THE DESERT AND THE ROSE 29 



that the rugged outline of the Dona Ana mountains 

 is hardly broken. 



But now too we have the winds to reckon with — 

 the warm west winds which from time to time go 

 bellowing through our midst. Through our midst 

 is no mere old-fashioned figure of speech ; it is only 

 too painfully accurate. Consolation, oft grievously 

 needed, may be found in the knowledge that these 

 Spring gales act as a purifier and disinfectant; 

 further, that while blowing when and where they 

 list, the damage they effect is wholly out of pro- 

 portion to their noise. Their velocity indeed does 

 not in actual fact compare with that attained by 

 gales in other sections of country, and blizzards, 

 cyclones and northers are unknown. I have 

 watched a winter norther romp and rage through 

 my heavily weighted orange grove in Southern 

 California for nearly a week at a time; whereas our 

 worst winds arrive before peach, apple and other 

 orchards are mellow. My California kinsman com- 

 ing in after a day's attention to my New Mexican 

 ranch, remarks that a good shake disposes of 

 Mesilla Valley dust but that California dust re- 

 quires strenuous treatment — which by personal 

 experience I know to be true. Now and then a 

 lamb-like March and April blusters out into a rowdy 

 May, and the May winds are of all the most unde- 

 sirable, even though they are apt to stir things up 

 in the east, from which quarter our rains may be 

 looked for. 



But now at last the long Spring day draws to a 

 close, and the wind has dropped exhausted over the 



