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HOME MARKETS IN NEW MEXICO.

THE PARADISE OF THE PRODUCER.

fln Address iDelivef ed at the Tewitornal Expo
sition, at Albuquerque, Sept. 16, 1890,

- BY—

HON. L. BRADFORD PRINCE.

Published by the Bureau of Immigration.]

Seven years ago it was my privilege to address an audience in
this place, at the opening of the territorial fair of 1883.

I then drew your attention to the manifold resources of New
Mexico, so varied and so abundant that it could be asserted boldly
that no other portion of the United States is so ricl^ endowed by
nature. As this seems such strong language as to savor, of exag-
geration, I proceeded somewhat in detail to make a comparison,
in order to show that the picture was not overdrawn. I showed
that the states east of the Mississippi, while well equipped in
most localities for agricultural and horticultural success by excel-
lence of soil and abundance of humidity, yet as a rule were
devoid of mineral resources. Along the Appalachian range there
were great deposits of iron, and in certain sections abundance of
coal, but of the precious metals the amount even in ISTorth Caro-
lina was so small as to be insignificant. Michigan contained
magnificent mines of copper, but had no other mineral wealth.
Crossing the Father of Waters, we found in Missouri great masses
of lead and zinc,- but of more valuable metals she had none.

Ioceeding westward to the Rocky Mountain region, it is true

that Colorado, by her early development excelled us in mineral
product, but when we turned to other resourses, she had nothing
to compare with 'the fertile valleys of our rivers; and in the pro-
ductions of the field, the market garden, the orchard and the vine-
yard, New Mexico was immensely superior. The gainsayer,
baffled thus far in finding a land so favored as our own, might
then turn to California, and portraying her wonderful advantages
insist that at least that state was superior. And at first sight it
would almost seem as if this were true. For besides her marvel-
ous record as the laud of gold, she possessed the enormous wheat
fields of the north and the centre, and the magnificent fruit and
grape regions of the south. But in these latter respects

AYE ARE FULLY HER EQUAL,

and her mineral is nearly all of one metal. She has not our sil-
ver, or lead, or copper, or iron. And beyond all this, the pos-
session in vast and inexhaustible quantities of that great essential
article, which is the motive power to set in operation so many
branches of business — coal — gives to us the stamp of superiority
that can not fail to be recognized.

I then proceeded to enumerate some of the wonderful resources
and opportunities of production, existing within our borders ; for
New Mexico is so large in extent, that few even of our own people
know except from hearsay how much of latent wealth lies await-
ing development within our borders. There are the great pine
forests, from which in a single county over 50,000,000 feet of
lumber are even now being produced each year. There are the
wonderful wheat lands of the northern valleys, which though
used uninterruptedly for over a hundred years, without rotation,
yet produce crops unsurpassed in India or Russia or our own
northwest. There are the long stretches of valleys bordering all
of the great rivers and their tributaries, which rival if they do
not excel the prairie soil of Illinois or Kansas, in the luxuriance
of their fields of corn. There are the broad acres in alfalfa and
other grasses, mere samples of what may be a vastly multiplied
reality, producing by their successive crops, a much larger weight
of hay than can be raised on the same area in any of the most
favored grass producing states. Our oats are greatly superior
to those grown elsewhere. While those of Kansas average but
27 pounds to the bushel and seldom exceed 30 at the highest, ours

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with their plump full kernels will average 34 and often exceed
40. The onions, turnips and beets, the cabbages, cauliflowers and
celery, exhibited in this hall, both in size and quality tell their
own story of the superior

CHARACTER OF OUR VEGETABLES,

while the potato, which fails to grow well in our valleys, is pro-
duced of wonderful excellence on the mountain sides and in all
the higher altitudes. And then the fruit, what shall T say of
that? but that which you all know, that this seems to be the spot
specially adapted by the hand of the Creator for its perfection.
Whether apples or pears; peaches, apricots or nectarines; plums,
cherries or quinces; all here exhibit their finest points of size,
color and taste, combining the weight and beauty of those of
California with the richest flavor of those of the East.

All this aside from the gold and the silver; the copper and the
lead ; the mica and the marble ; the iron and the coal ; aside from
the cattle that cover the plains and the sheep which roam on the
hillsides.

Why do I recapitulate all these things? To give us greater
appreciation of our future greatness, and fuller self-satisfaction
and self-confidence now? Far from it. I have no right to mis-
use this opportunity of addressing so representative and intelli-
gent an assembly by giving you merely fair words, which have
no value and lead to no result.

But I have reminded you of these unequalled advantages which
a good Providence has bestowed upon us, in order to show the
small extent to which we are using them, and the vast field for
profitable employment which their proper development presents.

The plain unvarnished fact is, that with every opportunity of
supplying ourselves with all the staple articles and of exporting
them to less favored states, we are not doing so; but are actually
importing them in vast quantities from without.

Let us look at the facts.

