1892 



GLEANINGS IN BEE" CULTURE. 



85-; 



Notes of Travel 



FROM A. I. ROOT. 



NKW MKXUO. 



This Toiritory is mucii liki' Ari/mui in many 

 respects. Our trip throujili it on the iSonlhern 

 Pacitio, howt'ver. in the nu)nlli of February, 

 did not pn'S(Mit tlie Ivautifui scenery in tlieway 

 of vefietation— tlie vegetation of iiie desert — 

 that I found three years airo in tiie niontli of 

 November. On my lirst trip the cacti and oilier 

 dt'sert plants \vei"e just tinisliiuff their season's 

 growtli. and I saw many beautiful llowers. In 

 February, however, the new growth, in conse- 

 quence of the winter rains, had just start(>d. 

 The geological wonders. howev(>r, in the way 

 of rocks of ditt'erent colois, mountains and 

 desert, were as attractive as ever. They did 

 not interest Mrs. Root, however, quite as much 

 as they did myself. I presume she was getting 

 to be tired out with so much travel. 



Our first stop was at El Paso, on the Rio 

 Grande. The town of El I'aso had grown to 

 such an extent in three years that I could 

 scarcely find a single landmark to remind me of 

 the town as I saw it on my visit before. It is 

 not a tincn any more, however, for it is a tine 

 city. There is no end of beautiful buildings, 

 and buildings of great size too. I had an in- 

 vitation from one of the readers of Gleanings 

 to call on them at Las Cruces. Now just a 

 word about the names of these Mexican towns. 

 They are. for the greater part, named after 

 some geographical feature, or in honor of some 

 of the saints in the calendar of the Roman 

 Catholics. Thus, El Paso means '• The Pass," 

 probably because it is here that a great bridge 

 is located at the Rio Grande, and the various 

 government houses for duties, etc. In fact, 

 this great bridge separates (or unites, let us 

 hope) the I'nited .States and Mexico: and as 

 El Paso is the point where exchanges are made, 

 the business relations of the two countries was 

 probably the reason why Ei Paso received such 

 an influx of business. It is certainly destined 

 to be one of the great cities of the region. Mrs. 

 Root preferred to remain alone at El Paso while 

 I went out on the Atchison. Topeka X- .Santa 

 Fe railroad to meet my friend Mr. Thomas 

 Brannigan. one of our Medina County men wfio 

 went to New Mexico some twelve years ago. 

 A little out of El Paso is an immense smelting 

 furnace for working the product of the mines. 

 One can scarcely form any conception of these 

 great structures, belching forth smoke and 

 flame, until he sees them. To carry on these 

 mining industries profitably, it is very likely 

 that the wealth of some great corporation is 

 needed. The buildings and apparatus are 

 beautiful: and standing, as they do, out among 

 the rocks and mountains and desert plains, they 

 look strange enough. I suppose one reason for 

 the location pretty well outoftovvnisbecau.se 

 of the smoke and poisonous gases that are lil)er- 

 flted. These latter are sent forth in such vol- 

 ume. I am told, they .sometimes kill all the 

 vegetation in the vicinity. In the desert of 

 New Mexico, however, then' is not much to kill, 

 unless water is brought on for irrigation. You 

 will notice by the map thai the \. T. i^J: S. F. 

 Railroad goes along the banks of lh(! Rio 

 Grande. The woi'ds Rio Grande mean the 

 great or grand river: and when one speaks of 

 the banks of the Rio Grande you would nat- 

 urally think it -something fine. To tell the 

 truth, however, there are not any banks at all 

 — that is, most of the timi': and. in fact, there 

 is not any river at all a gn-at part of the time. 

 During my visit in February, the Rio (Jrande 

 was, every now and then, entirely dry — that is. 



so far as the eye could sec. The stream, what 

 there was of it. passcKJ down through the porous 

 sand and gravel, and then came out again to 

 the sight w hen the soil siuMued mon; compact.* 

 Alnu)st every thing seemed a desert waste until 

 we reached Las Cruces. 



The Rio Grande, like many of the desert 

 rivers, changes its bed .so frequently during 

 times of great freslu'ts thai it is a serious and 

 unceasing trouble to the railroaders. Every 

 little while the road is washed away, and must 

 be built (igain on a miw course. I presume that 

 some time, by the aid of irrigation plants, the 

 Rio (irande, and other desert rivers will be held 

 in restraint. The name Las Cruces means 

 "Th(! Crosses," coming, probably, from the old 

 mission churches and their adherents. 



.Just as we were coming into the place one of 

 the pas.sengers pointed out to me the home of 

 my friend. lie has charge of an apiary belong- 

 ing to a well-to-do oflicial, in some government 

 capacity, if I am correct. This home, or plan- 

 tation, as it might be called, seemed like an 

 oasis in the desert. It was a large two-story 

 frame building, such as we see here in the east, 

 but it was surrounded by large broad piazzas, 

 more like those of the planters' houses in the 

 South. As soon as I made myself known I was 

 welcomed by the proprietor, and all the rest, 

 with the greatest hospitality. The grounds, the 

 surroundings, and the fruit-gardens, were all 

 beautiful; and the contrast is all the more 

 marked when one can go around through the 

 town, because this seems to be almost the only 

 building in the place that looks like what we 

 would call a house. The town is very old; and 

 I hope the friends there will not feel hurt when 

 I say it looked to me more like a village of mud 

 houses, fit only for savages or the inhabitants 

 of some far-away islands of the sea that we 

 read about. Even the stores, groceries, and 

 hotels were made of this same adobe brick — 

 brick simply dried in the sun. 



When I first came into the town I went into a 

 store to inquire my way. I saw the sign, 

 ■' Store," over the doorway, and I thought they 

 could, of course, give me the information. In 

 the first place, there was not a window to the 

 store; and when I got inside I could not see any 

 goods — at least, nothing that I should call 

 goods; and, furthermore, there was not any- 

 body in the store who could talk a word of 

 English— I confess to getting a little homesick. 

 However, after friend Brannigan, with a nice 

 modern carriage, with a couple of smart ponies, 

 drove me around the place, I felt a little more 

 reconciled— at least, I did after I got out into 

 the country and saw the fruit-ranches and the 

 alfalfa-fields. We visited a bee and fruit ranch. 

 The proprietor showed me some orchards and 

 gardens away out there in the desert, that 

 would do credit to almost any home in the 

 suburbs of our great cities; apples and grapes 

 and raisins; yes, and honey of their own rais- 

 ing. He showed me his little garden of exotic 

 plants: and then he asked me if I would like 

 to see them haul and spread manure, the way 

 they do to produce these imm(-nse growths of 

 fruit, irei's. and all sorts of vegetation. Well, 

 they do not use any manure- spreader at all in 

 New Mexico. They just make an irrigation 

 canal, and take the thick muddy water from 



* Unless immense reservoirs are constructed to 

 catcli and store tiie waters duriiiK the wet season, I 

 do not see how irrigation is to be carried raucli fur- 

 tlicr witli water taken from the Rio Grande. In 

 fact, I am told there are a g-reat manj' points where 

 every bit of water in the river is appropriated. By 

 digging- down throujrli this loose porous gravel, that 

 permits an underground current, and making tight 

 cement bottoms, no doubt a large amount ot water 

 can be secured, and this will probaljly be done soon. 



