GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 49 



describe, where wheat and rye can he raised without irrigation ; hut these portions are excep- 

 tions to the general rule ; and I think I am safe in stating, that as a general rule throughout 

 this vast region, corn, cotton, and vegetables cannot he produced without irrigation; and further- 

 more, the limits of the ground which can he brought under the effects of irrigation are very 

 circumscribed. The town of El Paso, in latitude 31° 44' 15'\T, and longitude 106^ 29' 05''. 4, is 



considered^ and justly so, one of the garden-sjiots of the interior of the continent. A meteor- 

 ological record was kept at Frontera, a few miles north of this point, for two years, by assistant 

 Chandler, the results of which are embodied in the diagram herewith presented. 



From this it will be seen how very dry the climate is, and how unsuited for agricultural 

 purposes, according to the notion entertained of farming in the eastern States. The settlements 

 about El Paso are irrigated by the Eio Bravo, and are happily not dependent on rains for their 



fertility. , 



• "Whatever population may now, or hereafter, occupy the mountain system, and the plains to 

 the east, must he dependent on mining, or grazing, or the cultivation of the grape. The 

 country must be settled by a mining and pastoral or wine-mahing population ; and tlie whole 

 legislation of Congress, directed heretofore so successfully towards the settlement of lands east 

 of the 100th meridian of longitude, must be remodeled and reorganized to suit the new phase 

 which life must assume under conditions so different from those to which we are accustomed. 



Southern California, the whole of the upper valley of the Gila, and the ui)per valley of the 

 del Norte, as far down as the Presidio del Norte, are eminently adapted to the cultivation of the 

 grape. In no part of the world does this luscious fruit flourish with greater luxuriance than 

 in these regions, when properly cultivated. Those versed in the cultivation of the vine repre- 

 sent that all the conditions of soil, humidity and temperature, are united in these regions 

 to produce the grape in the greatest perfection. The soil, composed of the disintegrated matter 

 of the older rocks and volcanic ashes, is light, porous, and rich. The frosts in winter are just 

 sufficiently severe to destroy the insects without injuring the plant, and the rain seldom falls 

 in the season when the plant is flowering, or when the fruit is coming to maturity, and liable 

 to rot from exposure to humidity. As a consequence of this condition of things, the fruit, 

 when ripe, has a thin skin, scarcely any pulp, and is devoid of the musky taste usual with 

 American grapes. 



The manufacture of wine from this grape is still in a crude state. Although wine has been 

 made for upwards of a century in El Paso, and is a very considerable article of commerce, no 

 one of sufficient intelligence and capital, to do justice to the magnificent fruit of the country, 

 has yet undertaken its manufacture. As at present made, there is no system followed, no 

 ingenuity in mechanical contrivance practised, and none of those facilities exist which are usual 

 and necessary in the manufacture of wine on a large scale ; indeed, there seems to be no great 

 desire beyond that of producing as much alcoholic matter as possible. The demand for strong 

 alcoholic drinks has much increased with the advent of the Americans ; and in proportion as 

 this demand has increased, the wine has decreased in quality. On one occasion I drank wine in 

 El Paso which compared favorably with the richest Burgundy. The production of this wine 

 must have been purely accidental, for other wine made of the same grape, and grown in the 

 same year, was scarcely fit to drink. Cotton and corn grow with luxuriance, where water can 

 be brought to irrigate the soil, throughout the valleys of the Gila and Rio Bravo, and upon 

 the lower Rio Bravo ; and upon the Rio Colorado, below its junction with the Gila, sugar-cane 

 flourishes. 



Vol. I 7 





