The Ferns of New Mexico

Abstract

The popular conception of New Mexico in the eastern and northern United States, often even among well educated people, is that it is nearly all a desert, where for most of the year high temperatures prevail. Very little is generally known, outside the State, of the large areas of agricultural land rendered productive by irrigation or by recently developed methods of dry farming, and still less of the great mountain ranges, best developed in the northern part, but reaching, as isolated masses of peaks, to the southern boundary. These ranges are similar to those of the states to the north and are fully equal in scenic effects to those of Colorado, so familiar to tourists. Some of the mountains of southern New Mexico, by reason of their precipitous, naked slopes, exhibit beauties of coloration which are unknown farther north. In the more elevated ranges in midsummer the climate is nearly ideal, although at altitudes of only 7500 to 8500 feet the temperature is often uncomfortably low. The highest peaks reach an elevation of slightly less than 14,000 feet, but scores of others, even near the Mexican and Texan border, are well above 10,000 feet.