MAY 20 
THE RURAL. MIW-YORKER. 
MS 
Vtirimis. 
LAS VEGAS, NEW MEXICO. 
A Commercial Center -Rapidly Building- 
Up. Character of San Miguel Co. The 
Great Hot Springs. 
MESSRS. HOLMES AND SWEETLAND. 
[Special Correspondents of the Rural Nbw-Yorkkr.] 
San Miguel County, of which Las Vegas 
is the county seat, is about 160 miles wide by 
200 long in its greatest extent. The prominent 
industry in the county is the raising of stock 
for market, both cattle and sheep. Grazing 
is good the year round and is principally fur¬ 
nished by “ Grama Grass.” It is remarkably 
nutritious and has the peculiarity of self* 
curing. To this we shall refer together with 
Las Vegas, more at length in a future let¬ 
ter, upon the stock interests of Colorado and 
New Mexico. The cattle being fed in this 
county, of which there are approximately 
260,000, are being rapidly improved by the in¬ 
troduction of full-blood Short-horns and high 
grades. The market is principally at heme, 
beeves now selling at $20 per head, with 
choice cuts of beef at 15c. per pound. The 
time is near at hand when the creamery busi 
ness will be fostered and become a prominent 
industry and commercial interest. 
Sheep husbandry and its kindred interests 
have an important place here, the number 
being fully equal to that of cattle in the 
county. Thoroughbred Merino bucks are 
being introduced to raise the grades from Mex¬ 
ican natives The native sheep yield two to 
two and-a-half pouods of wool to the clip, 
while the grades average from five to six 
pounds. Fair grades are worth from $1.50 to 
$3.50 each, wool selling at about 15 cents per 
pound. Many sheep are being shipped from 
this point to Kansas and Texas. 
So far no especial effort has been made in 
market gardening, but the necessities of the 
city will demand it this season. Corn and 
w eat are the principal products, and the 
Mexican wheat is said to yield in small tracts 
an average of 40 bushels to the acre, under 
suitable irrigation; in quality it is regarded 
superior to any except possibly the Scotch 
Fife. The corn is exclusively raised by In 
dians, is of very hard kernel and variegated 
colors. Fair, and in some cases superior, fruit 
is raised in the Pecos Valley. That from this 
vicinity secured the highest premium at the 
territorial exposition held at Albuquerque last 
Fall. Apples, cherries, and other kinds of 
hardy fruit do well. 
Our letter upon the mining interests of this 
region, published a few weeks ago, gives loca¬ 
tions, camps, mineral regions, etc., and by 
consulting tba map it can be readily seen that 
there is a radius of’ fully 75 miles tributary to 
the commerce of Las Vegas, while many 
camps and localities outlying this distance 
come to this city to trade. Some mines are 
located near enough to the city to warrant the 
erection of mills here for the reduction of ores, 
and this will doubtless be done ere long. 
Las Vegas Hot Springs 
are the most important interest tributary to 
the city, and for their health-restoring quali¬ 
ties and excellent management, they have at¬ 
tained an nviable reputation. About thirty 
hot spring-, varying in temperature from 100 
deg. to 140 deg., contribute their flow peren¬ 
nially, The water is by analysis precisely 
similar to that of the famous Hot Sprin ;s of 
Arkansas, while here in this romantic and 
beautiful mountain region over 6,000 feet 
above sea level, the invalid inhales only the 
pure and wholesome air of Heaven, and does 
not suffer from noxious doses or insidious va¬ 
pors to apt to cause lung trouble and relapse. 
The company owning the Springs have just 
completed and opened a grand new hotel, so 
that accommodations both in regard to board 
and bathing are ample. The Atchison, To¬ 
peka & Santa Fe Railroad, upon which the 
city stands, are now building and will soon 
have completed a branch road to the Springs, 
a few miles distant. Until then a fine hack 
line (carriages) supplies the demand for trans¬ 
portation from Las Vegas, and subsequently 
the owners will provide first class living ac¬ 
commodations at the Springs, as they have 
now in the city. 
The population of Las Vegas in June. ’80, 
was but 5,147, but since then it has increased 
to over 6,000 (a conservative estimate), over 
two-thirds of whom are Americans Six 
houses of worship are completed—Presbyte¬ 
rian, Pres. Mission, Baptist, Methodist, Epis¬ 
copal and Catholic, while the Congrogation- 
alists and M. E, (South) are about to build, as 
well as the Catholics, the latter on the East 
side. 
The cause of education is one receiving 
marked attention. The Jesuit Fathers, who 
have under their auspices the Las Vegas Col¬ 
lege, with a good building, are about to erect 
a new structure to cost some $75,000. The 
Sisters of Loretto have a school with a good 
attendance. There is a fair system of public 
schools, while still further provision is being 
made by an academy just completed at a cost 
of $10,000. The foundations are also laid for 
a female Seminary under the fostering care of 
the M. E. Church (South). 
