feasibility of not only producing an excellent quality of the most profitable fruits, but also the ability to raise them for market from three to six weeks earlier than any section of California.

Concerning the various products of the county, we quote again from the report of the citizens' committee:

The orange, lemon, and lime finding soils and climate congenial, yield in abundance large, clean-skinned, and exceedingly luscious fruits. They color handsomely, contain the requisite acidity and sweetness, and are very juicy. The fig and pomegranate offer a character of fruit that almost stamp them as indigenous. The latter is not yet recognized to any great extent, but it will certainly become an important factor in arboriculture when its economic qualities are better known. As to the fig, the most desirable variety has yet to be determined. The true White Smyrna would probably prove the best, and that its yield would be prodigious goes without saying, for the trees will bear three crops annually. This assertion is based upon actual productive results of the Mediterranean white fig that is known not to be the true Smyrna.

The grape seizes upon what is proffered to it, and becomes hardy, thrifty, and adaptable. The choice naturally inclines to the earliest for table purposes. What those varieties should be is in process of experiment upon a scale that will soon solve the question, but it may be said that all kinds mature from three to four weeks before they do in California. They attain great size, cluster tightly in bunches, are firm and highly colored, and possess exquisite flavor.

Heavy wines and brandies of an excellent character can be made; but with light wines the reverse is true, for everything apparently goes to saccharine. For ripening wines the climatic conditions are admirable. A quantity of common white wine, costing 45 cents per gallon, was brought here from California by water years ago, and being found unsaleable, was placed in cellars and its history almost forgotten. Nine years later the wine was brought to light, when it was discovered that it resembled a brown sherry, rich in bouquet, smooth as oil, and delicious to the taste. It was carefully drawn from the casks, bottled, and sold at $2.50 per bottle.

"The olive grows luxuriantly, and will in the future become a most profitable investment. Whatever its characteristics are elsewhere, here it requires water and cultivation-the more water the better. The mulberry matures rapidly, and when firmly rooted vigorously withstands great heat and lack of water. It produces an early, large, and sweet fruit, and is a highly desirable tree to plant along the canals for its grateful shade. The plum can easily be raised from seed. It fruits early, though so far the product does not commend itself particularly for table use; but as a stock upon which to graft prunes, or even superior varieties of plums, it is everything to be desired. An experiment in this line with the best prune known in California showed a growth of 23 inches in forty days from the insertion of the graft. The date has passed beyond conjecture. The plant produces magnificently, and its cultivation will be prosecuted more extensively this winter than ever before. The soil is in every way suitable and with occasional cultivation and intelligent irrigation a quick and early growth is assured. Apricots and peaches have been tested. They mature rapidly, bear choice fruit, and are always healthy, giving flattering indications of future success.

"As facilities increase, other fruit trees will be introduced, and with the same care that is bestowed upon them elsewhere will, so soon as they become acclimated, come to a yield materially in advance of the place from whence they come. The field is too large to admit of extended comment at this time, but it may suffice to briefly refer to certain other products which may in time equal, if not surpass, fruit growing as a commercial proposition, as, for example, cotton, wild hemp, ramie, sugar, sugar beets, etc.

"Cotton has been tried from time to time for years, with varying, but always satisfactory results, and even then without care. If watered regularly, it becomes a large bush, and if properly pruned, a tree, being in flower, boll, and cotton the year round. These bushes and trees have in instances borne steadily for fourteen years, the staple of course diminishing in course of time; but at ten years it is not inferior to the average staple of western India.

"Wild hemp is a textile plant indigenous to the country. It grows freely and luxuriantly to a great height, often averaging from 15 to 17 feet. It has a long strong fiber, and is frequently worked into nets and fishing lines by the Yuma Indians. Convulsive attempts have been made to utilize this plant, with the practical result of fixing its value among the fibers used in the manufacture of Cordage at about $160 per ton of 2,000 pounds. After proper bleaching and manipulation a beautiful fiber has been produced and manufactured into colored fabrics, taking the dye and retaining the elasticity and luster exactly as well as

the fabrics of true flax and ramie. It seeds itself annually, and, immediately following the overflows of the Colorado River. takes possession of every nook, corner, and open area, to the exclusion of everything else. It covers not less than 100 square miles in an unbroken stretch, commencing near the boundary line of the Gadsden purchase and extending southward along the river to Hardy's Colorado, below the point where the rising tides of the Gulf of California force back the flow of the Colorado River proper.

