The "State Different" It is surprising to see where fair New Mexico stacks up statistically with other states in the union when it comes to weather. Living in Las Cruces, the concept I have of New Mexico is sunny, dry, hot, and blustery, but not particularly stormy.

Indeed, New Mexico ranks second only to its neighbor Arizona in the percent of days that are sunny, with more than three-quarters of our time in the sun. Our dryness is a matter of record, too, ranking fourth from the bottom in the square miles of water in the state.

Surprisingly, though, we rank equal with Kansas in mean temperature, tied for the 16th-highest at 56 degrees. What really blew me away, however, was our ranking in average wind speed. We were tied with Vermont for 27th, with an average wind speed of 9 miles per hour. Most New Mexicans I know consider that "still."

Eastern New Mexico is part of the infamous tornado alley of America, but as a state we ranked 24th in the incidence of tornadoes in 1994, tied with New York. Such a ranking probably seems high to our citizens in the western part of the state.

Of course, all of these rankings rely on adding and averaging readings from a vastly varied state. The fifth-largest state in square miles, New Mexico probably can't be described in a general way that does justice to any particular part. Our latitude extends 400 miles and elevations vary from 2,800 feet to more than 13,000 feet. We have true deserts and verdant mountain meadows.

There are seven life zones in the world and New Mexico has six of them. Each requires attention from our agricultural and natural resource scientists.

We have a daunting task to support the variety of agriculture in the variety of conditions we have. That is why we have science and research centers addressing plant and animal agriculture in nine locations around the state. They are in Alcalde, Artesia, Clayton, Clovis, Corona, Farmington, Las Cruces, Los Lunas, and Mora.

Interestingly, the push from clients is to expand our research and demonstration base to address even more particular needs. At the same time, we are under increasing financial pressure. Cuts in federal budgets supporting agricultural research and development look likely in Washington.

Back in New Mexico, during the last budget cycle, line items for the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service were cut 3 percent. It was argued that this funding was somehow outside NMSU's central mission and therefore expendable.

History shows that nothing could be more central to NMSU than agricultural research and development. Its establishment was inextricably tied to the establishment of a state Agricultural Experiment Station under the Hatch Act. The land given to the Experiment Station determined the university's location and the Experiment Station is mentioned in the original constitutional references to NMSU.

Beyond that, Experiment Station and Extension work is closely tied to our classroom endeavors. We could never offer the breadth of expertise to our students unless we had faculty sharing their time with the Experiment Station and Extension Service missions.

We have the equivalent of fewer than 40 full-time teachers spread among more than 100 experts. Consequently, we can offer 14 undergraduate majors that aren't available anywhere else in the state.

The bottom line is that a commitment to maintaining agricultural research and development across the state is important in its own right. If we do, both our climate and economy will be bright.