great satisfaction to the residents of the city and county, and they compare favorably with the best public schools in Eastern communities. East Las Vegas is an incorporated city and has but one school district, under the management of a board of trustees. Las Vegas proper, which is not incorporated, has two school districts, whose destinies are looked after by various school directors. The directors availed themselves of the law of 1890 and voted school bonds for the erection of school buildings, each district now boasting of three-story white sandstone edifices adequate to accommodate a city of twice the population of Las Vegas and handsome enough to grace any community in the United States. The buildings cost $12,000 and $14,500, respectively. The average enrollment of pupils is 300.

East Las Vegas possesses the distinction of being the first community in New Mexico to erect a public school building by a special tax voted on themselves by the people. In 1889 the town council, in the absence of a law permitting the issue of bonds by school districts, built a schoolhouse under the general law permitting incorporated towns to issue bonds for public buildings. The schoolhouse was originally erected of white sandstone at a cost of $15,000, and during the past year it has been enlarged commensurate with the needs of the city, and the value of the property enhanced fully $10,000. In 1891 the school opened with an enrollment of 250 pupils and a faculty of 5, since which time it has grown until the enrollment of pupils is now over 700 and the faculty increased to 12. Lack of room has necessitated the use of the city hall buildings in connection with the school building, hence the imperative necessity for enlarging the school building proper and for erecting another building of even more magnificent proportions than the old edifice, which were completed in January, 1902. This building is located in the most desirable residence portion of East Las Vegas, and is being built of red sandstone at a cost of $25,000.

During the past seven years the high school has graduated with distinction 60 young men and women of the city. Recently the high school was amalgamated with the academic department of the New Mexico Normal University, the latter getting six model schools of different grades and leaving the high school confined to the first eight grades.

The New Mexico Normal University, which commands an eminence in the center of East Las Vegas, is a source of great pride to the Territory as well as the city. It was created by legislative act, in 1893, as a normal school, and has since attained the dignity of a university by reason of its superior faculty and because of the earnest efforts put forth in behalf of the institution by the board of regents. For a period of four years the regents wisely husbanded the accumulating funds, and were finally enabled, with the assistance of a number of publicspirited citizens, to erect a building, at a cost of $50,000, which is in every way adapted to the purposes designed. The university building is conceded to be the most beautiful public building in the Territory. It is a three-story structure, built of purple sandstone produced by the Las Vegas quarries, and above the third story is a commodious attic, divided into two large and amply lighted rooms, which will be utilized for a museum and gymnasium. The assembly room of the university has a seating capacity of 400, and the institution has equipment and room for the accommodation of 400 pupils. As to furnishings, the building is fitted with every known modern convenience, being

heated by steam and scientifically ventilated. Electric lights, an excellent water system, and sanitary plumbing insure ideal conditions for the school. The institution is served with a faculty of 6 professors and 6 teachers. The enrollment of pupils will this fall reach 200.

To summarize, San Miguel County possesses 80 district schools, 3 private schools, 4 sectarian schools, and 6 public schools, with a total enrollment of 4,500, 122 teachers, and $250,510 invested in school properties.

Persons having children to educate, and who contemplate coming to this region for health or investment, need have no fear that inferior advantages will be provided. The legal school age is from 5 to 21 years, inclusive, but the average attendance is practically from 7 to 17.

AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES.

Nowhere in the Territory have the agricultural resources greater possibilities than here. In many sections of the county crop raising without irrigation is perfectly feasible, and in other portions, where the dip of the land is such that irrigation must be adopted, the application of water is a comparatively easy task, because of the abundance of the innumerable waterways which drain the county.

Relative to the agricultural conditions of the county, Capt. W. C. Reid states for the 1900 report of the governor:

"The greatest of all needs of San Miguel County is farmers. Of merchants, lawyers, doctors, politicians, middlemen, statesmen, etc., the supply is fully equal to the present demand; but the farmer, the basis of development and the foundation stone and superstructure of all public prosperity, individual, local, State, and national-the man who tills the soil in rational, intelligent, and successful ways-is the man needed here.

"The native population of the county are natural sheepmen and cattlemen, and devote all their attention to these profitable industries. In many instances they have their homes located in rich valleys capable of producing large and paying crops, but at the same time import their corn and flour from the Middle States.

