582 UNITED STATES: — NEW MEXICO
Finance. — For the year ending November 30, 1918, the revenue and expenditure were as follows : —
Dollars Balance, December 1, 1919 . . . . 1,895,197
Receipts for year 1919-20 5,990,833
Total 7,886,030
Disbursements for year 1919-20 . . . . 5,255,462
Balance, December 1, 1920 . . 2,630,568
The total bonded indebtedness of the State on June 30, 1920, was 4,291,500 dollars. The assessed value of real and personal property in 1919 was 371,559,631 dollars.
Production and Industry. — New Mexico produces cereals, vegetables, fruit, and cotton. The principal crops in 1920 were: maize, 7,155,000 bushels ; wheat, 6,375,000 bushels; potatoes, 475,000 bushels. Irrigation, which is indispensable over wide tracks of fertile country, is extending, in 1911 the irrigated area had reached 750,000 acres. The Rio Grande- project provides for resetvoir construction for the irrigation of 180,000 acres in New Mexico and Texas. Private enterprise also is devoted largely to reservoir and canal construction. In 1910 there were 35,676 farms with an area of 11,270,021 acres, of which 1,467,191 acres was improved land. The total value of all farm property in 1910 was 159,447,990 dollars. The farm animals en January 1, 1921, comprised 225,000 horses, 91,000 milch cows, 1,406,000 other cattle, 2,666,000 sheep, and 85,000 swiDe. In 1919 the wool clip amounted to 15,076,000 pounds of wool. The national forest area (1917) covers 8,381,768 acres, and there are about 4,000,000 acres of heavily forested country in private ownership.
The State has valuable mineral resources, comprising gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc. The quarries yield granite, sandstone, limestone, and marble. Turquoise is profitably worked in four localities within the State ; the sands contain traces of platinum ; gypsum is produced in small quantities, as is also mica.
The manufactured output of New Mexico in 1910 amounted to the value of 7,978,000 dollars, of which nearly half was for car construction and repair by railway companies. The industries next in importance are lumber and timber work, and flour and grist milling. There are also woollen mills and cement works. The aggregate capital of all industries was 7,743,000 dollars; the number of wage-earners was 4,143, earning in a year 2,591,000 dollars, and the cost of materials used was 3,261,000 dollars.
In 1917 there were 2,974 miles of railway and 11 miles of electric railway track within the State (1919).
Books of Reference.
The New Mexico Blue Book. First issue 1916. Santa Fe.
Report of the Secretary of New Mexico.— Legislative Manual. Biennial. Santa Fe. —Publications of the New Mexico Bureau of Immigration, descriptive of the various resources of the State. Albuquerque.
Powell (K. A.), The End of the Trail : The Far West from New Mexico to British Columbia. London, 1915.
