New Mexico

The University of New Mexico, with its distinctive buildings in the Indian Pueblo type of architecture is situated on a mesa about a mile from and overlooking the city of Albuquerque. Its attendance increased from 235 in 1915 to 1,538 in 1935, its faculty members from 21 to 104 and its buildings from 8 to 17 in num ber. The State School of Mines, located at Socorro, had an enrol ment of 126 students and a teaching staff of 12 members in 1935. The College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts near Las Cruces, in the fertile Mesilla valley had a staff of 55 members and an enrolment of 55o students. The New Mexico agricultural experi ment station is a part of the institution. The New Mexico Military institute, a school of high rating, at Roswell is also sup ported in part by State funds. It offers a course of work cover ing the four years of high school and first two years of college. The New Mexico Normal university at Las Vegas contains a training school, a high school department and a four year normal department. Similar in organization is the New Mexico Teachers' college at Silver City. At El Rito is a Spanish-American normal school designed to instruct teachers for the Spanish districts.

Charities and Corrections.

The State penitentiary, located at Santa Fe, was established in 1882. A State reform school was established at Springer in 1909. A girls' welfare board, created in 1919, established a home in Albuquerque for girls under 18. The charitable institutions include the asylum for the insane at Las Vegas, a miner's hospital at Raton, the asylum for the deaf and dumb at Santa Fe and the institute for the blind at Alamogordo. In 1884 the Territorial legislature adopted the Asylum of the Sisters of Charity at Santa Fe as the State orphan's home, with little change in its organization.

Agriculture and Live Stock.

The eastern one-third of the State and especially the north-eastern counties contain the most important crop-producing districts. In Curry, Roosevelt, Quay, Harding, Union and Colfax counties an average rainfall of 14.3in. (1914-34) permits of considerable dry farming, while over the rest of the State crops are dependent almost entirely upon irriga tion and confined to those river valleys where it is practicable. Though 34,397,000ac. or a little less than one-half of the State was owned as farm land in 1935 (an increase over 24,409,633ac. in 1920 and 30,822,00oac. in 1930) only 2,388,000a c. were crop land. There were in 1935, 41,369 farms, valued, together with all farm buildings, at $170,150.000. The 1930 valuation of all farm property in the State was $293,138,000.

The river basins containing irrigated lands are the Rio Grande, Pecos, Canadian, San Juan and Gila with their tributaries and the Cimarron, Rio Mimbres, Rio Tularosa, Trinchera and Fresno. The area capable of irrigation under existing projects amounted to in 1910 and 656,669ac. in 1930. In the latter year were harvested with a crop valued at $58,865,000 or $50.81 per acre. The cost of irrigation operation and main tenance averaged $2.15 per acre. The Carlsbad project in the

Pecos valley is a prosperous achievement of the U.S. Reclama tion Service. Another Federal undertaking of greater extent is the Rio Grande project of 1,468,913ac. shared by New Mexico, Mexico and Texas which was constructed at a cost of $52,979,000.

The estimated value of all crops in 1935 was $12,257,000 as compared with $12,533,000 it 1934 and $28,600,000 in 1925. Chief in value in 1935 was cotton lint and cotton seed with a total value of $5,5o8,000, a decline from the $7,812,000 value in 1934. Hay was next to cotton in value and much more evenly distributed over the State. The tame hay crop in 1935 was worth $2,906,000, and the wild hay crop $136,000. Approximately three fourths of the tame crop was alfalfa. Corn in 1935 was valued at $1,998,000 and was well distributed over all irrigated areas. Sorghum in 1935 was valued at $1,380,000. Wheat, first in value in 1925, was the fifth most valuable crop in 1935, worth $1,322, 000. Minor crops and their valuations in 1935 were: potatoes, $328,000; oats, $268,000; and barley, $90,00o in addition. Apples to the number of 687,000bu. were raised in 1935; also 1 o3,000bu. of peaches and tons of grapes.

Live stock on New Mexico farms and ranches amounted in value in 1920 to $93,626,000; 1930 to $72,282,000; 1935 to $31, 672,000. The decrease in 1935 from the 1930 valuation represents less a decline in numbers, which remained almost stationary, than in price. There were in 1930, 141,00o horses, and 144,000 in 23,000 mules, and 17,00o in 1935; 1,055,00o cattle, against 991, 000 in 1935; 2,291,000 sheep and lambs compared with 2,337,00o in 1935; and 65,000 swine as compared with 64,000 in Dairying, while a growing industry, is not important, there being but 70,000 milch cows and heifers in 1935 as compared with 69,000 in the year 193o. The major portion of the cattle are still raised on large ranches for beef purposes. Ranches av erage from 6o to 8o sections in size but very little of the land (Io% to 25%) is owned by the rancher himself. About half is leased from the National Forest Service, from private owners (often homesteaders who have failed), or from the railways or the State. In the south-western counties about 25% is public domain, and in the south-central counties about 40%. From 1922 to 1935 New Mexico shipped an average of over 350,000 cattle annually, and has been a considerable exporter of animal products. In 1935 New Mexico stood ninth in the United States in production of wool. Sheep are raised all over New Mexico but are more numer ous in the southern and western parts of the State, while the north-western counties are sheep territory almost exclusively. The wool output of the State for 1935 totalled 16,030,00o pounds, with a farm value of approximately $3,046,000, but the average weight of a fleece was but 7.0 pounds compared with an 8.0 pound average for the entire United States.