The following, taken from that excellent work, "The Handbook of Arizona," by R. J. Hinton, alluding to the valley in question, is interesting and accurate:

This consists of a broad expanse of tillable valley land, sometimes overflowed by the river, which is at times "mighty uncertain," and a steep range of volcanic hills, coming close to the highways for a dozen miles or so-hot, heavy, sandy. It is hardly fair to say sandy, as it is really a friable alluvial soil of grayish hue and loose texture. Several ranches are passed, showing that the Gila bottom is cultivated. With irrigation every square mile of the Gila Valley is capable of producing prolific crops of grains and semitropical fruits, as well as cotton and sugar in abundance. The river is able to furnish all the water needed, and a good deal more. It would take no very great skill in engineering, and not a very large sum of money either, to construct reservoirs or lakes in which to receive and store the overflow. There are natural basins or dry lakes into which by simple means the water could be conveyed.

The lands situated in and about the Gila Valley may conveniently be classified as follows: (1) The bottom or overflow lands; (2) slightly higher valleys, lands subject to no overflow; (3) mesas or sloping uplands; (4) high, but comparatively level, plains; (5) mountains.

THE COLORADO RIVER VALLEY.

[By Mr. Walter T. Gregory.]

The development of the agricultural resources of the Colorado River valley, near Yuma, may be said to be yet in its infancy, but sufficient has been accomplished to demonstrate that this favored section has not been inaptly designated as the valley of the American Nile, and its present growth is a fair indication of future prosperity under favorable conditions.

For the past few years the valley has slowly but steadily been peopled with a persistent, sturdy class of home seekers bent on reclaiming the rich, virgin soil from the mesquite and sagebrush, their efforts resulting in prosperous farms dotting the site of the primal desert growth.

At the present time there are 4,000 acres of land under cultivation, making an increase of 1,000 acres during the past year. There are, however, about 45,000 acres under the various canal systems susceptible of irrigation, and the cultivated area bids fair to largely increase during the coming year.

The principal methods of irrigation are by gravity and pumping, the following named being the canal companies supplying water in the valley: The Colorado River Pumping and Irrigating Company, The Yuma Land and Water Company, and the Irrigation Land and Improvement Company. In addition to the water systems mentioned, a new company, the Colorado Delta Canal Company, has purchased the rights of the Speese canal, and as soon as certain agreements with the landowners under the proposed canal are completed will extend and enlarge the waterway.

The new canal will have its main head at Cocopah Point, about 25 miles above Yuma on the Colorado River. This system will take in the mesa lands and will, when completed, greatly increase the irrigable land.

The Yuma Water and Light Company has in successful operation a pumping plant, which supplies water for the company's fruit ranch on the mesa near Yuma. While the area cultivated by the pumping plant consists of only 80 acres, the company has had great success in raising

early citrus fruits. The company this year netted very handsome profits from the sale of oranges, lemons, apricots, grape fruit, and vegetables, supplying the markets of Arizona and California from two to four weeks earlier than the southern California fruit belt.

The soil of the mesa lands is especially adapted to raising citrus fruits, the valley soil being best adapted for deciduous fruits.

The valley soil is a sandy-loam deposit and has a uniform depth of 7 feet. Water can be obtained at almost any point in the lowlands at a depth of 12 feet.

The products of the valley are dates, almonds, walnuts, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, grapes (all varieties), pears, peaches, apricots, figs, oranges, lemons, and pomegranates. Of cereals and grasses may be mentioned sugar and Kaffir corn, barley, clover, maize, sorghum, timothy, blue grass, and alfalfa. From six to seven cuttings of alfalfa can be obtained during a favorable year, averaging a fraction over 1 ton per acre each cutting.

It has been demonstrated that all fruits indigenous to the tropical or semitropical regions can be grown in this valley. Experiments have been successfully made with cotton, but owing to the cost of labor has not passed beyond the experimental stage. In the lowlands the sugar beet has been tested and found to contain a high percentage of saccharine matter. The raising of the sugar beet will no doubt be one of the future industries of the valley.

The population of the valley, exclusive of Yuma, is about 1,200 and is steadily increasing. As an evidence of the growth of the population it may be mentioned that there are now six schools in the valley, whereas there was but one three years ago.

One of the principal drawbacks to the rapid settlement and development of the valley, and a potent one, is that in the spring months during high water in the Colorado River much of the land of the valley is subject to overflow, thereby rendering otherwise very valuable land practically useless for cultivation. This condition of affairs can not be materially bettered until the Government comes to the assistance of the settlers by building a levee to the Mexican line.

