erty in the Territory then was $12,000,000; now it is $70,000,000 (not counting the value of the mining property). The number of cattle in the Territory then was 220,000, now it is 1,500,000; number of sheep then was 120,000, now it is over 2,000,000; number of horses then was 40,000, now it is 200,000; number of acres of land then under cultivation was 265,000, now there are over 2,000,000 acres appropriated and settled for farming purposes; then the commerce of the whole Territory was $20,000,000, now it is $40,000,000; then there was but a dozen or so miles of railroad, now there are over 2,000; then the population was 30,000, now it is 140,000; then the Territory was in debt $112,000, now it is out of debt, and there is plenty of money in the treasury; then taxes were high, now they are low; then the contest for the mastery of this country between the Indian and the white man was red with human blood, and every household trembled in anxiety for the triumphs of peace and of rest, now all is quiet, and the hostile foe has laid down his battle-ax, put on the robes of civilization, and treads the path of industry side by side with the white man.

There are various localities in this Territory separated from each other by great natural landmarks-mountains or rivers-either and each of which, considered in its extent and acreage, its quality of soil, timber, stone, and water, is a great State in itself. The far-famed grain-growing Gallatin and Bitter Root Valleys, the Flat Head, Yellowstone, Judith, Sun River, Missouri, Beaverhead, Big Hole, Big Horn, Rosebud, Milk River, Madison, Deer Lodge, Prickly Pear, and Boulder Valleys, and many others, have demonstrated to the world their superior capacity in the yield of wheat, oats, grass, potatoes, peas, vegetables of all kinds, small fruits, and in some of them the large fruits.

These beautiful valleys, plains, and their foot-hills are not excelled in producing qualities by any lands in the United States. The great streams of fast-going water which pass through or touch these lands is the source from which all needed irrigation can be cheaply supplied. There are many millions of acres of these lands yet in their virgin purity, inviting the plowman's hand. By an act of the Congress of the United States, passed and approved in the early months of this year, a large boundary of lauds, covering more than 20,000,000 of acres, heretofore reserved to and set apart to the use of the Piegan and other Indians, was redeemed from Indian ownership, is soon to be surveyed and offered to the purchase and occupancy of the citizens of the United States. The Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad, stretching from Saint Paul to Great Falls, and by the Montana Central from there to Helena and to Butte City, a distance of more than 1,200 miles, courses its way through this vast area of fine lands, whose surface has not yet been broken by the plow, nor their rich grasses trodden down nor taken by the ranchman's herd. To these lands, with all their rich offerings, Montana invites the attention of the home-seekers of the East.

There are only three land offices in this Territory-at Helena, Bozeman, and Miles City. The lands now soon to be sought after, to which I have just referred, and vast quantities of other lands in their vicinity yet vacant and unappropriated, are far remote from each and all of the offices already established-from 200 to 500 miles. I ask that another land office be established in the Territory and located near these lands. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Hon. W. F. VILAS,

Secretary of the Interior.

INT 88-VOL III- -53

PRESTON H. LESLIE,

Governor,

REPORT

OF

THE GOVERNOR OF NEW MEXICO.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE, TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO, Santa Fé, October 10, 1888. SIR: In obedience to your instruction I have the honor to submit herewith my annual report for the fiscal year 1888 of the resources, development, and general condition of the Territory of New Mexico.

You will pardon me for departing in a measure from the order of topics to be discussed suggested in your letter of instruction, in the introduction, at the opening of this report, of two subjects of paramount importance to New Mexico-the settlement of our land-grant titles and water storage and irrigation-as those precede, in their importance to the development and future welfare of the Territory, every other topic of an economic character that could be suggested, and to them particu larly, as matters of transcendent moment to every interest and industry of this people, I ask the earnest attention of the Department and of Congress. First, in the order of its consequence and as the basis of subsequent development, is the need of Congressional legislation for the settlement of our

LAND-GRANT TITLES.

Compared to the aggregate acreage of the Territory, the area of the lands in dispute is not large, but comprises several thousand holdings, and, confined mainly to the valleys where water is accessible for culti vation and located in the vicinity of towns and railways, is the most valuable in the Territory. The greater proportion of these claimed grants are but illy defined as to exterior boundaries, in no way conforming to the public-land surveys, and in the increasing pressure of settlement and demand for land the unoccupied portions of these grants are liable to be settled upon by the incoming tide of migration in the absence of title papers on the part of the holders, under the impression that they are public lands, in many instances having been surveyed as such, and endless and serious frictions ensue, to become more serious from year to year, so long as legislation for settlement is delayed.

It is almost impossible to say, as to lands in the vicinity of known grants, who are or who are not on grants, while as to disputed grants the confusion is correspondingly greater. It is, to a degree, unsafe to go upon the public lands even, in some sections, for location of home

stead and pre-emption, as it has not infrequently occurred that after such location and attending improvements have been made, and thus specific value given to the land, real or manufactured grants of such lands have been developed and a condition of chronic litigation established, which, under existing legislation, only a judicial tribunal especially provided for the settlement of this class of titles can finally adjudicate.

