630 



NEW MEXICO. 



education in the district. A growing interest 

 is being manifested by all the people of the 

 Territory in educational matters. The Span- 

 ish-speaking portion of the people especially 

 exhibit a marked anxiety that their children 

 shall be educated in the English language. 

 There are still some defects in the existing 

 system, both in the text and in the methods 

 of execution, for which the Governor suggests 

 remedies to the Legislature. 



Debt, Taiation, and Resources. The total tax- 

 ation for all purposes, Territorial and county, 

 is less than 2 per cent., and three mills on the 

 dollar of that is for public - school purposes. 

 The funded debt of the Territory is $350,000 ; 

 for Capitol and Penitentiary buildings, and the 

 floating debt probably $100,000. But few of 

 the counties have indebtedness of any con- 

 siderable amount, and generally for necessary 

 public buildings. The increase of taxable 

 property during the past year is about $7,- 

 500,000, the amount of assessment for 1886 

 being $56,000,000. 



Live-Stock. The following table gives the 

 number of horses, cattle, and sheep assessed 

 in the various counties during the year : 



Droughts and Floods. The Governor, in his re- 

 port to the Secretary of the Interior, dated Oc- 

 tober 6, says : " During the first half of this 

 calendar year New Mexico, in common with 

 the West generally, was afflicted with unusual 

 drought, and serious damage was sustained by 

 the cattle industry, especially, from the insuf- 

 ficiency of grass on the ranges and of water in 

 the springs and smaller streams. Agriculture 

 and mining also suffered, though in a much 

 less degree, from the scarcity of water. Since 

 early in July, however, the usual beginning of 

 what is known as the rainy season, the rains 

 have been unusually abundant in all parts of 

 the Territory. Feed on the ranges is good, 

 with stock-water in good supply and conven- 

 ient, and stock is rapidly getting into excel- 

 lent condition for winter. Agriculture, too, 

 has been equally benefited, and crops of all 

 kinds will be fully up to the average in qual- 

 ity and yield per acre, while the acreage has 

 been largely increased over that of any former 

 year. The rains have, in some parts of the 

 Territory, resulted in disastrous floods, doing 

 great damage to roads and bridges and other 

 property, especially to railroads. Many miles 

 of railroad have been broken by these sudden 



freshets, and portions of track washed entirely 

 away or submerged in the quicksands of the 

 streams they crossed or bordered. 



"In these meteorological conditions for the 

 year, and the resulting floods, lie an admo- 

 nition and a lesson which should not be for- 

 gotten, and which pointedly illustrate the 

 need of some effective plan of storing the 

 surplus waters, briefly suggested in my re- 

 port of last year. A system of storage-basins 

 at the heads of the several streams of the 

 Territory, especially the Rio Grande, for 

 which the numerous canons and arroyas are 

 excellently adapted, would save a vast amount 

 of water, sufficient to irrigate not only the 

 river valley proper but also the mesas or up- 

 lands bordering and overlooking it, practically 

 to the foot of the chains of mountains on 

 either side, running parallel therewith. This 

 would reduce to cultivation many millions of 

 acres of productive land, now barren and 

 desolate for the lack of water, much the 

 larger portion of which is still public land 

 and the property of the Government." 



Rainfall. The following table indicates for 

 Santa Fe, not only the yearly rainfall, but the 

 number of days in each year on which there 

 was any rain or snow : 



According to the official figures, the city has 

 never, during the past five years, gone longer 

 at any time without rain than seventeen days. 

 These figures would seem to warrant two 

 highly important deductions: that in New 

 Mexico the rainfall is not only increasing 

 from year to year, but shows a marked im- 

 provement in the manner of distribution as 

 relates to time. The average rainfall from 

 1870 till 1885, inclusive, was 15-3 inches at 

 Fort Bayard, in the southwest; 16'74 at Fort 

 Union, in the north ; and 15*52 at Fort Win- 

 gate, in the west. At Fort Stanton, in the 

 southeast, the average was about the same. 



The End of Indian Depredations. After the be- 

 ginning of April, when Gen. Nelson A. Miles 

 assumed command of the military department, 

 there was not a single instance of depredation 

 by hostile Indians upon life or property in the 

 Territory. During the year prior to that date 

 not less than one hundred people had been mur- 

 dered, and many thousands of dollars in prop- 

 erty had been destroyed. These murders were 

 accompanied by horrible atrocities, till a panic 

 pervaded the southwestern portion of the Ter- 

 ritory. Every description of business was stag- 

 nant, and the people remote from the larger 

 settlements were abandoning their homes and 



