Arizona citizen., 1872-04-06
LETTER FROM PHENIX.

ity This Year 6,OOO to 5000
 quired and Successes Attainable
 in One Year--Heaviest Drawbacks
 in Fact and Others PossibIe--Ex-
 penditures on Ditches--What May
 be Expected if Contractors do Not
 Run Down Prices of Grain to
 California Rates.
 PHENIx, A. T., March 23, 1872.
 We are enjoyng very quiet time here among our green fields, just be- tween sowing and harvest. Who can enjoy himself better than the farmer, who after his planting Is done, can stand amidst his broad acres of way ing grain and watch its development, noting each day or week its progress from the moment that the first tender shoot breaks through the ground, un- til the heavy bearded golden brown heads waving in the gentle Summer winds gladden. his heart with the prospect of @ rich harvest? Never did small cluster of farmers look upon the result of their labors with more satisfied hearts, than the majority of the farmers in this county.
 Since the first settlement was made here by J. W. Swilling and the pio- neers who were with him, every year has added a few hundred acres to the amount of land in cultivation, but the present year has seen the greatest ad- vances even ill proportion to the amount sown the previous year. I have not had time to gather statistics, to be able to give the number of acres, but I am not over-estimating when put the amount sown at from six to eight thousand acres, and about evenly divided between wheat and barley. Some of it has just been sown and is now breaking through the ground, and while in other fields the more ambitious stalks are begin ing to show their heads and still in others, 1t is we'll headed out and the grains are becoming plump and heavy. We are looking forward now to har- vest as an event near at hand.
 Men who have had no experience in farming in Arizona, or in countries where they depend entirely upon ir- rigation, can have no adequate con- ception of the outlay here necessary for the complete development of @ good ranch. Those who come here and locate upon ranch and buy @ water right with acequias all built to their ranches, or within a short dis tance, can have little idea of the fear ful struggle against all kinds of dis advantages and discouragements that the earlier settlers here have encoun- tered and overcome. Even now, to come ill here in the proper season and locate @ quarter section of land, pur- chase the necessary water, complete the ditches, clear even fifty acres of land and sow 1t, require an outlay that few of the new settlers are able to bear without getting heavily in volved. In many cases, they have been able to buy their water on time, and other facilities are extended to them in the way of credit for seed and supplies.
 r With the advantages now offered, e man who is prudent and economical and reasonably energetic, will get through his first year with a good ranch and water right worth two thousand dollars and few old debts tc trouble him, and the second year will see him free from debt and his ranch still further improved.
 The immense outlay for repairs and improvements on the ditches is the heaviest drawback to the advance ment of the farmers, unless it be the determination on the part of the mer- chants to keep the prices of all mer- chandise up to the old standard, and the evident purpose of the contractors to put the price of grain down to 6 figure that will hardly pay.
 During the past two years upwards of one hundred thousand dollars have been expended in this valley on the various aceouias and their extansions