 acres; under the desertland law, 160 acres; under the act of June 4, 1897, 80 acres; mineral entries, 89 acres. Socorro County: Surveyed, 5,102,461 acres; unsurveyed, 2,017,050 acres; total subject to entry, 7,119,511 acres; reserved, 278,008 acres; appropriated, 140,481 acres; 19 entries under homestead law, 2,370 acres; under desert-land law, 40 acres; under act of June 4, 1897, 280 acres.

In addition to these entries there were made in the district during the fiscal year final homestead entries on 7,080 acres; final desert land entries, 880 acres; cash entries on 1,361 acres, making a total of final entries on 9,321 acres.

CLAYTON LAND DISTRICT.

The register and receiver of the land office at Clayton, Union County, have made the following report of the business of the Clayton land district during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1902:

Colfax County: 460,547 acres still subject to entry and surveyed; 169,453 acres appropriated; homestead entries during the year, 25,187 acres.

Guadalupe County: 2,269,969 acres subject to entry; 2,604,148 acres surveyed; 92,821 acres unsurveyed; 245,031 acres appropriated; 41,325 acres homestead entries during the year; 320 acres entered as desert land; 240 acres entered under act of June 4, 1897.

Mora County: 308,623 acres subject to entry, all surveyed; 30,377 acres appropriated; 4,161 acres homestead entries during the year; 405 acres desert-land entries. San Miguel County: 722,491 acres subject to entry, all surveyed; 73,507 acres appropriated; 2,636 acres homestead entries during the year.

Union County: 3,607,625 acres subject to entry, of which 3,281,042 acres are surveyed and 326,583 acres unsurveyed; 522,375 acres are appropriated; 65,044 acres were homesteaded during the year; 8,882 acres entered as desert land, and 1,195 acres under the act of June 4, 1897.

The total number of acres homesteaded during the year in the district was 138,353 acres; entered under the desert-land act, 9,607 acres, and selected under the act of June 4, 1897, 1,435 acres.

Colfax, Guadalupe, Mora, and San Miguel counties are only in part in the district. There are no Mexican or other land grants in the district, and no land reserved for other than school purposes.

While until recently the practice has been to locate only watered land, experience has shown that the best lands for grazing purposes are those where the rolling, slightly broken country furnishes shelter for stock during the winter storms. Water can be obtained in abundance at depths of from 50 to 150 feet, and in many places at much less depth.

With wells and windmills, every acre of land in northeastern New Mexico can be pastured to advantage, and the millions of acres of unsettled land there made to produce large returns upon the capital invested. Thus 12,400 square miles of land in the district, with 725 square miles of school land excepted, is open to settlement under the present land laws.

ROSWELL LAND DISTRICT.

The Government lands in the Roswell land district cover 15,287,801 acres, equal to 2,400 square miles, or more than twice the area of the State of Rhode Island and 500 square miles more than the area of Delaware. The number of homestead entries made in the entire district during the fiscal year was 836, covering 130,030 acres; of desertland entries there were 171, covering 29,766 acres; mineral entries 2,

covering 105 acres; forest lieu selections 20, covering 2,013 acres, a total of 161,914 acres. Appended figures are from the report June 30, 1902:

Chaves County: 4,728,712 acres surveyed; 2,120,353 acres unsurveyed; total subject to entry, 6,849,065 acres; 3,280 acres reserved; 676,655 acres appropriated.

Eddy County: 1,769,410 acres surveyed; 2,252,741 acres unsurveyed; total subject to entry, 4,022,151 acres; area reserved, 6,300 acres; appropriated, 291,549 acres. Guadalupe County, of which only a small part is in the district: 6,930 acres still subject to entry, all surveyed; appropriated, 1,280 acres.

Lincoln County: 2,596,667 acres surveyed; 110,670 acres unsurveyed; total still subject to entry, 2,707,337 acres; area reserved, 106,924 acres; area appropriated, 361,739

acres.

Otero County, which is only partly in the district: Surveyed, 50,192 acres; unsurveyed, 1,377,549 acres; total subject to entry, 1,427,747 acres; area reserved, 208,440 acres; area appropriated, 15,183 acres.

Valencia County, only in part in the district: Still subject to entry, 145,200 acres, all surveyed; area appropriated, 12,800 acres.

This land is to be had by complying with the United States land laws, much of it being contiguous to water and desirable for colonization purposes when ditches and water storage reservoirs are provided. The land-grant question is no longer a bugaboo in New Mexico, and through the action of the land court titles to vast tracts have been cleared up and settled. Something over a million acres have been confirmed by the courts to private ownership, while on the other hand a much larger acreage has been rejected, so far as the grant claimants. are concerned, and the land added to the public domain subject to entry. Timber lands in New Mexico are what might be called dirt cheap. They can be purchased from $1.50 to $3 per acre. In California timber lands are now worth $18 per acre. In a decade New Mexico timber lands will be quadrupled in price.

UNITED STATES LAND DISTRICTS.

New Mexico is divided into four Government land districts, as follows:

1. Santa Fe district.-Office at Santa Fe, comprising the country bounded on the west by Arizona, on the north by Colorado, on the south by the base line of the Territory, on the east by the range line between ranges 24 and 25 east, of the principal meridian of New Mexico.

2. Clayton district.-Office at Clayton, Union County, comprising the remaining portion of the Territory north of the base line, and from the above range line east to the boundary of the Territory, bounded on the north by Colorado and on the east by the Texas Panhandle.

3. Las Cruces district.-Office at Las Cruces, Dona Ana County, comprising the country bounded on the north by the base line, on the west by Arizona, on the south by Mexico and Texas to the range line between ranges 14 and 15 east, on the east by the old western boundary of Lincoln County.

4. Roswell district.-Office at Roswell, Chaves County, comprising the remaining eastern portion of the Territory south of the base line, and bounded on the east and south by the State of Texas.

HOW TO MAKE LAND ENTRIES.

To acquire a portion of the public domain of the United States for farming purposes a person must possess certain qualifications. He or