518 



NEW MEXICO. 



be $24.90 a month each, or 83 cents a day. 

 This includes every expense. The average num- 

 ber of patients treated was 35. 



Court of Private Land Claims. Under 

 the act establishing this court, all claims for 

 land grants not filed for settlement in the office 

 of this tribunal prior to March 4, 1893, are for- 

 ever barred, and the lands revert to the Gov- 

 ernment, becoming part of the public domain. 

 The following is a summary made, Aug. 31, 1893, 

 of all the claims presented, showing the acreage 

 claimed in the cases disposed of, and also the 

 acreage for which they have been approved : 

 Cases filed, 262 ; grants confirmed, 23 ; grants 

 rejected, 7; appealed to Supreme Court by 

 claimants, 4 ; by United States, 4 Number of 

 claims determined, 715 ; estimated number of 

 acres claimed, 1,558,875; estimated number of 

 acres confirmed, 815,839. By an amendment of 

 this act the time for filing claims to small hold- 

 ings was extended to Dec. 1, 1894. 



Land Survey. The last Congress appro- 

 priated $20,000 to survey private land grants 

 after their confirmation, and $15,000 for the 

 survey of public lands. During the year ending 

 June 30, 1893, 2,343 miles of Government lines 

 were surveyed and established ; 376 plats were 

 made, and 95 mineral locations surveyed ; and 

 2,000 claims for survey of small farms were filed 

 in the office of the Surveyor-General. 



Minerals. The capital invested in coal 

 mining, Aug. 31, 1893, was $3,574,863.38. 

 Amount of coal produced during preceding 

 year, 639.356 tons. Numberof miners employed 

 inside mines, 690 ; outside, 194 ; laborers in- 

 side mines, 159; total, 1,043. Carbonate and 

 sulphate of soda, gypsum, alum, kaolin, and 

 fire clays and graphite exist in large deposits. 

 The total of precious metals produced in 1892 was 

 $1,850,000, of which 50-41 per cent, was gold. 

 The annual production of precious stones, es- 

 pecially turquoises, is rapidly increasing. 



Agriculture. The crop report of the statis- 

 tician of the Department of Agriculture shows 

 that in New Mexico, in 1893, the average bushel 

 yield of wheat was 16 - 8 ; of oats, 29-2 ; of barley, 

 21'6; of buckwheat, 95. The average condition 

 of corn, Oct. 1, was 28 ; of Irish potatoes, 90 ; of 

 sweet potatoes, 95 ; of sorghum, 95. New Mexi- 

 co produced 515,000 bushels of wheat, 585,000 

 bushels of corn, and 225,000 bushels of oats. 



Experiments on a large scale are being made 

 with cana-agria (Rumex hymenospales), a sour 

 dock, which grows wild throughout New Mex- 

 ico, from which tannin is extracted. Under 

 irrigation it matures in one year ; without, in 

 two years. The market value per ton, green, is 

 $6, or dried and sliced, $65. It takes 3 tons of 

 green to make 1 ton of dry, in which state it con- 

 tains about 30 per cent, of real tannic acid. 



Irrigation. Gov. Thornton's report re- 

 hearses the need of the Territory for the estab- 

 lishment of irrigation reservoirs and canals and 

 the steps that are being taken to supply it. He 

 says the Pecos valley has the best and most ex- 

 tensive system of irrigation on this continent ; 

 1,200 miles of canals have been completed, and 

 the capacity of the storage reservoirs, to save 

 the flood and storm waters, aggregates over 15,- 

 000.000,000 cubic feet ; the canals .cover 500,000 

 acres, nearly all in New Mexico. The farmers use 



only an acre-foot of water per annum, or 42,260 

 cubic feet. This is about the lightest duty of 

 water known on strictly farming lands. Sixty 

 thousand acres of land have been disposed of to 

 bona fide farmers, and 20,000 are now under 

 cultivation. During last winter more than 

 250,000 fruit trees and vines were set out, and 

 great numbers of shade trees. 



In Grant County two important enterprises 

 to save the underflow of Mimbres river are 

 well under way. In San Juan County there is 

 abundance of water. The arable area is only 

 about 450,000 acres, and there is water for 2,000,- 

 000 acres. The irrigation works on the Max- 

 well grant are completed and colonization goes 

 on steadily. Work is being done for reclaiming 

 the Jornado del Muerto and the Armendaris land 

 grants. Another irrigation enterprise is the re- 

 clamation of 30.000 acres on one of the Baca floats 

 and on the Pablo Montoya grants by utilizing 

 the waters of Canadian river. In Santa Fe 

 County important works are in process of con- 

 struction. One reservoir has been built to sup- 

 ply Santa Fe with water for domestic purposes 

 and to irrigate about 2,000 acres of garden and 

 fruit soil ; another to cover 15,000 acres of 

 splendid level mesa is to be built in the Arroya 

 Honda, a natural storage basin. 



An irrigation congress met in November at 

 Dem ing, New Mexico, to consider, among other 

 subjects, the devising of means to stop the un- 

 lawful diversion and use of the head waters of 

 the Rio Grande, which diversion and use has 

 caused a water famine in the Rio Grande valley 

 south of Albuquerque. 



Railroads. The Pecos Valley Railroad has 

 been completed, 97 miles, from Pecos City, 

 Texas, to Eddy, New Mexico ; it will run from 

 Eddy to Roswell, 80 miles, with only three tan- 

 gents, and thence to a junction with the Santa 

 Fe route, thus completing the shortest inter- 

 oceanic route in the United States. 



Legislative Session. The Legislature was 

 in session eight weeks, adjourning on Feb. 23. 

 Educational interests received much considera- 

 tion, and various irrigation laws were passed. 

 An effort was made to pass a law prohibiting 

 gambling and making it a felony, but a compro- 

 mise resulted only in doubling the license re- 

 quired from all those who keep gambling tables, 

 requiring $241 annually for each table. Among 

 other bills passed were the following : 



Creating the office of coal-oil inspector. 



Providing that publication notice of service of pro- 

 cess must be in both the English and Spanish lan- 

 guages where either party is of the Spanish-speaking 

 race. 



Providing for the election of boards of education. 



Exempting from taxation for six years, from the 

 beginning of their construction, all irrigation ditches, 

 canals, and reservoirs. 



Creating Guadalupe County out of a portion of the 

 county of San Miguel. 



Taxing sleeping-car companies. 



Establishing branch experiment stations in Taos, 

 Kio Arriba, and San Juan. 



Facilitating the adjustment of land titles. 



Providing for a county court in every county 

 where the county seat has a population of 2,000 or 

 more. 



An act and resolution apportioning the $62,000 re- 

 turned by the United States to the Territory in re- 

 payment of the direct tax levied by the act of Con- 



