Arizona citizen. [volume] (Tucson, Pima County, A.T. [i.e. Ariz.]) 1870-1880, 1876-09-16
Rainfall and Vegetation In ArI-
IONA.

Camp Lowell Is about six miles east
of Tucson. The United States signal /
service bureau there as at other prin-
cipal points in Arizona, keeps meteor
illogical records, and last week, Mr.. A. |
NJ. Geissinger, IN charge of the Lowell
Office, supplied us with a statement Of
rainfall and other facts for 1876, up to |
August 81. The whole rainfall to that
date, was 1870 inches. Some fell IN
every month bat May. In March the
fall was Is inches; and in July 1.53
in August 3.46. There will be some
more rain in the Fall months, and
usually considerable in November.
Just now there are a few paragraphs
going the rounds of the California and
other papers, to the effect that Arizona
has little grass and is poor place for
stock. All such statements are Untrue,
and the fact that they originated with
men who have been in this Territory,
! does not help the matter Many men
who visit San Francisco and the Bay
towns and counties, especially from
December to June, go away with the
most favorable reports, whereas If at
the same season the same parties could
personally inspect hundreds upon hun
dreds of miles in Southern and South
eastern California, they would always
thereafter feel thankful that they es-
capped alive, and would never cease to
speak of the barren mountains, the ex-
tended deserts covered with sand and
famed by burning breezes, the destitu-
ton of water, andGn their opinion) of
the impOssibility to exist to say nothing
ofproducing anything upon them. 1.-THE
same parties were to first pass through
the great San Joaquin and Sacramento
and smaller but equally fertile valleys of
California, anytime from July to No
vember, they would go away with any
thing but flattering or true reports :
and why the California press do not
think of these facts when some weak
and perhaps slothful man in mind and
body, returns from Arizona with I'M
favorable and certainly untrue reports,
is hardly to be explained on the theory
that the editors are unacquainted with
the character of this Territory-having
much that is far poorer in their own
State In the matters of timber, grass
and area Of tillable land, Arizona ex-
ceeds Utah, Nevada and in some of
these respects Idaho and Wyoming.
We speak from extended personal Oh
servation regarding the places named.
We might add that our rainfall ex-
ceeds all of them, and surely the glo-
rious rains we have in July and Au-
gust, which renew our vegetation at a
time when elsewhere it is parched and
p stock suffering, do not extend to Cal
r ifornia or the other localities mention
ed. Four-tifths of Arizona is to-day
/, covered with fresh and new grass and
other vegetation, and the grass remains
nutritious even when dry. No Terri
: tory and few States have better or fat
| ter beef and mutton than Arizona, and
! cattle and sheep are at no time fed any
thing but grass. y couple OF weeks
ago, we took some notice of one Ban
Ita's report about the Little Colorado
section, which appeared in the Stock
, ton Independent and subsequently in
nearly every San Francisco daily and
, weekly journal. Following appeared
in the Downey Courier, Los Angeles
county, California, August 10:
, Mr.. Parish, who has lately returned
here from a "trip to Arizona, speaks
= very discOuragingly Of that country.
1 He says there is but very little grazing
o land in the Territory, and the mines
are principally slides" quickly work
ed ont There are hundreds of pros
i pectors in the mountains ekeing out a
e bare subsistence-livIng from hand to
4 mouth. Many of the farmers are in
the same predicament, and would
/ leave the Territory in disgust if they
lcould get away. For week while
Mr.. Parish was in Tucson the Their
S lmometer indicated 100 degrees in the
shade. We advise all who have any
idea of emigrating to Arizona to inter
! view Mr.. Parish. He has seen the . ele
/ plant" Several parties from TIL:
; neighbOrhood are on the way back.
+ Of course, the above Is literally
c false in the particulars of grazing, dis
couragcd farmers, sc. Probably in no
y a State in the nation, does the farmer
II get such large prices for his produc'
IS as in Arizona nor is the certainty o
crops greater elsewhere. There is no
mining State or Territory in which
:, there are not hundreds of miners anC
n prospectors ekeing out a bare subsist
1t ence in the mountains" and nevel
y will be, and the fact argues nothing
e whatever regarding the merit of tn,
4. mines. All such men as Parish are o
If no use in Arizona nor would the!
u have been in the wonderfully rich State
70 of Illinois and Iowa, when first settled
4 If we were right sure that this Parisl
-e is the one who set up as a shoemake
in Tucson last Summer, further IT
marks would now be made.
X WASHINGTON dispatch of Septembe
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