32 
VALLEY OF THE RIO GRANDE. 
valley, and about fifteen miles below Dona Ana. The next settlements along the river, with 
the exception of the abandoned ranch of “ Frontera,” are the town of Molino, at the rapids of 
the Rio Grande, about fifty-four miles below Dona Ana and two miles above El Paso, and the 
town of Franklin, two miles below. 
Molino has been but recently laid out into lots, but occupying the point at which a railroad 
must intersect the Rio Grande; and presenting by far the most practicable point for crossing 
the river within many miles, it bids fair to become a place of much consequence. Franklin, 
opposite El Paso, is at present occupied by four companies of the 8tli infantry, and is almost 
entirely the property of Mr. James McGoffin, a wealthy and enterprising citizen of El Paso 
county. 
The small villages of Isletta and San Elizario are twelve and twenty-five miles, respectively, 
below El Paso. 
At Frontera, about five miles above El Paso, the Rio Grande commences to make its passage 
through the chain of mountains which intersect its course, and to a point immediately in the 
neighborhood of Molino it is bordered closely on both sides by a range of high and rugged 
mountains. At Frontera, four miles above, the range on the west side subsides into the vast 
level table-lands, which extend with little interruption many miles to the westward; but on 
the east side the mountains gradually depart from the river, becoming more rugged and lofty, 
until they unite on the “ Jornada del Muerto” with the continuous ridges of the Rocky mount¬ 
ains. The river cuts through them between Frontera and Molino, by a succession of rapids, 
and at one place a perpendicular fall of two or three feet, and this passage has, from the 
period of its discovery by the Spaniards, been known as El Paso. The Mexican town of that 
name is about two miles below tbe debouchure of the river from the mountains. 
With the exception of the limited strip between Frontera and Molino, the immediate valley 
of the Rio Grande is from two to five miles in width, and perfectly level, and the river 
traverses it from side to side in many sinuosities. 
These level bottom-lands can be readily irrigated from the river, and possess a soil which, 
although not deep, and containing rather too large a proportion of sand for the notions of 
farmers in the United States, is nevertheless extremely fertile, and well adapted to the produc¬ 
tion of all the cereal grains. 
The system of irrigation renews the fertility of the soil by spreading over it every year a fat 
deposite several inches in thickness, which is brought down in suspension by the river, and to 
this deposite is undoubtedly due the fact that the Mexicans, for so many successive years, have 
been able to continue the same crops upon the land. The soil is only about four or five inches 
deep, and for cultivating it the Mexican implements have been conclusively shown, by experience 
of several years, to be the best. 
The wooden plough which they use barely enters the earth sufficiently to turn up three or 
four inches in depth, and they thus never pass below the yearly deposites of the river. The 
iron plough,' on the contrary, passes several inches below this, and turns up a soil more than 
four-fifths of which is sand, and consequently of little productiveness.' As an evidence of the. 
results, it will suffice to say, that of two fields of the same size contiguous to each other and 
identical in soil, the one cultivated with great care by the government, after the American 
fashion, the other the property of an old Mexican, who cultivated it himself, without assistance, 
the products were little or nothing for the first, and a crop averaging from thirty to forty 
bushels of corn to the acre for the last. 
The immediate valley of the river between Dona Ana and Frontera contains about 128,000 
acres of arable land; and to form an estimate of its agricultural value, it will be sufficient to 
exhibit the products of the little strip of cultivated ground in the Mesilla valley for the year 
1853. This can scarcely be considered a fair test, as the land was first settled in 1850, and the 
constant difficulties resulting from its equivocal relations with the two governments, and the 
impressment of the men into the Mexican army, have seriously interfered with its agricultural 
