148 NATURAL RESOURCES SURVEY 



the state moderate winters and warmers summer are the rule 

 with occasional rainfall. In the southern one fourth of the 

 state very equable winters and hot summer make possible 

 all kinds of fruit growing and raising of garden products, as 

 for example the peach industry of the Pecos River valley 

 and the cantaloupes of the Mesilla Park district. Here and 

 there over the entire state protected valleys help locally to 

 change the general order of the climate, while elevation con- 

 trols directly the amount of rainfall, and the topography and 

 character of the soil determine the amount of run-off. 



The year of 1911 has been a phenominally humid one in this 

 territory. The driest and most unproductive areas of the state 

 have thisyear raised considerable vegetation besides the usual 

 cactus and Russian thistles. The higher land from the Rio 

 Grande, on, to, and over, the Continental Divide has been cov- 

 ered this year with an abundance of grass. Over these 

 mesas there is generally not enough rainfall to cause any 

 appreciable amount of grass to grow. It has been otten the 

 case for weeks at a time during the growing season of 1911 

 that irrigation in the valley has been entirely unnecessary. 

 High plateaus and mountains are generally the recipierts 

 of more rainfall than the neighboring low lands, and because 

 of this fact the highest .uplands and especially the moun- 

 tainous tracts, are often heavily forested, and many such 

 areas belong to forest~reserves. The Zuni Plateau and the 

 Chivote Mesa are very good illustrations of the first example 

 of the most humid areas of the state, and any of the higher 

 mountain ranges such as the Sandias and the Manzanos are 

 examples of the second. Because of these facts the higher 

 lands which are now forested should early receive all neces- 

 sary protection not only from fires but also from injudicious 

 cutting of timber, which is sure to take place as the country 

 develops and this class of lands pass from land grants into 

 private hands. If cutting of timber is allowed to go on over 

 these areas and their elevated slopes areallowed to be laid bare 

 to the weather, not only will they be denuded of all remaining 

 ****** vegetation, but irrigation dams and lakes far down 

 the valley which receive their drainage, will be silted up and 

 their purprses defeated. It is an undoubted fact that forests 

 and vegetation effects rainfall, therefore, protected forests 