The press is strong ami able, embracing the 
Gazette a morning daily, with weekly; the 
Optic, an evening daily, with weekly; the 
Mineral City Drill, a weekly of that city, pub¬ 
lished here; the Miuing World, semi monthly; 
the Real Estate and Business Index, monthly; 
Fisk’s Great Southwest, monthly; Fitzgerrell’s 
Guide to N. M. and the Revista Catholica, a 
Spanish weekly, a denominational journal 
under the care of the Jesuit Fathers. 
Societies of A. F. and A. M., Blue Lodge 
and Chapter; I. O. O. F.; A. O. U W.; K. of 
P. and I. O. G. F. are flourishing and have in 
their ranks many of the best men in the ci y. 
There is also a German musical organization. 
“Baca Hall ” seating GOO, having stage and 
accessories, and “ Mulligan Hall,” seating 300, 
furnish accommodations for public entertain¬ 
ment. There are two banks—First National 
and San Miguel National. A large aud in¬ 
creasing commercial business has necessitated 
permanent improvements amounting to over 
$650,000, duriug 1881, including the water 
works, $200,000, the academy, a bank build¬ 
ing aud many other structures of brick and 
stone of beautiful design and excellent finish. 
There are telephones, street cars, gas aud a 
complete water system, all put in by stock 
companies and not by saddling a heavy and 
onerous tax upon the people. The city has no 
flebt, and taxes are very light The business 
of the Post Office for 1881, from statements 
kindly furnished by the postmaster, is: stamps 
sold, $9,728.08; money orders issued, $55,725.84; 
money orders paid, $25,004.80, showing alarge 
business. 
There are immense tracts of pine lumber 
tributary to Las Vegas, as well as good bitu¬ 
minous coal. Clay for brick is abundant and 
fine building stone easily accessible. There 
are now in manufacturing interests here, a 
foundry, a brick j'ard and a tannery, but a 
larger tannery would do well and a woolen 
mill could not fail to succeed. 
With splendid location, equable and delight¬ 
ful climate, railroad outlets, tributary indus¬ 
tries unsurpassed, every facility for public 
improvement near at hand, energy and ac 
tivity among its citizens, Las Vegas has fu¬ 
ture prospects not excelled by those of any 
city in the Territory. 
ADVANTAGES OF SMALLER COTTON 
BALES. 
Having been a close observer of the mode 
of cultivating and preparing cotton for market 
and transportation for many years past in the 
States of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Miss¬ 
issippi, Tennessee and Texas, and having 
lately seen an article in the Rural of April 
8, on the subject of Adulteration of Cotton in 
the bales, practiced by American producers 
and dealers, I am prompted to reply to that 
article or rather perhaps to add a little more 
to it. 
Now, friend Rural, please allow me to say 
through your valuable columns that I deem 
this kick of yours above alluded to as one in the 
right direction. Indeed there are two many 
cases occurring similar to the ones named in 
the article referred to, and this kind of s wind- 
ling will be practiced more or less as long 
as the ancient system of baling cotton 
in bales of from 500 to 600 pounds exists. 
Strange to say, there has been some improve¬ 
ment in every branch of farm management 
except in cotton, which has run in the same 
groove ever since Moses was a small boy. 
These large bales give ample room to hide an 
alligator or the carcass of a dead mule, mill¬ 
stones or anythiug else, even a blacksmith’s 
anvil. Only a short time since I witnessed 
the weighing of two bales of cotton brought on 
a farmer’s wagon to one of our principal cities 
It was represented to be first-class cotton 
which, indeed it showed to be on the outside; 
but when the weigher found the bales weighed 
respectively 575 pounds and 590 pounds, he 
began to suspect there was something wrong 
in Denmark, and struck for a thorough in¬ 
spection, and so.m brought to light a large 
amount of water soaked, dirty, inferior-qual¬ 
ity cotton. The fellow who had brought it 
pleaded innocence; claimed he hired the gin¬ 
ning and baling, and knew nothing of the 
swindle; but he was iu a great hurry to get 
his heavy bales back on hia wagon aud get 
away. Now, I must say I am greatly sur¬ 
prised to see aud know that cotton producers, 
cotton brokers, factors and mill-men will 
hang on aud submit to this old style of old- 
fogy conglomerate bales of unwieldy sizes 
weighing from 500 to 600 pounds, making so 
much room for swindling and being so very 
hard to pick apart and prepare for the spind¬ 
les, being all in one solid mass. 
