

NEW MEXICO. 



631 



enterprises. But the policy of Gen. Miles, 

 which resulted in the expulsion from the south- 

 west of every element of Indian hostility, re- 

 established confidence and safety throughout 

 that region. 



Agricultural Development. Gratifying develop- 

 ments iu the agricultural capacities of the Ter- 

 ritory were made during the year. It has 

 been demonstrated that large portions of coun- 

 try, especially in the mountain districts, are 

 well adapted to the growing of small grains 

 and many varieties of vegetables without arti- 

 ficial irrigation. Thse crops have been thus 

 successfully cultivated at altitudes of from 5,000 

 to 8,000 feet^ and the yield has been as large 

 as the average yield of the Western States, 

 and very frequently much larger, especially of 

 wheat, barley, rye, oats, and potatoes. This 

 success is undoubtedly attributable to the in- 

 creased moisture incident to the altitude. At 

 all seasons of the year rains are much more 

 frequent in the mountains than in the valleys, 

 and this, together with the now established 

 fact that agriculture may be successfully fol- 

 lowed in these localities without the expense 

 and labor of irrigation, is bringing the mount- 

 ain-regions into much greater demand for ag- 

 ricultural purposes. A very active interest 

 has also been developed in the cultivation of 

 trees, especially in the cities and towns of the 

 Territory. 



Cultivation of Alfalfa. The cultivation of al- 

 falfa, or California clover, has during the year 

 become somewhat general, and is invariably 

 successful. This grass is harvested from two 

 to five times a year, according to latitude. The 

 average yield at each cutting is from 1 to 2 

 tons an acre. It sells at an average of $15 a 

 ton. Its capacity to withstand drought is some- 

 what remarkable after becoming well rooted, 

 and it does not ordinarily require reseeding 

 for from twenty to forty years, and is there- 

 fore a crop peculiarly adapted to a climate 

 like that of New Mexico. It is generally upon 

 the stock-ranges that the experiment of its 

 cultivation has been tried here, and it has been 

 so exceptionally successful that there is ev- 

 ery prospect that its cultivation will in due 

 time become general throughout the Territo- 

 ry. " The good results of its general cultiva- 

 tion/' says the Governor, " will become mani- 

 fest in several respects. It will improve the 

 quality and increase the quantity, and conse- 

 quently the value, of the meat product of the 

 ranges. It will increase the value of the land, 

 thereby making it more valuable for agricult- 

 ural than for grazing purposes. The result of 

 that will be the eventual breaking up of the 

 great cattle-ranges, and their division in small 

 farms, with smaller numbers and better grades 

 of cattle, and diversified products, till a ranch 

 of 10,000 acres, which now gives employment 

 to and supports perhaps fifty citizens of the 

 Territory, will be broken into perhaps fifty 

 times that number of farms and homes of fam- 

 ilies and a hundred times that number of peo- 



ple ; and people are worth more to the State 

 than steers. This is the great change that is 

 coming to New Mexico through this and simi- 

 lar agencies, inducing radical climatic changes, 

 slow but none the less inevitable, and acceler- 

 ated by artificial and natural methods. The 

 same causes have produced equally radical cli- 

 matic and industrial changes elsewhere, and 

 those causes are now at work here with equal 

 certainty of the same result." 



Land Titles. The Governor calls the atten- 

 tion of the department and of Congress to the 

 very urgent need of legislation for the settle- 

 ment of titles and claims to real and pretended 

 Spanish and Mexican grants in the Territory. 

 He says: 



" While there is here a vast area of public 

 land, embracing eligible locations for all pur- . 

 poses agricultural, mineral, grazing, and 

 otherwise these grants absorb much of the 

 best lands of the Territory, and being a con- 

 spicuous feature of our land system, the con- 

 dition of uncertainty as to title, created and 

 maintained in so many instances by question- 

 able practices, has, .not unnaturally, in the 

 public mind, cast a cloud upon titles to real 

 estate, which has tended to repel immigration 

 and investment and to retard development. 



u The conditions of land-tenure established 

 by the Spanish Government and prevailing here 

 at the time of the conquest and annexation, 

 were so essentially different from those pecul- 

 iar to the public land States of the Union, and 

 the delay in the adjustment of these titles con- 

 templated by the act of 1854 has so greatly 

 added to the complication of those conditions, 

 that correspondingly different methods for that 

 adjustment have become imperative for the 

 preservation and protection of private rights. 

 To attempt that adjustment by judicial pro- 

 cess would not only overburden the courts to 

 a degree that would amount, on the one hand, 

 to a denial of justice to a very large class of 

 honest, deserving people, and on the other to 

 the eviction of rightful claimants of thousands 

 of small holdings, through their inability to 

 meet the costs of litigation. 



" It is not generally known elsewhere, but is 

 nevertheless the fact, that very much the 

 larger number of the original land-holdings in 

 this Territory consist of but a few acres each 

 say, from five to fifty which have been 

 transmitted from father to son through several 

 generations. These owners were originally 

 what is known in the United States as ' squat- 

 ters ' on the public domain. There were no 

 surveys, and each took according to his own 

 idea of his needs and his ability or desire to 

 improve. Their lines were laid in every con- 

 ceivable irregular shape, according to the con- 

 figuration of the country. They had as a rule 

 no muniments of title, and neither needed nor 

 desired any. The right of possession and oc- 

 cupancy gave an acknowledged and perfect 

 title under Spanish and Mexican custom and 

 law. These people are simple, honest, law- 



