Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1906-02-08
Since Organization
Are Now Pour
ing Into
RICH ROOSEVELT COUNTY
Railroad Opening Land to
Improvement and Cultiva.
tion-..Good Crops.
'pecial to- the New Mexican.

~,pccldl TO Ine New Mexican.
Portales, Roosevelt County, Jan. T.
i Roosevelt County is just now re-
i'oeiying the greatest influx of settlers
since its organization
Three principal reasons may be
stated as the rause of so many peo-
pie coming into this area;
First. The large area of free pub.
lie lands subject to homestead and
desert land entry Roosevelt County
embraces an area, for the most part
of level prairie land, bearing a good
growth of mesquite and grama
grasses, and having a deep, sandy,
loamy soil, easy of cultivation, pre-.
senting to the prospective farmer an
attractive location.
New Railroad.
Second. The building of the East.
ern Railway Of New Mexico through
the county east and west from TexicO,
On the east line, to Sumner on the
west line. AT the time of the com.
mencement of grade work on this rail.
way line, in midsummer, 1905, only a
part of the land in the township just
vest from Texico had been filed upon.
The railroad extending over free gov.
ernment land, took advantage of the
provision Of the United States law and
reserved twenty acres for switch area
at practically every 10 miles of the road,
thus giving the locating settlers as
surance of convenient depot and
shipping station, as well as the pros.
pect of being near postotilce and
town. Adding the foregoing to the
lG?ther and third cause, to-wit, that
the people already here, engaged in
farming can show for the year 1905 a
product of agriculture quite as good
as that produced in areas further east
and north, where prices of lands and
rents are high and here is a reason
able cause for, the unprecedented in.
flow of settlers.
Already along the line of the East
ern Railway Of New Mexico town.
sites have been laid out, notably at
Newman, sixteen miles west of Tex.
leo, to which from Texico the public
lands have been filed upon solidly, for
several miles north and south of the
railway. At Brownhorn, thirty-five
miles west of Texico, where the lands
are now being taken up, postofilce
and general merchandise store have
been established, and at Sumner,
sixty-three miles west of Texico,
where there is an ideal prospect for
the building of a town, 100 acres have
been subdivided into town lots, and.
although track laying has not yet
reached that point, the promoters are
active in advertising the place and
lots will be be on sale within ten days
Vacant Lands.
From few miles west of Newman
to Sumner in Roosevelt County, and
beyond in Guadalupe County, there
are vacant lands on either side of the
line of the railroad subject to entry
as homesteads, and 1t Is these lands
that are now being located and en-
tered. Applications to file are taken
at the county seat, Portales, where
frequently as many as twenty appli.
cations are taken in single day, and
whole townships of land that but a
short while ago were practically va.
cant are now covered solidly with fl.
lngs. Last week in one day at the
same time fifty-nine homeseekers set
out along the line from Texico hunt.
ing locations, some of these, of course,
found suitable lands few miles out
from Texico, some near Newman, and
some in the vicinity of Sumner.
Sumner Is practically new town
in a new country, but town and
country that give promise Of rapid
growth and development. Situated in
proximity to the Pecos River upon a
UCdulIlul GACfuliOlIp p1OlCSLCu VA WAC
north by range of mountains, the
level and fertile valleys OF the Tiaban
and Pecos extend east, west and
south for miles around with scarcely
an occupant, lands that are as fer.
tile as are any in the far-famed Ros-
well District of the Pecos.
F.g
Await Development.
All these lands await occupancy
and development for orchard and farm
and city, in climate unsurpassed
anywhere in New Mexico. In the older
parts Of the county. at and in the
neighborhood Of Elida, Bethel, Por-
tales, Arch, Floyd and other settle.
ments. development goes on rapidly,
lands change hands with great fre-
Quency and new filings are made Of
free" lands further out, so that all
lines Of business are active and pros.
porous.
Several farmers have told the writer