46     THE WISCONSIN FARMER.



one knows where, as there is not a tree, bush
or fence in any Mexican field to prevent it, nor
water in the soil to hold it together. An en-
tirely new soil has then to be broken up for the
next crop.  All this might be prevented by
watering the land during the winter months;
and such watcring would be of vast servies to
the next crop. Deep fall plowing would be of
as much service here as in Wisconsin, if fol-
lowed by proper waterings during the winter;
without that, it would only tend to deprive the
land of its soil. Last winter there was a fall
of three feet of snow in the Taos valley, which
lay on the ground from Christmas to April, all
of which melted and soaked into the ground.
The result has been that this summer they have
reaped on that land, which has been in culti-
vation, without any manure, for a hundred and
fifty years past, from fifty to seventy-five times
the amount of wheat sown. Without winter
irrigation of some kind, the water will never
penetrate below where the plow has broken the
soil, and there will be no spare moisture for
vegetable life ten days after the waterings have
taken place. Showers fall in July and Au-
gust, which help out the crops, and sometimes
within the mountains, (that is, beyond the first
ranges,) corn is made by the rains alone.
  The grain crops consist of spring wheat.
corn, oats, beans and peas; ahd the green veg-
etables are onions, cabbages, red peppers, beets,
carrots and calatlaza8, (a sort of hard shelled
squash). Few of these are raised, owing to
the fact that there are no enclosed gardens,
and cattle are free commoners by the first of
October.
   The food of the Mexicans is meat, wheat and
corn.  All the green food is consumed by
Christmas. Wheat is ground, sifted in a wire
seive, and made into tortillas (tor-teel-yas).
and corn into atole (a-to le).  Tortillas are
wheat meal mixed hard with water, platted
very thin with the hands, and baked on a hot
iron. They are very tough, and pieces answer
the purpose of spoons for eatinrg soup or beans.
Atole is made from the meal of parched corn,
like a thick porridge. and is drank from a cup.
   No portion of the Union pays the laborer tc



well for cultivating the soil as New Mexico.
While he expends no more labor here than in
Wisconsin, and reaps as large a crop, he gets
rrom three to sixteen times as much for it. The
following are a few of the prices this year:
Corn, wheat and oats $5 00 a fantega, (2X
bushels); Beans and peas $10 to $12 a fanega;
Turnips, beets, carrots and parsnips $5 to $8
a fanega; cabbages, kohl-rabies, ruts bagas
25 cts. each; onions and red peppers 4 cents
each; winter squashes 50 cts. to $1 each;
Mexican calabazas 25 to 50 cts- each; oats un-
thrashed $50 per ton; prairie hay, corn-stalks
and straw $30 to $40 per ton. All merchan-
dise three or four times as high as in Madison.
Mexican men labor for $25 a month and board
themselves.  Butter is seventy-five cents a
pound, and scarce at that price.
  I am told that a tract of about seven acres
of land here, this year, planted in corn and
oats, has yielded crops to the value of $760,
and another patch cultivated as a market gard-
en. has yielded $1,200 from an acre; and if it
had been cultivated as some of the gardens
about Madison, and other. places in Wisconsin,
are cultivated, its value might have been doub-
led. I know of no land so well adapted to the
culture of all the tap roots, as are the bottoms
of the streams in New Mexico.  I have not
mentioned the price of potatoes in the above
list, because they do not thrive well here, and
their production is seldom attempted, notwith-
standing there is a small wild one which grows
spontaneously.  Last year, owing to failure of
snow in the mountains, there was no water in
this river, the Mora, and no planting could be
done at the proper season; but on the 30th of
June there was a heavy shower, so that the
land could be plowed. On the first of July the
owner of this place commenced with five teams
to plant corn and oats, planted till the tenth-
most of the corn in drills for feed; and with-
out any water from the river, his ten days work
yielded him $7,000 in cash after harvest.
These yields and prices are not confined to this
portion of the Territory.  As much produce,
and as high and higher prices may be obtained
at any place, where cultivation can be had,