Our wheat lands are unsurpassed, and more than amply sufficient

FOR ALL OF OlfR HOME DEMAND.

Yet during the last year, the A. T. & S. F. R. R. Co., alone
brought into the Territory 409 tons of wheat and 8,897 tons of
flour. The A. & P. R. R. added 379 tons of flour— making 9276
tons. This does not include that brought by the S. P. R. R.,

from California, or by the D. & R. G. R. II. and Denver & Fort
Worth from Colorado, which doubtless would bring up the ag-
gregate to 450 tons of wheat and 10,OQQ of flour. But let us
simply take -the figures as we find them. The flour would make
371,040 sacks of 50 t>s each, or 18,552,000 pounds. This, you
fill observe, does not include the unground wheat, which was
818,009 pounds more.

Then turn to corn, which is the most natural product of full
three quarters of the Territory. Here it was found growing by
Coronado in 1541 in such abundance that the historian of his
expedition tells that "the harvest of one year is sufficient for
seven. When they begin to sow, the fields are still covered with
the corn that has not been gathered." And here, to-day, it is
found not only of marvelous height in the well watered valleys, but
growing in many sections without irrigation at all. Yet we
imported over the A. T. & S. F. R. R. 7,945 tons, and 90 tons
from the west over the A. & P. R. R., making 8035 tons of
which we have accurate figures, besides what came in on the three
other railroads and also in addition to 143 tons of ground meal.
Here, then, are over 16 million pounds of corn and meal brought
into New Mexico, which no doubt would exceed 20 millions if
we had the full figures.

I have spoken of the superior character of our oats, which
should cause them to be raised in great quantities for exportation to

LESS FAVORED LOCALITIES,

but on the contrary the A. T. & S. F. railroad carries to us, instead
of from us, during the last year, not less than 3,487 tons.

And now we come to the article which should be our largest
product. I refer to hay. Four crops of alfalfa is the usual yield
in our valleys. Its long roots penetrating the soil to a depth
where there is always moisture, and its permanence when once
established, peculiarly adapt it to our conditions. There is no
limit to the amount which can be raised. Every acre of land
which is fairly irrigated will produce most abundant crops. We
ought to supply a great section of country outside of our bounda-
ries with its hay; and yet last year we actually imported over
the two railroads from which we have returns 7,904 tons from the
east and 241 from the west.

These articles that I have named are those of largest general

consumption everywhere, but if we carry on the investigation, and
look at those which may be considered of minor importance, we
will see that the same results are found — of importations when
we should not only supply ourselves but export in large quantities.

Everywhere in New Mexico where industry chooses to employ
itself in the raising of vegetables, they are produced in great
perfection.

A glance at the Exhibition hall will show you this. The sole
exception is the potato; and while that does not succeed in some
localities, it is more than ordinarily productive and excellent in
others.

Everyone employed in the cultivation of vegetables h'nds the
business most profitable, and yet the Santa Fe line alone brought
1,491 tons of vegetables from abroad into the territory last year,
for consumption here.

Perhaps the most startling exhibit is that regarding fruit.
New Mexico is beyond contradiction, the

BEST SECTION IN THE UNITED STATES,

we might almost say in the world, for both orchards and vineyards.
Whenever we send our fruit to markets in which it meets that of
California or other states, it is greatly preferred, and the New Mex-
ico product, of identical varieties, brings a price from 20 to 40 per
cent higher than that received by its rivals. We ought to export
enough fruit to pay for all our inports of every kind, and yet dur-
ing the last year, the Santa Fe route brought into the territory
408,000 pounds of green fruit and 675,000 pounds of canned
goods. This came from the eastward, and the A. & P. railroad
more than doubled the importation by bringing no less than 1,-
354,000 pounds of fruit in various forms from the west. Thus
over 2,000,000 pounds of fruit were actually brought into this land
of the peach, the apple and the grape, in a single year. Within ten
days I asked the news-boy who was carrying a basket of juice-
less peaches through a west bound train not far from this very
city, where they were raised, and he said "California." "Where
did you get them?" said I. "In Kansas City," he answered, A
similar inquiry as to the apples which soon followed, showed that
they came from Missouri. Think of it! Right here in the Rio
Grande valley, with its fruit of highest flavor, had the insipid

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product of California not only been brought, but actually once
carried past your doors to be brought back again, to sell to the
traveler on the cars. What can we expect the stranger to think of
the character of our products, when he finds fruit from the Pacific,
which has journeyed 4,000 miles, presented for his purchase, as he
passes through New Mexico!