Now these tricks of adulteration and swind¬ 
ling will be practiced as long as this system of 
large bales is submitted to. And this is not 
all—see what a vast amount of expensive, 
useless iron hoops and coarse, dirty bagging 
the manufacturers pay for. It is all a dead 
loss somewhere—either to the producer or 
consumer. Now to remedy these mistakes 
and grievances, instead of legislation on this 
subject the writer would suggest a concert 
of action am ong cotton producers, cotton fac¬ 
tors, brokers and mill men to revolutionize the 
manner of baling. Instead of the old-style, 
irou-bound, conglomerates of 500 pounds an 1 
upwards, adapt m i put up a neat, small bale 
of about 100 pounds, or say 125 poinds each, 
which should h ive been done many years ago. 
Ne-vly invented aud grettly improved ma¬ 
chinery can now be bad at very small cost 
compared to prices of the old stylis. Im¬ 
proved baling presses can now be had that 
do very rapid work, putting up say 100 to 
125 pounds very neatly inside of a space not 
exceeding 12 by 15 inches square by 30 
long, bound by neat, light wire ties, three 
ties to the bale. Bales of this size and style 
would preclude all possibility of any swindle 
whatever. Cotton put up iu this stye of bale, 
when unbound, opens from the end of the 
J bales in neat, small flakes of about two pounds 
each, and each flake is entirely separate and 
distiuct from the others as much so as the 
leaves in a book. This new style of baling 
press will easily load into an ordinary box 
rail road car from 15 to 20 tons, and this too 
from the gin at flr<t process. It needs no 
compressing. Once through and it is ready 
for shipment to Liverpxd or any other mar¬ 
ket. One doesn’t have to yard it out in open 
lots in rain, mid and water. There is no 
ohan -e to hide wet cotton, inferior lint, sand 
or alligators. j. P 
Sherman, Texas. 
REDEEMING A POOR FARM. 
Seeing the Rural’s invitation for those 
who had commenced with a poor, worn-out 
farm and brought it to a state of fertility, I 
have thought I would tell how I am doing 
with mine. 
In the Spring of 1875, I bought 45 acres, 
together with a poor house aud barn. I paid 
$1,000 for the homestead. My entire capital 
was $200, a cow and a pension of bi'x dollars 
per month, leaving me $800 in debt, without 
stock or tools About half the farm was 
swamp and brush About 13 acres were mea¬ 
dow, which yielded about three tons of hay 
of poor quality. The best two acres had been 
cropped and pastured close for IS years, and 
yielded only one load of hay. The former oc¬ 
cupant had no barn yard aud saved very lit¬ 
tle manure. I could not make a living on the 
place at firrt, so I had to work out some, and 
cut some timber. 
My plan was to keep all the stock I could to 
get manure; plow up the land and after two 
manurings, seed again; for hoed crops, to raise 
potatoes for sale; to sell butter and eggs for 
profit until I could raise fruit sufficient to drop 
the butter making and increase the egg pro¬ 
duction. I made a good-sized barn-yard, carted 
in ferns and weeds, aud the hens worked them 
fine. I increased my stock until I had eight 
head of cattle and a horse. Cutting hay on 
shares and buying grain to keep my stock, en¬ 
abled me to buy 10 acres more of pasture. 1 
now have seven acres of meadow that will cut 
10 tons of hay, and two acres plowed in good 
condition. My income from the farm last year 
was $550 or $150 more than the cost of sup¬ 
porting my family of four. Twenty-five dol¬ 
lars were the first fruits of my p-ach orchard. 
Last year I bought grain to the value of $165. 
aud seveu tons of hay standing—$55.00— 
which will add much to the productiveness of 
the farm for next year. I have bought no 
commercial fertilizers! I was offered $3,(XX) 
for my farm one year ago. I have enough 
personal property to pay my debts. Have 
given one-tenth of income for religious and 
benevolent purposes. My potatoes never sold 
for less than $100 per acre. My live cows paid 
last year $00.66 each. My hens paid best of 
all-over $100 per year more than the cost of 
their feed. 1 kept 70 hens last Whiter; have 
75 now. My sales for 1881 were: 
Chickens. """""""I..* 2 , fr 
Poultry used “ *• (estimated, jj 
Cost of feed,. ^ So 
155 60 
Have sold from 75 hens in a month, 89 doz. 
eggs for $32.20; cost of feed about $6.00; profit, 
$26.00. 
The Rural has been a great help to me. 
One year it saved me more than $50 through 
its reports of the condition of the potato crop 
throughout the country. H. n. w. 
Naugatuck, Conn. 
while the others sold for 75 cents; probably the 
difference in quality was owing to difference 
ia cultivation. I work my corn and potatoes 
in the following manner:—Assoon as the rows 
can be followed I use the cultivator both ways 
and hoe all that is necessary; then finish with 
the shovel-plow run three times in a row both 
vays. Tha result is the ground is stirred to 
the depth plowed and c lose up to the hills. 
