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gardening. The farms are generally rented by Mexicans, whose system of agriculture is very crude. They use no improved implements and do their cultivating entirely by hand, which of course operates very much against the rapid development of the country in this direction. As a proof of this state ment, and of the scarcity of the supply of water at present, I need only say that land valued at from twenty to forty dollars an acre can be rented at from twenty-five cents to one dollar an acre. It is true that this is in part explained by the land being held at speculative prices; but the same conditions must prevail to a large extent until the system of labor is changed and agriculture be conducted more in accordance with the recognized principles of that industry.

The soils of the valley may in a general way be divided into three classes:
First—The heavy "adobe" soil of the river deposit.
Second—The sandy loam, being an intimate mixture of the adobe soil with the sand of the foothills adjacent to the valley.
Third—The sandy soil, containing an excess of the sand from the foothills.

The adobe soil is the most difficult to cultivate, is plastic, and is generally supposed to contain a larger amount of alkalies than either of the other soils. The sandy soil is regarded as the best adapted for vegetables and alfalfa, while the sandy loam, which is the predominating soil, is used for various crops.

ADOBE SOIL.—This soil was taken from the valley between El Paso and Juarez (Paso del Norte), Mexico. So far as could be judged it was selected as a typical "adobe" soil.