"In San Miguel County there are valleys with ample water, if intelligently used, to supply with wheat, oats, corn, and hay a population of 200,000 people, yet for a lack of farmers there are on an average of 12 carloads of flour, 3 of corn, and 5 of oats shipped into the county per month the year round. This is the natural result of the condition of our industries. The cattle and sheep men are not producers of hay, grain, and fruits, nor do they even raise garden truck, but they buy oats by the ton, and they buy bacon, garden products, and fruit. The miners who delve for coal, copper, silver, and gold are many, and they buy imported products at good prices.'

The observations of Captain Reid are, unfortunately, too true, and the condition is slow in changing, for the tide of immigration does not flow so swiftly toward New Mexico as it does toward the blizzardstricken Dakotas and the sun-baked Kansas. And yet it has been repeatedly demonstrated that agriculture on almost any scale will pay handsome returns. The Gallinas Canal and Water Storage and Irrigation Company, capitalized for $10,000, furnishes a startling object esson of the feasibility of reclaiming land by simple irrigation methods. A main ditch is conducted 3 miles out from the Gallinas River,

From

supplying a natural reservoir covering 34 acres of ground. this reservoir, by ditches and laterals, water is conveyed to the several farms lining the system, each having a private reservoir which is fed from the river in the flood season, and which is capable of irrigating its respective tract two or three times during the dry season. Under this system about 1,500 acres of waterless uplands have been reclaimed for agriculture. The farms watered in this manner adjoin the city of Las Vegas and vary in size from 12 to 450 acres, the small tracts being sufficient to supply the needs of small families.

Irrigation on a much larger scale will doubtless some day be practiced in the immediate vicinity of Las Vegas. A few miles north of town is a large basin, about 30 miles in circumference, into which can be emptied the flood waters of three rivers, together with the drainage of an immense watershed, and from which, by the construction of proper dams and canals, water may be conveyed upon at least 100,000 acres of productive land. An abundance of local capital will be found available to take up the matter of irrigation on such scale as soon as the Las Vegas land grant is settled as to title and an opportunity is thus afforded capital to reap returns in the way of large landholdings from their investment. When this happy state of affairs is brought into existence the population of San Miguel County will be augmented fully 20,000.

Experiments made on the suitability of this climate for growing corn bring the following results: Australian, white flint, 60 bushels to the acre; Leaming, yellow dent, 55 bushels; King Philip, red flint, 50 bushels; Longfellow, yellow flint, 55 bushels; Angel of Midnight, yellow flint, 60 bushels.

Alfalfa yields three cuttings per season, aggregating about five tons. The average value of the product is $10 per ton. After thorough seeding it lasts indefinitely, the root nodules of the plant constantly enriching the soil by supplying necessary oxygen.

Experiments made in vegetable raising have been prolific of as good results as those of producing grain. One year's crop of vegetables on less than 6 acres of ground resulted in 11,183 pounds of beets, 46,537 pounds of cabbage, 2,960 pounds of carrots, 2,800 pounds of parsnips, 2,226 pounds of onions, 1,022 pounds of cauliflower, 1,049 pounds of turnips, 184 pounds of string beans, 936 pounds of cucumbers, 10 pounds of lettuce, 21 pounds of Javas, 40 pounds of green peas, 600 roasting ears of corn, 100 pounds of rhubarb, 600 pounds of celery, 26 pounds of beans, 2,186 pounds of corn in the ear, 3,000 pounds of oats in sheaves, and 5,600 pounds of shock fodder, a total of 81,800 pounds of product, valued at $2,050. This from 6 acres of ground which a short time previously had been a barren hillside.

Beets weighing 14 pounds, cabbages 36, and turnips 4, were common features of the crop. From 1 ounce of seed 1,000 pounds of sugar beets were raised. Celery weighing 4 pounds to the stalk and a dozen bunches weighing as much as five dozen bunches of the Kalamazoo product, four cabbages which weighed 137 pounds, two more that weighed 75 pounds, and sugar beets planted June 1 and tested in January which gave 15 per cent of sugar and 84.7 purity, were the results of another practical gardener's experiments. Potatoes in the higher mountain valleys give, without irrigation, a yield unexcelled in quality, size, and quantity by any country in the world.

As an evidence of the remunerative features of farming and garden