The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1905-06-06
THE PECOS VALLEY.

Of alfalfa (owned by J. J. Hagerman)
was $4,000, or nearly $50 per acre.
1t has been demonstrated by promi-
may be fattened for the market on
alfalfa, and present as sleek and
smooth appearance as the granted
ones of the North.
Kafir corr and Milo Maize are ex-
tensively cultivated, and may be
counted on to produce from thirty to
fifty bushels of shelled corn per acre.
Three to five tons of fodder may be
counted on to the acre from the KAT
fir corn; the leaves of he stalk, which
are abundant, remain fresh and green
after the grain is ripe. and do not
change to the coarse, woody fibre
common to the stalks of other grain.
This is a act peculiar to this sec
tion of h country, and one that the
farmer and stock raiser will be quick
to note the value of. A full crop of
grain a be harvested and then. If
the stalks are cut directly. a rich
yield of fodder may be had for the
mere taking. The average price paid
per ton for these two grains, when
threshed, is $13 and SIS, or SO per ton
when delivered in the head from the
field.
the southern portion of the Valley
have exceeded ever the hopes of the
most sanguine. In quality it equaled
the best grade of Texas black-land
cotton. and the demand for it has ex-
ceeded the supply. Cotton rotates well
with corn as a crop, for it does not
exhaust the soil. The seed is a vall-
BILE item, and its successful cultiva-
ton would, it is deemed, add much
to the prosperity of the Valley.
Sweet potatoes, cabbage, caulif1ow-
err, beets. turnips, squash, onions, to-
matoes, peppers, melons, and aspara-
gus grow to perfection, while the
fame of the Pecos Valley celery
grows steadily. Forty-five thousand
pounds of onions to the acre has been
the yield of certain sections south of
Carlsbad, and cabbage has netted per
acre as high as s120. The commercial
fruits of the United States are the
apple. the peach. the pear, the Euro
pean class of plums and prunes, and
the California class of grapes. They
have all flourished in the PecOs Val
ley and are yearly, by their excel
lence, adding to it's f~ar-reaching fame.
The climatic conditions are such IS
render blight and the usual scOurges
in the way of pests lmost unheard
of, and no fruit from any quarter of
the country reaches the market in a
condition to rank with it. This fact,
of course, must in justice be acknowl-
edged as due in no small measure to
the facilities and rapid Transports
ton furnished by the Santa Fe rail
road. which acknowledgment does
rot detract from the qualities men
toned as characteristic of the fruit
raised in this section of the country.
Sheep raising on alfalfa has long
passed the experimental stage. Two
years G the sheep IN the counties
of Eddy and Chaves numbered two
Il tu aIu
and the yield of wool averages in to-
tai shipments each season, from the
two named counties, over 1000. 900
pounds. The raising of lambs for
the spring markets is an industry ex-
t~ensively carried on by a few people
who are not always able to supply
the demands of the Eastern markets.
The first occupation of the Pecos
Valley by men who came to use the
land by irrigation occurred consider
ably less than twenty years ago. In
every irrigated country the land that
is once given water and placed d
at once become valuable, |
but bearing a price that seems high |
only to those who are accustomed 10 |
values under ordinary circum-
stances in rainfall farming regions.
Much-most-of the land in this "a.
nous Valley is still relatively cheap
bought as wild" land, and
while it still lacks the 1aterals, the
wells. the fences, the houses,
and the orchards that will one day
soon make it like the striking and
beautiful gardens that line the Val
l-y for many miles together.
For Rent.