Santa Fe weekly gazette. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 185?-1859, 1857-07-11

EDIroRs SANTA FE GAZETTE - l.u....
am afraid some Of your readers, who al
ways think Of New Mexico as "tod for
gotten" country Il hope though they uro tew)
will think am laboring under some sort Of
mania, when they iud me SO pften dwelling
on the agricuItayGI capabilities ofNew Mex.
leo. Ii am mistaken in that idea, ii is at
any rate harmless and pleasant dolusion.
But | think am not mistaken when | speak
of agriculture in reference to your Territory;
| use the term in its largest sense, as dIsLln.
tinguished from mining and manuiActur-
ing ! use it as expressive Of what pertains
to the growth and gathering ofwhat springs
more Or less directly from the soil So using
it, treat wool, wine and silk as agricultural
products; although both wine and silk are in
u certain sense the product Of manufacturing
industry. Now who will say there are not
many solid reasons for asserting that New
Mexico can become great wool, wine and
silk exporting country!
New Mexico is to considerable extent
desert upon which husbaudry would try its
hand in vain. 1t is not such desert howev-
er becauseit altogether backs soil. AT great
way-thc fatal one as regards tillage--is
the absence Of Seasonabe rains; were it as
seasonably watered irom the heavens Us Mis-
souri, is, | think it not improbable that itS
products might one day rival those ofMiSsouri
We must consider tue Territory therefore for
the most part US irrcclaimablc by the plough.
But it is not agriculturally considered to DO
given up as useless for al that, Much Of this
desert land is good pastoral region. viii
some good Judge in tic matter sit down and
calculate how many sheep Gun probably DO
sustained on those hills and mesas Of New
Mexico, which are totally unfit for tillage?
That must be great sheep country, where
the greatest hockS have been and 10 this day
are owned. What monarch among sheep
raisers would not Don Francisco Chavez have
been among the wooden lords Of Saxony and
Spain will not myself enter into the cal.
culation. But can lorcS9c supposipg your
country secure from Indian deprcdationS, and
the proper enterprise and industry were call
ed into action, thousands Of sheep upon thou.
sands of hills. OF course, nobody disputes
that New Mexico is a splendid sheepgrowing
country, and there is no reason why she
could not bcproliic in the finest OfwoOls as
well as in those coarse products OF the fleece
which is all she now raises in that way.
Sheep, we know thrive admirably in New
Mexico, They are subject to fewer diseases
than they are in other regions. They thrive
because they get with you the pasturage that
is best suited to keep them in good condition;
and because Of the dry, moderately warm,
serene climate you enjoy, now the climate
which is so favorable to the sheep. must
believe, equally so to the vineyard and the
silk worm. Many Of us have eaten grapes
grown in New Mexico and those grown in
Ohio and Missouri, and we know that the
grapes of your Territory are far superior to
those raised in the Mississippi valley Yet
our st. Louis wine manufacturers think they
are performing wonders in turning your gra-
pes into wine. Such grapes as you raise now,
and such as you might raise, would furnish q
wine, with which our best CatawbaS would
not begin to compare. Ii there is any reason
to be given, why New Mexico cannot produce
fine light wines, rivalling them, will not say
of Missouri, but Of Europe, at that reason be
known, do not believe any such reason ex,
lists.
Well, then, as to the silk. Why not silk I
The sauc climate which is so favorable to
the other products iavorS this also. The
Mulberry must flourish with you, if you cdlti-
ya.e it. The dry, warm, serene weather
which prevails with you ensures to the silk
worm health as good as the airs Of south
ern France could possibly do must insist
that, as the lawyers say, the case for silk cul'
tvation in New Mexico is made out ca face,
| | shall believe until proof is shown to tbecon-
trary, that, for all there may be in your soil
II