It is true that there are many millions of acres of good agricultural public lands in the Territory, but as a rule they are isolated from water and railways, and from settlements and the advantages of schools and points of supply, and often not susceptible of successful cultivation without irrigation, while the lands in the vicinity of the grants usually possess all these advantages, and thus are naturally more generally sought and in active demand, though comparatively valueless for the lack of governmental recognition of title, or by reason of disputed title, and a consequent condition of litigation becoming constantly more intricate and threatening.

This condition has reached a point where it has become impossible for the Territorial courts, in the crowded state of their calendars, even were they to be given jurisdiction, to ever determine; so that the prospect of settlement is rendered hopeless in the absence of special provision by act of Congress.

It was in view of this state of the case that an organization of prominent citizens of the Territory, composed of both races and all political creeds, representing all the interests and industries of the Territory and all shades of opinion on the grant question, was effected in the autumn of 1887 for the purpose of formulating a bill for presentation to Congress for its action, and a delegation appointed by the executive to person ally make that presentation and urge that action, to the end that we might secure the speediest possible relief from this depressing condition. The two bills now pending in the Senate of the United States, one of them having passed the House of Representatives, embody in the main the features of the measure prepared and presented by that delegation. These two bills combined, as they can readily be, retaining the most valuable provisions of each, would speedily settle all controversy on this subject, and as satisfactorily to all interests as it would be possible for any measure of legislation to do- far more so than any that has been heretofore proposed.

This measure has been pending in Congress since last January, now nearly a year, and it is noticeable that no suggestion but of indorsement and commendation of the plan of settlement proposed therein has ever been made by any party or interest permanently or actively identified with or interested in the development of New Mexico.

This fact, it would seem obvious, ought to be sufficient to silence opposition and secure the prompt adoption of this or some similar measure. This continuance of doubtful titles to many of the best and most available lands in the Terrritory has become a serious bar to the successful development of an empire in extent and in a fertility of resources rarely equaled anywhere and excelled nowhere, and that condition has been aggravated solely by the delay of Congressional action, and is becoming more so by continued delay, till the case as it now stands constitutes a chronic denial of justice by the Government to a large community of its people who have staked their lives in behalf of American institutions and the spread and establishment of American civilization, and have expended largely and liberally of their means and their energies in the founding here of American homes.

For more than a generation the people of this Territory were engaged in a hand to hand conflict with savagery, much of the time unaided and alone, the mementoes of which are yet to be seen in the thousands of lonely graves that mark all our highways and mountain valleys.

It is not surprising that during the continuance of such an era, when self-preservation came uppermost, definitive titles to land should come to be lightly regarded, and a laxity naturally productive of public turmoil and confusion should come to prevail; nor that advantage should be subsequently taken of that condition by those alert to opportunities for gain.

But all that has passed, and New Mexico now stands at the doors of Congress asking that which no other tribunal can give-the machinery for the correction of disorders that came largely of contact with sav. agery in the upholding of the cause of civilization; disorders that have been largely intensified by the non-action of Congress, and for the correction of which only Congress can provide, and thus put the people of New Mexico in a position to successfully invite immigration and investment; to open up this empire of public domain for the establishment of American homes, and start their Territory with its unparalleled resources in an era of unexampled prosperity

WATER STORAGE AND IRRIGATION.

Next to the settlement of our land-grant titles, the question of greatest importance to New Mexico is that of water storage and distribution for irrigation. While in some portions of the Territory, notably in the timbered mountains of the north and the southeast, successful agriculture without irrigation is not uncommon, it is not possible in very large areas, especially in the central and southern portions, though even in these there are occasional seasons when fair crops are realized in localities by the natural rain-fall.

Yet, in view of the fact that a failure of crop is not possible with a reasonably complete system of water storage and distribution, whereby the farmer can compute his crop practically to the pound, in advance, year by year, with a given extent and thoroughness of cultivation, it follows that that system of cultivation will pay all, or more, the additional cost of irrigation, as the liability of failure of crop is thereby reduced to the minimum.

New Mexico differs materially from all the Western Territories in that, lying in the southern foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains, it has few of the continuous, rugged ranges that characterize much of the north. The country here is broken into alternate valleys, mesas, mountain peaks, and short ranges. Excellent facilities are thus afforded for the gathering and storage of water, and at elevations that permit its distribution, by the force of gravitation, to practically every tillable acre of land in the Territory.

The area of New Mexico is 79,000,000 acres. Of this it is estimated that not less than 60,000,000 acres may be classed as tillable with sufficient appliances for placing water thereon. This can be done only by a general system of storage in the higher altitudes, so disposed as to gather and hold the surplus that comes down from the mountains and runs the streams bank full at certain periods of every year, and thus reserve it for distribution during the dry periods of the later spring and earlier summer months.

The general flow of most of the water courses of the Territory is southward-generally rising in the mountains of the north, gathering volume