that most of this valley is not under cultivation, but is covered with
sage bushes. It is around the skirts of the mountains, that the only
valuable grass is found. The people, as a general thing, are quite
poor, but, as they find a ready market through the military posts for
their produce, they manage to realize some money, and thus live quite
comfortably, in contrast with their former destitute condition under
the government of Old Mexico. Some of the inhabitants might be said to
be rich, though but few of this class own ten thousand dollars' worth
of property. It is with great labor that the people of Taos bring
their crops to perfection, as it is necessary to irrigate the
soil, unless the season, which is rarely the fact, is favorable in
furnishing rains to them. There are no fences to divide one man's
possessions from another's; but, by common law, they furnish shepherds
to guard their flocks and cattle and keep them from trespassing. The
climate is very severe during the winter season, but in the summer
it is delightful. The health of this community is wonderfully good.
Indeed, the only severe diseases they have to contend against are
brought on by vices. Excluding small pox, and the lesser complaints
among young children, no epidemics are known. The country is so
elevated and inland, that the air is dry and salubrious, and the "dew
point" is rarely reached so as to amount to anything. It may be well
to add here, that for the consumptive patient, in the early stages of
the disease, there is no such climate in the world to visit, as that
of New Mexico; but, as a matter of course, he must vary his location
with the changes of temperature, being governed by the seasons. The
winter in Taos is too severe for him; then, he must go South, towards,
or even to El Paso, where it is congenial to his disease. I prophesy
that some day our internal continent will be the "Mecca" for pilgrims
with this disease.