The cost of maintaining all systems of irrigation is also a matter of concern to the settlers, and to the end that their burden may be lightened in this respect, a movement is now under way to organize with the view of soliciting Government assistance.

VALLEY OF THE LITTLE COLORADO.

[By Capt. John T. Hogue.]

Owing to climatic and other conditions, such as visitations of grasshoppers and chinch bugs, agriculture in Apache County has almost been a failure for the last ten years.

In and around St. Johns the farmers have always had, in addition to the scourges named above, to contend against the numerous mineral springs which are scattered along the banks of the Little Colorado River for 15 miles above St. Johns. These mineral springs are in many respects remarkable, and the volume of water discharged from them is so great and the water is so strongly impregnated with mineral that the Little Colorado River partakes of the nature of these springs most all the year round. It is only during the rainy season and when the snow melts in the mountains in the spring and we have fresh-water

floods, that there is any perceptible change in the character of the water that reaches St. Johns for irrigation purposes. During the past six to ten years the snowfall in the mountains in the winter and the rainfall in the summer has been so light that they were insufficient to counteract the evil effect of the water from these springs upon cereal vegetation.

To give you an idea of the capacity or extent of these springs the smaller of them are about 10 feet in diameter at the surface and 30 to 60 feet deep. The larger springs are more than 20 feet in diameter at the surface and have never been fathomed. Stockmen living in the vicinity of these springs have tied two and three 60-foot lariat ropes together and sounded them 150 to 180 feet without finding bottom. The flow from the springs is the same all the year round and the largest would fill a good-sized mill race.

There are about a dozen of these springs emptying into the Little Colorado River within 15 miles above St. Johns, and they are so strongly impregnated with mineral that it renders the land useless for raising any of the cereals. Alfalfa has withstood the baneful effects of this mineral water for twenty years, but the farmers say that the water is beginning to tell upon their alfalfa, killing it out in places and greatly reducing the crop in tonnage as compared with former years when heavy snowfall prevailed in the mountains in the winter and a good rainy season set in in the summer.

In and around Springerville, situated about 30 miles south of St. Johns at the foot of the White mountains, is the garden spot of Apache County. They have no mineral springs to contend with, all their water being pure mountain and rain water, but owing to adverse climatic conditions agriculture in this section has been almost a total failure for the past ten years. In former years when we had good seasons there would be about 5,000 acres of land under cultivation in and around Springerville, producing the finest crops of wheat, barley, and oats, the farmers having a large surplus to sell. This year there are not 1,500 acres planted in the whole section.

For the last ten years I think that I can venture the assertion that the largest number of farmers, not only in and around Springerville, but in the whole county of Apache, have not harvested on an average a return of the cereal planted.

The acreage of farming land in Apache County is about 6,500 acres. This year, owing to the adverse conditions heretofore existing, there is not to exceed 3,000 acres planted in the whole county. This, so far, is the most promising season we have had for years, but the farmer was afraid to plant.

The crops produced are wheat, barley, oats, corn, and alfalfa, the only reliable crop for the last ten years being alfalfa; the most precarious and uncertain crop being corn on account of the early frosts in the fall.

The water supply, if we are ever so fortunate to get our reservoirs filled, is five times in excess of our necessities. There are six reservoirs in the White Mountains above Springerville, four of which are natural, the water being run into natural basins from the river; the other two are made by damming the river. The irrigation capacity of the six reservoirs is 6,000 acres.

There are three reservoirs between Springerville and St. Johns, two of them natural, with a capacity of 1,500 acres, and one artificial made by damming the river, with a capacity of 17,000 acres.

There are two reservoirs below St. Johns, one natural, with an irrigation capacity of 1,000 acres, and one artificial with an irrigation capacity of 8,000 acres.

The total capacity of Apache County reservoirs is 33,500 acres; yet, owing to unfavorable conditions prevalent for the last ten years, 90 per cent of the farmers of this county have had to buy their flour and seed grain every year. In view of these conditions we do not make any great pretentions as an agricultural section, but in cattle and sheep raising Apache County is strictly first-class.

SANTA CRUZ VALLEY.

[By Mr. E. L. Wetmore, of Tucson.]

The Santa Cruz Valley is one of the most extensive valleys in Arizona, and agriculture is carried on to considerable extent. The watershed is composed of mesa and mountains, the latter rising to a height of 7,000 feet. The river supplies water for irrigation purposes throughout the year, but during the dry seasons the supply is of course very small and inadequate. There is, however, a subcurrent of water capable of supplying sufficient flows for irrigation purposes if carried on on a small scale.

