139 



the northern and southern sections during this season is greater than 

 during the summer. The snowfall is small in amount, and seldom 

 remains ou the ground longer than a few hours. The rains fall prin- 

 cipally during the months of July, August, and September, but their 

 annual amount is small, seldom exceeding a few inches. When there 

 are heavy snows in the mountains during the winter there will be 

 good crops the following summer, the supply of water being more 

 abundant, and the quantity of sediment carried down greater than 

 when the snows are light." 



As a general statement, it may be said that the semi-arid conditions 

 which prevail in Colorado and the northern Territories of the Eocky 

 Mountain region, are intensified in New Mexico. The more southern 

 situation, and the comparative absence of high mountain ranges, forests 

 and streams all contribute to the aridity of this region. Hon. Edmund 

 G. Eoss, governor of New Mexico, in his annual reports for 1885 and 

 1886 to the Secretary of the Interior, very justly urges the pressing 

 need of constructing, in or adjacent to the mountains of that Territory, 

 reservoirs for the storage of water. He refers to the droughts and 

 floods with which this, in common with other parts of the West, has 

 been afflicted, and suggests that a system of storage basins, near the 

 head waters of the various streams, would not only prevent destruc- 

 tive floods, insure supjAies of water for irrigation and reclaim millions 

 of acres now barren, but that tlie res'ilting increase in vegetable growth 

 and conservation of moisture would also greatly modify the climatic 

 conditions; that an increased degree of evaporation would be estab- 

 lished, and the annual rain-fall regulated and equalized. In this con- 

 nection the aid of the General Government is invoked. I most earnestly 

 concur in the foregoing. There is urgent necessity for the systematic 

 storage of water in most parts of the Kocky Mountain region, and 

 especially in the southwestern Territories. Had the mountain forests 

 been maintained the need of artificial reservoirs would not now be so 

 great. 



^' The average rain-fall from 1870 to 1885, inclusive, has been as fol- 

 lows, at the points named, to wit : 



Inches. 



Fort Bayard, in the south west 15. 30 



Fort Uuion, in the north. 16. 74 



Fort Wiugate, in the west 15. 52 



''At Fort Stanton, in the southeast, the average has been about the 

 same." 



Although the principal forests of New Mexico are confined to the 

 mountain chains, other parts of the Territory are more or less wooded. 

 Upon the wide mesas, which form so prominent a feature of the south- 

 west and western i)ortions, are found scattering growths of Cedar, 



Note. — It is estimated that New Mexico has irrigating canals and ditches equal in 

 extent to those of Utah, irrigation having been practiced in a rude way in this Terri- 

 tory long before it came into the possession of the United States. Two large irrigat- 

 ing canals are now ]3rojected, one ou each side of the Rio Grande, capable of watering 

 from 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 acres. 



