New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1917-01-05

tensive improvements to the govern
ment irrigation system have promis
ed efficiency and increased the acre
age under cultivation. At Las Vegas
good progress was made on an ir
riration project that will reclaim /;
portion of the Las Vegas grant anc
will place that section on basi.
OF permanent prosperity. Elsewhere
/ irrigation projects outlined year!
ago, are on the point of becoming
rea tiles.
In the dry farming sections of
eastern New Mexico, as well as por.
tions of central and northern New
Mexico, success has been almost
| phenomenal In such counties as
Curry and Quay practically every
available acre of hometead lands has
been taken up and the total crop
production is far beyond anything
that was deemed possible years ago
Crop adaptation is being reduced to
the certainty OF a scence and such
agencies as the State College and
the Tucumcari experiment stations
ale pointing the way to success on
lands which a decade ago were deem
ed in only for grazing and that only
at the rate of one steer to forty
acres Unexpected wealth has been
ecoyered in beans and potatoes, as
well a. such dry farm crops as kaf-
iir corn, milo maize, millet. broom
corl fcterita, bear grass. The Es-
tan'ia valley, for instance, practical
ly abandoned a few years ago after
the new homesteaders had been al
most ruined by crop failures, tbs
year made wealth for many farmers,
so tlat scores OF automobiles, sever
al new banks, and prosperous settle
ments are evidences of prosperity.
Cotton is now grown as far north
as Quay county. Dairying and poul-
try farming have added stability to
dry farm enterprises. The school
census this year shows that the ten
eastern counties today have 10000
persons of school census age, as
against $4,000 in the sixteen central
and western counties. Twenty years
ago, those same ten eastern coun-
ties had school census OF less than
10000 and forty years ago were
practically uninhabited.
Something like 100000 acres were
filed upon by entrymen during the
year and millions of acres Of state
lands were sold or leased Still,
there remain something like 270O0,-
600 acres of pubic lands to be filed
upon and more than 100000 acres
OF state lands that may be leaed or
purchased.
Ten years ago, the total of pro-
ducts of the farm scarcely reached
$l0,000,000, today they exceed $40,-
100000. With the increase in pro-
duction, also come better organiza-
ton for marketing, and strang, to
say, better prices. 1t also means
more schools, churches, post offices,
towns, telephones and the good roads,
all of which help to make rural life,
even on the arid plains and mesas,
more comfort; bic and agreeable.
Mining.
Great as has been the improve
ment and increase in agricultural ac-
tivities, New Mexico this year re-
cords an equally as marvellous grow
tn in mineral production. Ten years
ago, the State produced altogether
less than $4,000 worth of metal and
mineral. This year. the production
reached the $4s,OOO,0O0 mark, plac-
ing New Mexico not far from the
head among the mining states of the
Union. This, of course is due, to
a large extent to the wonderful sue
cess of the Chino Copper Company
in Grant county and the better prices
that prevailed. The coal mines in
creased their output. both in Colfax
and in Mckinley counties, and the
production would have been still
greater IL men to mine the coal had
been obtainable.
That the phenomenal production
of this year, is not a mere squirt, is
indicated by the reports of the Unit
ed States Geological Survey and the
immense development work. that is
in progress. New life, for instance
is to come in 1917 to the famous
Cerrillos lead-silver-zinc field and
within the next few months a large
concentrator and smelter will be
built at Waldo near Cerrillos to
treat the zinc ores Of the Cash Entry
and other almost as well known
mines.
The Chino Company will have a
rival in production from now in the
Phelps Dodge Company, which is de-
veloping copper and other deposit.
on a gigantic scale in the Burro a:
we'll as the Organ mountains. How
thoroughly this company goes at thu
work is demonstrated at the mining
camp of Tyrone in the Burro mount
aims. In order to make it a mode
camp and at the same time the mos
beautiful in the world, the Phelps
Dodge people engaged Architec
Goodhue, who is responsible for the
beauty of the San Diego Exposition
to plan the new town. He laid u
out in accordance with the lines o
the New Mexico style of architect
ure, after studying the Palace ant
the new Museum at Santa Fe ant
the New Mexico Building at Sar
Diego. The effect is striking ane
charming.
The Mogp,lons were again tn,
principal geld producers, although
remoteness from the nearest railroad
20 miles, will prevent that regior
reaching its maximum production
for some years to come. Copta>
county is once more second in gol'
production and that through reviva
of operations on one mine. the Az
tee which is located near the SUNNI
of Mount Baldy, the highest produc
tive mine int the state. 1t is proving
a veritable Golconda.
Systematic exploration for OF
has been begun in a scientific way
Oil indications exist in many coun
ties of the state The Toltec Oi
Company, however. is the first, t
take up prospecting and exploration