The weekly Arizona miner., 1872-08-10
ARIZONA.
The Truth about Matters and r,,,

That sterling friend of the Wst.,,s Territories and people-C,efs.s. w:.. World, of New York City-cOntaia. i. !, number for July, truthful, well wr;,,.. ter concerning "Arizona Terri,orv r~,ss letter was written by our fellow-tOx,.,.. F. c. Ayres, to his brother, J. B. A,, well-kaown manufacturer of New York c;,'
 From this letter we extract as follows.
 
 I certainly believe I am within h, when say that the Indians steal Oas ss-.s !, the live stock of the country every ,..s They take more horses and mules ,b.n; ; ,s1 do of other stock, and in some dis,ricts ,s.! ,ss! steal at least one half of the horses and n-y y every year. People expect forays hers .ss have philosophicallv determined to ,al. a ,Sa chances. Since have been here to, r..se herds of COWS have been driven off Sy IsP ians, from within one nile of this town ,,". times, the herders killed at one time md '. the others, desperately wounded. Thes. mi, rages actually occurred within one mil. .s Fort Whipple, the Military Head Quarter ., the Territory. You may imagine that peonl. do not keep very fine stock, to have ths,, take their chances, and be run o!f at ever, incursion by the red devils, but, unfortun,,.. ly, they do. There are not many teams k,n. for driving, the people mostly travel on hor,s. back. The treighting is done by mule ,eans though OK teams are extensively emplovea' All the groceries, dry goods, farming md mining tools, machinery, etc, have to b. hauled by teams an average of 250 miles Then, there is all the hay and grain for th. various military posts to be delivered; SO yOo see that freighting is an important industry here, and Is attended with great risk. The average cost of delivering merchandise from California to the points where it is con. makes living here'rather expensive, though ve always have plenty to eat.
 We are living in hopes that railroad will soon be built through this Territory, which will clear out the Indians, while nothing else will. The country has plenty of rich mines. but no mines in the world can be worked and pay the prices we now have to pay for every. thing we use, not including the losses to be sustained from Indian depredations. Nov it takes two men to do one mans work; one to watch for Indians while the other works. One day last week, the Indians drove off every hoof of stock from mining camp % miles south of here. This is no unusual oc. currence; on the other hand, it has become railroad will change all this; for with it comes cheap transportation and plenty of men to work the rich mines of the country.
 There is no doubt but the Thirty-Ffth Parallel Railroad is one of the best routes across the continent It passes through the richest portion of the country, on route easily built, and one that will have no snow to interfere with its travel in the worst win ter. It passes through country we'll tim bered, we'll watered, fine grazing country and the richest mining country on the cont nent, which, without the railroad, is of but little value.
 There are plenty of farming lands to make the country selfsustaining, and good sup ply of timber, grass for millions of cattle, snt mines to employ many thousand miners, all or nearly all, at standstill on account of th accursed Indians One half of the Territor, is an unknown land. Every year psrtis make trips into the Indians country, anC never fail to find good farming and mining prospects, though they can never give th' country thorough exploration, as the rel skins are always after tEem. There is strl of country 100 miles wide and POO miles lonl here, known to abound in minerals of eTcr. kind but the white man cannot get into to do any thing until the Indians are dispose' of. This is what we are all waiting for, an. for this am going to stay; and iffthe Ind ians don't last longer than l do, expect ' have something out of the country.
 The climate of Arizona is good, healthy sn agreeable, and the soil is so varied that will produce everything grown. In the high CT parts of the country they can raise any thing that grows in New York; and in tn Southern or lower parts, on Salt River sD on the Gila pronounced Hila) River, orange and other tropical fruits are grown m Proiu sion. On the river lands they can ootai plenty of water for irrigation, and can rss two crops of grain in the year.