New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1917-04-06
TWO BIG SALES
OF STATE LAND
HELD THIS week
STATE RECEIVES OVER TEN
THOUSAND DOLLARS
AROVE MINIMUM PRICE AT
SANTA ROSA AND TUCUH-
Carl SALES

Thirty tracts of New Mexico State
land. totaling 1868 acres, the tracts
ranging in area from 40 to 1000
acres, were sold at public auctions
ia Santa Rosa, Guadalupe county,
and Tucumcari, Quay county, ON
Tuesday and Wednesday of this
week BY state land commissioner
Robert P. Ervien, with active bid
ding for practically every tract Of
ferred. Eleven of the tracts sold
lie in Guadalupe county and nine
teen in Quay county. With two
exceptions they are small tracts,
from 40 to $40 acres, and the large
majority of sales were to farmers
and stock-farmers who will put the
land into immediate use. Luther u.
Hudson, a farmer of Kirk, Quay
county, paid $12.55 IN acre for 64O-
acres, the highest price offered in
the two auctions and n of the
best prices ever paid for a tract OF
state land. Following the sale he
expressed satisfaction with his bar
gain. The next highest price was
N.55 an acre paid for 800 acres near
Nara Visa, Quay county, by. j., b.
Airheart, a stock-farmer OF that
place, who also bought a tract OF
1859 acres on his high bid of $3.50
an acre, or $l.30 an acre above the
minimum value al which the land
could be sold. All of the land in
these two sales were of the S. mi
nimum value. A number of the tracts
brought Sc, $3.50 and 81 an acre and
the state realized a gross total
the minimum value of $lO,S54., or a
trifle better than an average OF 81
an acre over the minimum va,ue.
Next to the fact that nearly all
these tracts were sold to farmers
and stock-farmers who expect to put
the land to immediate use, the fact
Of chief interest in the sales is the
large increase in interest shown ! n
the state land auctions and the
growth of the number of bidders
There were crowds at both Santa
Rosa, where the sale was held from
the front door of the court house,
and at Tucumcari where the bidders
packed the court room to its capa-
city. There is no boom in state land
values, the sales generally bringing
marker value of lands in private own
ership of similar location and
character; the bidding is done with
care and judgment, and generally
by men who have studied and are
familiar with the lands and their
capacities. There is little evidence
of speculative activity, although at
Santa Rosa, Morrow, a well known
LAWYER of Ration, N. NJ, was the
successful bidder an 400 acres. an
nouncing that he was bidding in be-
half of a syndicate of Colfax county
men who were believers in the future
values of the state lands.
The sales at Santa Rosa and Tu-
cumcari are the first of a number
of important April state land c
tions. the more important of which
occur at Clovis, Curry county on
April II, at Roswell, for lands in
Chaves county, April 10 and at Carls.
bad, for Eddy county tracts on April
q. The most important of the sales
will be that at Clayton, April Is when
90 tracts, ranging in area from 40
to $1,000 acres, will be sold. Practic-
al'y all of these lands are classed as
agricultural land. The sales will at
tract bidders from all parts OF the
west and at least n excursion of
bidders will be run from Denver.
To inform the bidders. accurately,
on values of land in New Mexico,
the state land office will offer an
illustrated lecturer in Clayton the
night before the sale. Col. X. E:
Twitche,'. of Santa Fe the well
known historian of New Mexico viii
be the lecturer. The lands in Union
county all are of the S. minimum
value.
The new thirty-year law for the
sale of state lands is adding material
" to demand. Under this law the
buyer must pay $50 of the purchase
price in each. He may carry the
remaining $3.50 for thirty years, if
he desires, paying 4% interest an
nua1ly in advance on deferred nav
men+s. Under the cd law 1929 OF the
purchase price required in cash, the
balance in thirty equal annual pay
ments. with 4% interest on deferred
payments. The new law is favorable
to the buyer and is regarded as
satisfactory to the state which is
secured by the land Itself. while the
buyer assumes taxes from date OF
purchase