The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-08-26
ALBUQUERQUE.
ROMANTIC SURROUNDINGS OF A
NEW MEXICAN TOWN. "
Rare Picturesquesness Of the Rio
Grande-A Fine Region for
the Cultivation of Fine
ly Flavored Fruits. !.

The new town is built after themodern
fashion, its main streets-Railroad and
Gold avenues-with their substantial
business blocks, presenting the usual ap-
pearance of thriving young Western
city. All the principal streets are graded
and provided with sidewalks. Many
important additions and improvements
have been made during the past year,
including the expenditure OF $50,00 by
the city government IN beginning COM
plete sewer system for the town. In Al
buquerque are held the sittings of the
District Court of the Second Judicial
District and the United States Court!
The courthouse in the old town, d
modern and handsome building, contrasts
oddly with the vista OF antique portals
which front the street, with Windmill
in the background.
The scenery about Albuquerque Is
strange and picturesque. Eastward
mesa ten miles in width extends south
erly, parallel with the river, between the
valley and the mountain bases. In the
northeast the lofty oblong SUBMITS Of
the Sandia (Watermelon) Mountains rise
above this tablc-land, their rocky, partly
timbered sides revealing in the after.
noon sun varied hues of blue, brown,
red and gray. South of the Sandals lies
lower range of mountains through
which Tijeras, Coyote, and He'll canons
afford passage from the eastern plains
down to the valley and its city among
the sands, and to the southeast OF these
mountains rise the far-off crests of the
Manzana range. The western bank Of
the long southwark stretch of river ID
marked Dy low rolling bluffs, back of
which rise from the plain the peaks Of
the detached mountain group, the La
drones, a rendezvous in former times for
robbers. Westward o chain of brown
hills breaks the view, and in the north
west are seen, blue in the distance, the
San Mateo and Jemez Mountains.
Rising among the mountains Of Colo.
RADIO, at an altitude of II, ,920 feet, the
Rio Grande, on its way to the Gulf of,
Mexico, flows through New Mexico from
north to south-a distance of 800 miles,
measured on the meridian, with fall of
2200 feet in that extent. Much of its
volume oozes under ground, percclating
the sands, so that water may be found
anywhere in the valley by digging to the
depth of the rivers surface. In the
spring and summer overaows its muddy
current deposits in the valley sediment
of volcanic, granite, and silicious soil,
forming alluvial bottom lands of great
depth and inexhaustible fertility.
The Rio Grande in its landscape
setting has rare picturesqueness as un-,
usual and individual as that associated
with the scenery Of the Nile Valley.
Along its waters, deriving their susie
nance from fields enriched by its over,
flow, are Spanish-American and Indian
villages of low rectangular adobe houses
about the quaint massive church stand
ing against a background of mesas,
mountains and sand-hills. The stretch
of thick, muddy water, with its distant
sheens of blue and silver, winds its long
way amid prevailing gray and red land
scape tints interspersed with the deep
green of cottonwood groves and low
thickets which fringe its banks, and the
lighter verdure of growing crops. Mud
walled fields and gardens, irrigated by
means of rude bitches which conduct the
water from the acequia madre, or main
ditch, leading from the river, surround
the adobe houses scattered along the
valley.
The vine and fruit lands along the
river begin at short distance above the
town of Bernalillo, seventeen miles north
of Albuquerque, and from that point
southwark are many orchards and vine
yards new and old. Apples, pears,
ounces, apricota, peaches and plums
have been abundantly raised here, with
little care, by the native inhabitants since
the first settlement of the country by
Europeans, and now all the small fruits
are successfully cultivated. Especially
is this part of New Mexico favorable to
vineyard culture, and the grape of the
Rio Grande Valley will compare favor.
ably in juiciness, sweetness, and flavor
with the product of any other locality in
the world. The variety most generally
cultivated IS the Mission grape, intro
duced at an early period by franciscan
friars, but the Muscatel and other kinds
of recent introduction are also found.
By the aid of irrigation every plant OF
the temperate zone may be successfully
raised in the Rio Grande Valley. Corn
and wheat yield abuudautly, and oats,
barley, beans, and alfalfa are staple
crops. Vegetables of all kinds grow "
great size, and are excellent of quality.
An the New Mexican fruits are of fine
flavor, and they bring much higher
price in market than the similar Cali
fornia productions. .--Ha'pers Weekly.
k,sa AZ