After the last working and before a shower, 
I sow Purple-top Strap-leaf Turnips broadcast, 
and let the first rain cover the seed—result, a 
good crop of turnips in place of grass or 
weeds. In fact, I allow no grass or weeds to 
grow in my corn or potatoes. The drought 
last Summer hurt me very little as I had the 
ground so thoroughly worked that the dry 
weather had little effect. I had some Rose 
Potatoes which weighed 20 ounces each, and 
ears of corn 13 inches long (King Phillip), 
with a yield of over 50 bushels of shelled corn 
per acre, three tons of hay to the acre, and 
oats, 40 bushels. My land is “ red shale ” and 
most of it has just been cleared, much of it 
having the stumps still on. “ Farmer.” 
Carpenter, Pa. 
Hog Cholera. 
I wish the readers of the Rural would 
tell more about what they know or think 
they know concerning hog cholera. For my 
own part I don’t think there is any single 
disease to which that name should be given. 
My opinion is that the bad condition of the hog 
to which the term hog cholera is applied, is the 
result of several causes, and enough is not 
yet known about the matter to distinguish 
the several ailments classed under this gen¬ 
eral head. It is mainly on this account that 
I don’t believe there is any single medicine 
that will cure “hog cholera.” A medicine 
may cure or help to cure one of the ailments 
classed under the term, but not all—for in my 
opinion there is no such thing as a cure-all or 
panacea. Keep the hog clean: give him all 
he wifi eat of healthful food, and he’ll laugh, 
grunter fashion, and grow fat When the 
hog used to forage for himself so that be 
could eat enough of green stuff to keep in 
bright condition, nobody ever heard of “ hog 
cholera;” but now that the poor fellow is 
shut up so that he can’t dig roots and search 
for health-imparting provender “ hog cholera” 
is widespread. Salt stirred into wood ashes 
i said hereabouts to be a preventive of “hog 
cholera.” G T D 
My Experience with the Burbank Po¬ 
tato has been somewhat different from the 
experience of some subscribers published in 
late Rurals. I have raised it for three sea¬ 
sons and find it no more productive than the 
Late Rose or La Plume Triumph and of much 
poorer quality. It is a solid, close-grained, 
heavy potato, very similar in quality to 
the old Peerless. It scatters much in the hill. 
Its only redeeming quality is that it keeps 
well, remainiug solid without sprouting 
later than any other variety I am acquainted 
with. It has had a big run, but is being 
discarded for better sorts by our best farmers. 
Wallsville, Pa. w. K . M . 
CATALOGUES, &C. 
Experience With Potatoes and Corn. 
I have been planting the Early Rose and 
like it because I can crowd it without injury 
to the quality. Last year I planted a bushel 
of Burbank, but am not fully satisfied with it. 
My Early Rose brought me 90 cents per bushel 
Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau 
of Labor and Industries, of New Jersey, 
for the year ending Oct. 1, 1881, 2S6 pages. 
Trenton. James Bishop, Chief. 
Little Known Facts about well known 
Animals. —One of a series of lectures deliver¬ 
ed iu the National Museum, Washington, D. 
L., Aprils, by Prof. C Y. Riley. The series 
will be issued in one complete volume when 
all are delivered. 
The Mapes Formula and Peruvian Gu¬ 
ano Co., 158 Front St., New York.—Experi¬ 
ment Set Circular. These sets of special fer¬ 
tilizers are put up expressly for testing the 
wautsof both crops and soils. The different 
fertilizers are furnished iu suitable quantities 
for fertilizing plots of 1-20 of an acre each, 
the complete sets covering from one-half to 
two acres, as may be desired, at a cost of from 
$6.00 to $30.00. The circular explains the mat¬ 
ter and will be sent to all applicants. 
S. L. Allen & Co., Philadelphia, Pa.— 
Descriptive, illustrated catalogue and price 
list of the celebrated Planet, Jr. Seed Drill, 
Planet, Jr. Double Wheel Hoe, Planet, Jr. 
Single Wheel Hoe, Planet, Jr. Combined Drill 
and W heel Hoe, Firefly Garden Hoe and 
Plow, rianet, Jr. Horse Hoe, Planet, Jr. Cul¬ 
tivator, Planet, Jr. Coverer, &e., all of which 
are highly economical and useful implements 
in their right places. The catalogue will be- 
forwarded to all applicants. 
A meeting of the Penn. Board of Agricul¬ 
ture will be held at Allentown (Pa.), com 
mencing May 23, at seven P. M. s. r. p. 
Quartebly Report of the K*ng«g State 
Board of Agriculture for the quarter ending 
March SI, 1882, containing papers on forest 
tree growing la Kansas, and the cost of sheep- 
raising in the State. W. Sims, Secretary, 
Topeka, Kansas. 