William Jenkins, a rancher in the valley near Tucson, irrigates 50 acres of alfalfa by means of a well from which the water is pumped by an 8-inch centrifugal pump. A 22-H. P. engine and a 30-H. P. boiler are used. The water is encountered at depths ranging from 22 to 38 feet. The city of Tucson secures its water supply by means of wells in the valley. There are also two gravity pipe lines of 1,100 and 1,300 feet in length which take water from the Santa Cruz river 5 miles south of the city of Tucson. Prior to 1890 the city secured. its entire supply of water by means of these gravity pipe lines. They were constructed of wood and are still in use.

There are decided indications of underground rivers in Pima county that have been filled in by extensive freshets and volcanic action in the past.

The great sloping mesa on the eastern side of the Santa Cruz Valley rapidly rises as it reached the Santa Rita Mountains. The underflow of water which lies in a strata of gravel, sand, and water-washed bowlders commences at a depth of less than 30 feet and gradually deepens as the higher lands reaching toward the Santa Rita Mountains are encountered. The flow of the well water is noticeable from the southeast toward the northwest.

The annual rainfall at Tucson is 12 inches, at Pantano about 15 inches, and in the southern portion of the county about 16 inches. Twenty to 30 inches fall in the pine belts of the mountains. These waters are drained by the Santa Cruz River and its tributary, the Rillito River, and are carried to the Gila River. Vast quantities of water pass from this watershed to the valley of the Santa Cruz. The river sinks in places, and volumes of water are supposed to run underground. This underflow is tapped by a number of wells in the valley near Tucson. The water is of good quality and devoid of the alkali contained in the surface strata.

The Rillito River and watershed have a more decided grade, and the surface waters are more noticeable than those of the Santa Cruz basin. There are two rainy seasons in this district. Continuous crops are produced each month of the year. As much as 5 tons of barley and

alfalfa hay has been cut from first and second cuttings. Five cuttings of alfalfa hay produce 7 tons for the season. There are 10,000 acres of land under cultivation in the Santa Cruz Valley, agriculture being carried on exclusively by means of irrigation. There are in Pima County 451,871 acres of land appropriated.

By means of water storage at least 75 per cent of the valley of the Santa Cruz, from Nogales on the international boundary line to Sacaton on the Gila River, could be reclaimed. The waters coming down from the mountains could be stored by means of a series of dams on the mesa.

IRRIGATION SYSTEMS OF NAVAJO COUNTY.

[By Hon. F. M. Zuck.]

Navajo County is situated in the northeastern part of the Territory, in about the center of the Great Colorado plateau, a high, rolling, plains country intersected by numerous valleys, which furnish drainage for the county. This county is equal in area to some of the larger States of the Union.

Its average altitude above sea level is about 5,000 feet, where an invigorating atmosphere of medium temperature, without the extremes of heat or cold, forever prevails. Its valleys are extensive, and fertile beyond conception when touched by the magic wand of water, which never fails to develop the highest state of production. The Little Colorado River, with its source 125 miles to the southeast, in the Mogollon Mountain range, flows from east to west through the county near its center and is replenished by numerous streams, the principal ones in the county being Silver Creek and the Show Low. The many irrigated districts along their banks in this and adjoining counties attest to the wonderful productiveness of its soil wherever water has been systematically applied, changing the desert into many selfsupporting happy homes.

Entering the county from the west via the Santa Fe Railway, within 3 miles of the western boundary, is the thriving railroad town of Winslow, where an irrigation system has been constructed in recent years whereby 520 acres have been redeemed to agriculture, producing tons of forage and cereals, the accomplishment of which a few years ago was considered incredible.

All this was accomplished by the indomitable energy of one man, who enlisted a few of his neighbors and almost alone started the work of erecting a dam on Clear Creek, 9 miles from the land he wished to supply. Many believed it to be a waste of time, money, and energy, but so successful has been the venture that others have become interested, and they have constructed a reservoir on the Chevelon, and built a canal i8 miles long which, combined with the former, has increased the water supply to such an extent that the near future will see the Winslow system one of the largest in northern Arizona.

St. Joseph, 20 miles east of Winslow, was one of the first settled and irrigated districts of the county. One mile south of the present location is the old "Fort," so-called, because the houses built of stone formed a square opening out on to a plaza, the fourth being on a lake of water. By this means the early settlers had protection from the prowling, murderous Apaches and Navajos, who had little sympathy with the white invader. The St. Joseph of to-day has well-shaded streets, handsome brick and frame residences, surrounded by gardens of flowers and vegetables, and 800 acres of alfalfa, wheat, and