"The fibrous plant ramie has been given a partial trial. The soil on analysis was found to contain all the essential properties to render the most favorable results; but the absence of water, together with injudiciously planting the roots too late, retarded the growth. Enough data has been obtained, however, to warrant the belief that this will eventually become one of our most important industries.

"Sugar cane has been fairly tested with the Sonora cane. The growth was surprisingly great, and the percentage of juice much increased over the yield at the place from which it was originally brought. A superior quality of pianoche and sirup were manufactured, the price realized leaving handsome margins for profit. The capriciousness of the water supply. as in the case of ramie, dissolved the industry, and it has not since been revived.

"The sugar beet promises better results for the future than many of the products already mentioned as prominent in the same direction, Samples not fully matured polarized 17 per cent. With proper cultivation, the percentage can be raised to from 20 to 25, and besides will harvest two crops each year.

· Wheat does splendidly, but complete data are not at hand from which to compute the average yield. In one instance, however, 483 pounds seeded to 20 acres, about 9 miles east of Yuma, on the Gila River, returned 52,750 pounds after having been irrigated five times. This was sold in San Francisco, bringing 50 per cent over every other kind then in the market. The grain is remarkable for its plump, berry-like appearance. The winter and spring are warm enough to insure a vigorous growth, and cool enough in April and May to allow the heads to fill out without shriveling. It is so perfect as to sell for seed, and, so far as is known, is proof against rust. The crops are raised annually.

"Barley also does well, and will produce two crops, the first yielding from 35 to 40 bushels of barley and the second a large amount of hay.

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· Corn is produced in great quantity: yields enormously, and can be grown the year round. The Cocopah corn is noted for sweetness, plumpness, earliness, and for its firm and solid grains. Five weeks after planting, roasting ears are plentiful. This variety commands a ready sale at higher prices than any other kind. Alfalfa will cut from five to seven times at an average of 24 tons to the acre. Eight acres but 1 year old have this year yielded 74 tons, with more cuttings yet to be made. The hay brings $15 per ton.

"Sorghum raised for feed is both valuable and prolific, it frequently reaching 15 feet high, and is worth $15 per ton, yielding 15 to 20 tons per acre. Several crops can be harvested annually.

Vegetables, kitchen and garden stuff, melons, etc., grow all the year round in unlimited quantity and excellent quality. Some time since a Gila Valley farmer planted 15 pounds of Irish potatoes on a piece of bottom land that had been overflowed, from which he harvested over 700 pounds, and this record, it is believed, has rarely, if ever, been excelled. The sweet potato produces enormously, and equals the choicest brought from South Carolina.

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Peanuts mature rapidly and abundantly, yeielding a nut both plump and toothsome.

"Whenever there is sufficient moisture, the natural flora abound in profusion and variety. They are of rare beauty and delicious fragrance, the bulbous plants particularly. The lily surpasses the famous imported Japan. It has been claimed by experts that at no distant period opium will be manufactured from the poppy, and attar from the rose, both flowers thriving vigorously. There are but few trees and shrubs capable of adorning the surroundings of a lovely modern home that can not be satisfactorily grown.

"Every_plant, vine, or tree mentioned in the foregoing list has been actually proven adaptable to our soils and climate. Many others have been omitted through lack of space, but there seems no doubt that time will demonstrate our ability to profitably raise all the semitropic and most of the tropical and temperate productions."

CONCLUSION.

In the valleys of the Colorado and Gila rivers there is room for thousands. It is not too much to say that nowhere within the limits of this broad Union can be