Arizona citizen., 1875-09-18
A R Q N A.
A Comprehensive Statement of it's
 Great Wealth and Capabilities.

' Between the Rocky and Sierra Neva . da mountains there is much land nov
 regarded unproductive and next tc
 useless, and this stretches from Mexico . to British Columbia Arizona fall within this area, but myself having travelled over, on different routes anC Iconveyances, the several Territorie.
 and States in it, feel justified in say ing that the proportion of bad land il Arizona is below that observed else where This IS probably due some
 what to the fall of rain nearly every month in the year, especially in July and August when vegetation ill othel localities is withered and parched
 Rich and cultivatable land lies along
 the valleys of the Gila, Colorado, Salt
 Verde, Little Colorado, Biz Sandy
 Williams Fork, Santa Cruz, San Pedro and Rillito rivers and their tributarie: , (Which are small but numerous I These valleys will be better described
 in my description of the streams There are settlements of farmers anC
 stock growers in each place named and many others, with room for more
 Excepting the Big Sandy and Vii
 Hams Fork valleys, public surveys art
 to some extent extended over all. Al
 the grains and vegetables common tC
 the temperate zone are successfully
 produced in the Territory. In some portions of the Gila, Salt and Santa
 Cruz valleys, Irish potatoes do not seem
 to flourish. They run to tops in places,
 and in others produce fine appearing
 ones, which only keep a few weeks
 after being dug. However, there are
 so many places in all sections of the
 Territory where this vegetable is grown | to perfection, that little inconvenience
 results. Of the seventy thousand square
 miles in Arizona, there must be twenty
 thousand capable of cultivation, with
 present water supply; when the water is
 properly saved and distributed, and
 with arteSian water, still larger area
 may be chased as available for agricul-
 ture. In the Gila, Salt, Santa Cruz,
 San Pedro and other valleys, two crops
 are grown in the same year. Corn is
 usually planted immediately afte I
 wheat and barley are harvested. This
 has been the practice in the valley ly-
 ing in front of Tucson Santa Cruz for
 at least one hundred years. It is now
 well known that the great interior of
 our continent contains much more val
 uable land for agriculture than was ac-
 knowledged few years ago. In every valley named settlers may find land un- occupied. They cannot go astray in this regard, but at present would prob ably be best accommodated in the Gila valley above the Pima and Maricopa Indian reservation, or in Salt or in Little Colorado, or Verde, or San Pc dro, or Santa Cruz. Industrious men can soon make an independent home in either of these valleys. Of course, grants to railways and reputed Spanish grants cover some portions of the val leys named; but at the rate railways with grants are building, it is probable grants to them will soon be forfeited to the public, and Congress will hardly renew them. In any event, the man looking for agricultural land can easily find 1t in the valleys named, and with out any known encumbrances. Judged by an official investigation made in pursuance of a United States Senate resolution a few years ago, no authentic records of Spanish or Mexican grants exist in the proper archieves in Mexico, and therefore it is doubted by as shrewd a land dealer as William S. Chapman of your city, whether any genuine Spanish grants exist in Arizona.
 R. c. Hopkins, of your Surveyor Generals office, says there are a few perfect grants here, but of this proofs are yet to be made. The present method provided by law for the adjust ment of title to this class of land here is deemed unsatisfactory by Congress, by the General Land Office and by claimants. It is reported that San Francisco man will have prepared to present to the ensuing Congress bill providing for a commission similar to the California one, whereby a speedy of Spanish titles will be had. If such bill fail of passage, then it is determined by the General Land Of flee to proceed under existing laws which provide that the Surveyor-Gen- eral shall examine into the validity of such titles and report thereon for final or rejection by Congress.
 AND MINOR STREAMS.
 Flippant writers, of some education and observation, declare Arizona practically an arid desert. Now to the facts: The Gila river rises in New Mexico and runs entirely through , this Territory and empties into the Colorado-the boundary between us and your State. It flows through a valley of rich soil-not lava rocks as does much of the great Snake river of Idaho The length ofthe Gila Valley i'll Arizonai is fully four hundred miles, and lies in latitude 33--that is, its