The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1879-03-20
ARIZONA AGRICULTURE.

ARIZONA AGRICULTURE.
sems efths Dimcalass which Bssst PROFIT
able Farming.
Prom ~ y Joe tNA) Costa
Mr.. Abe Davis. residing in North St.
Joseph, has permitted Gasstts reporter
to take few rambling notes from an In
teresting Arizona letter. addressed to Mrs..
Davis. The letter was written BY Mr..
DAVIS younger brother, Richard S. Davis,
formerly of this city, and was post marked
at Camp Verde, January 8. The writer
says he has been very busy putting in q
crop of barley, of about forty acres. 1t re-
quires a great deal more work to farm in
that country than it does in this, a. moth
ing can be raised without irrigation; but
when this Is done q crop Is almost certain.
They first have to irrlgata the plowed
ground before sowing, which packs it 30
hard that q harrow will not cover the
grain, and it has to be turned in with
shovel-plows. This makes it slow work.
Then they bush it down smooth, and after
WdlOS lu1OW UP obOut tCu A4lCuCc
high, and about thirty feet apart. across
each section, which ID about loo yards.
This Is done to insure more rapid and sue
cessful irrigation.
about four miles from Camp Verde, :"
the writer says. there are about fifty cliff
or cave dwellings, rooms hewn out in o
solid cliff of rock. One has to use ladder
in order to penetrate some of them. The
rooms are plastered inside, and have side
rooms leading from the main room. Many
of these side rooms seem to have been
used for granaries, for in them have been
small cells, wherein have been placed ears
of corn, cotton and other seed, and then
cemeuted over and made air tight. When
these places are picked into, you end the
ears Of corn at FIRST apparently natural,
but when the air strikes them, or the fin-
gers touch them the grain falls to ashes,
leaving nothing but the cob, which seems
to be little affected. In one of these cells
found bunch Of well-twisted cotton
thread, and another kind of thread. which
was beyond my comprehension as to what
it was made Of. They also contain water
tanks or cistern, neatly hew out, in the
solid rock floor There are also, in the open
valleys, extensive ruins of great cities.
Judging from the debris, many Of the
buildings have been four or five stories
high, built Of stone neatly dressed.
showing considerable mechanical skill in
their construction. The parts Of walls
that are still standing bear traces of an.
cent writings and sculpture, with crosses
and notches cut deep INTO the solid rock at
regular intervals. There are also traces
Of canals and reservoirs of vast dimen-
sions, from which 1t is inferred that the
country at one time was fertile and well
watered. But the once beautiful and fer
tile valleys are now covered with b0ulders
and 1oatrrock from the mountains. They
are also defaced by great yawning chasms
Of thousand feet in depth. cut down by
the winter torrents of perhaps 10. 900 years
since the inha bitants have BED from their
homes OF persisted amid wars and peeti-
lence. Several of the largest cities must
have contained several hundred thousand
inhabitants.
with the exception of broken pottery
but few relics are found. These pieces Of
pottery are remarkable from the fact that
they have been finely glazed and bear
paintings of flowers and ornamental fig.
ures, the coloring matter of high miner
HI suOstducc VI some kAuu, WuICu Cu0 uOt
or has not been defaced. and appears to
be perfectly indelible. These relics have
been exposed to the storms, which have
worn away the solid masonry of the walls,
and show the colors as fresh and bright,
to all appearances. as when new. The
pottery itself has been found to be perfect
" FIRE proof. upon a severe trail in cruci-
bles, while the heat OF furnaces do not at
feet it. If the secret of its manufacture
could be discovered, it would be worth
millions of dollars to the possessor. will
not further attempt description Of these
ruins just now, but IN my next letter, if it
will interest you. will refer to them more
at length. ! cannot furnish you with
specimens at present, but will have TO
wait until spring to secure them"
Mr.. Davis adds that his brother John
at Prescott, serving his term of forty days
in the Legislature. The ruins to which
the letter refers are undoubtedly those Of
the cities built by the Aztecs, who popu-
lated the Southwest centuries ago, and
had their capital on the present site Of the
City of Mexico when the Spaniards took
possession of the country.