You live here in a city of great enterprise, surrounded by a
valley the fertility and productiveness of which are proverbial,
and yet here, midway between Bernalillo and Pajarito, both of
which are

NOTED FOR THEIR APPLES,

one single firm imported this year no less than 1,400 barrels of
apples from the east, and your Commercial Club reports that the
total amount brought into your city from beyond the territorial
line, was 2,500 barrels. One of the favorite products of
the valley, is beans, and yet of them you have imported 160,000
pounds. In a land of cattle, you have sent money abroad for 280,-
000 pounds of butter and 40,000 pounds of cheese. In the midst
of all that should make the raising of fowls easy and profitable,
you have imported 54,000 pouuds of poultry and 2,880,000 eggs.
You bought this last year 1,500,000 pounds of potatoes, which
could easily have been raised in the canons and on the foot hills.
At every annual fair, the wonderful exhibition of onions, so large,
so fair, so mild in flavor, has excited admiration, and they grow
so prolifically here, that it has often been said that a single acre
well cultivated would support the owner; yet even of onions you
imported 60,000 pounds from abroad. And so of all kinds of
vegetables, which you should be supplying to Colorado and the
north. A can of tomatoes or peaches seems a small thing, but
when you are told that in Albuquerque you imported 132,000
cans last year, you can imagine how many canned products were
consumed in the whole territory, and wonder why they were not
raised and prepared on our own soil. For Albuquerque is no ex-
ception among New Mexico towns. At Springer, close to the
wheat lands of the Maxwell grant, they used 379,000 pouuds of
foreign flour and 900,000 pounds of corn; at Wagon Mound, near
the Mora valley, whose wheat fields are wonders of productiveness,
the leading dealer imported 286,000 pounds of Hour, and writes
that "almost every merchant from Las Yegas northerly gets his

flour and grain from the east," and in Las Vegas, the "City of the
Meadows," it is estimated that 200 car loads of flour, 100 of corn
and 75 of vegetables are consumed each year.
The fact is that

EVEKY DAY IN THE YEAR,

trains of cars roll into the territory, through the Raton tunnel and
across the Colorado of the west, laden with the products of other
states, which we are to consume and for which we are to pay,
while every one of them could be produced in great abundance
and of better quality by our own people. The sum which we
annually pay for simply the articles which I have enumerated
during these remarks amounts to over $1,200,000.

These would be sad articles, if caused by any lack of capacity
for production in JSTew Mexico; as it is they are simply suggestive
and instructive ones. And the lesson which they teach is a double one.

Firstly, they should bean inspiration and incentive to our own
people to utilize to a far greater extent the resources and advant-
ages which they possess.

And secondly, they show by absolute figures that can not lie,
that New Mexico presents attractions to the industrious and
energetic immigrant which are unknown elsewhere.

The man who goes to Dakota may raise an abundance of
wheat, but there is no local demand for the crop when matured,
and in order to find a market he must send it to Chicago or some
other center of trade. He is at the mercy of the railroad?, for his
product has to bear long transportation, before it reaches any con-
sumer. The value of that product oa ths ground is the price in
Chicago, less the freight and various charges.

The raiser of corn in Kansas, is in a similar plight.

There is no home demand for his product. Every one has the
same, and all have a surplus. To be turned into money, it also must
go to a more eastern market and be governed by prices there.
He, as well as his Dakota brother, is at the mercy of those
who control transportation, and the value of his corn is the price
in the eastern market, less the cost of transportation, the com-
missions and charges. Many a time, as is well known, corn is so
cheap and coal so high, that its most profitable use is to be
burned as fuel.

In New Mexico all this is reversed.

HEBE IS AN ACTUAL DEMAND

for nearly 20,000,000 pounds of flour, which must be filled from
somewhere, and nov7 is supplied from abroad. This demand
does not have to be created, nor does it depend on the crops of
Russia or India, but it exists right here in New Mexico. The
raiser of wheat therefore runs no risk. He is sure of a market.
And the market is at home. There is no long transportation in-
volved, and so the railroads can not control or overcharge. The
price is the price in Minnesota or Dakota, plus the cost of freight
from there. The freight alone constitutes an ample profit.

And so of corn. The market is already here, and must be
supplied. Over 8,000 tons are necessary for that purpose,
and the man who produces up to that amount is sure of a sale
close to his farm, and at the prices in Missouri or Kansas plus
the freight and charges involved in bringing it from there.

These are but examples. The same general facts exist as to the
other articles that have been mentioned. In every case there is
an actual home market existing in New Mexico, waiting for some
one to supply it from our soil, and meanwhile being filled from
abroad. All of the products named are among those most suc-
cessfully raised in the territory, and the only reason for the short-
ness of the supply is that no one is taking the trouble to raise
them in sufficient quantity. This inadequacy of supply is in-
creased in New Mexico on account of the large mining industry,
which employes great numbers of men, who continually consume
all kinds of food-products while producing none.

Through most of the agricultural sections of the United States
the farmer has great difficulty in finding some article which he
can raise at a profit and with which the market is not already
greatly overstocked; and after a year of toil is liable to find the
general supply of his produce so great and the price consequently
so low, that he receives little or nothing for his labor and the use
of his land. Here the market is ready and ample, and only
awaits greater energy on the part of those already here and the
influx of intelligent and industrious producers to supply it. No-
where is the reward of agricultural and horticultural enterprise so
great and so certain.