Arizona republican., 1890-11-30
PLANT FRUIT. What Has Been Done
 About Fresno. Small Holdings the Best for
 a Community. Enterprise. Pluck and Energy That Transform the Desert Into
 Veritable Garden.
specinl Correspondenee of THE REpUpLIcAN.

NtTlldDit udIuCH'
 Special Correspondence of THE REPUBLICAN.
 FRESNO, November 26.--Two months of pretty hard journalistic work, com biued with attendance at the bedside of one near and dear who has been hover ing about the Dark Valley of the Shadow of Death, have disposed of many things that had proposed, but am pleased at last to be able to find time to contribute something to TIE REPUBLICAN, which has as warm place in my heart as ever. During my sojourn here l have some what studied the resources of this won deriully rich and productive country. This study has been so interesting to me that have thought your readers, who inhabit country equally rich in soil and in some ways more highly favored by nature than this, would also read with profit my impressions. The more I look into agricultural and horticul- tural sections elsewhere the more l think of the Salt River Valley.
 TIE summers of the Arizona valleys are somewhat torrid, it must be con- fessed, but the summer weather of the interior sections of California is not sought after, either. had the benefit of the full summer in Phoenix and the tail end of it here and it is "a single flop out of the box" which man would select, as to weather. The summers are hot in Phoenix, but the summers are also hot in the San Joaquin Valley. In Phoenix one can be comfOrtabe at night, by sleeping outdoors, which is not prac- ticable here. Fruit and raisins mean money and neither in the San Joaquin nor in the Salt River Valley can there be money without plenty of sunshine and solar heat. But 1 have no desire to make comparisons between the two val leys. Comparisons are odious and serve no good purpose. shall content myself with a brief running sketch of the development of the country about Fresno and when have done, to ask the people of Phoenix, why do you not go and do likewise2
 TWENTY years ago this whole section was practically given over to the jack rabbit and the monotonous coyote. The land wasn't worth the $2.5O asked by the Government and grants were worth less. What life there was in the region, was due to the mining activity in the mountains, the sheep men and the operations of the railroad company. To the outside world this was the border land of the Great American Desert, that iabled myth that has disappeared under the advancing tread of civilization. Today there are sixteen different irriga- tion companies, each having it's own canals, taking water from the Kings, the San Joaquin and the Fresno rivers. These sixteen systems have 750 miles of main canals and as many miles oi laterals, making a total of l5OO miles Of ditches. There are no storage reservoirs, but there are twelve dams, sixteen main headgates and one wier. There is dis tributing gate about every mile the length of the canal These sixteen canals have cost about $l,900,00O to build, and irrigate 35O,0OO acres of land.
 Or this land 3OO,OOO acres are planted in cereals, yielding a profit of about $l5 an acre; 5000 acres are in oranges, peaches, pears, apples, nectarines, apri- cots, plums, cherries, pomegranates, figs, olives, mulberries, etc., yielding a profit of from 500 to $50 an acre {; 3O0O0 acres are in grape vines, of which 2OOO0 are in bearing, and yield from $lOO to $3O0 an acre; 2D,OOO acres are planted in alfalfa and yield $40 per acre.
 
 IT was not until February 16, 1871, that the Fresno Canal and Irrigation Company, the original canal company, was organzed. It brought here 900 settlers during it's first year; the present population under this ditch is 10000. Originally there were embraced in the enterprise 5 i00 acres and the present area is 100000 acres. In 1871 this land found no purchaser at $2,50 an acre. The present value of unimproved land is from $50 to $l00 an acre, and for inn proved from $l00 to $500. Without water, the land has no value; with it, everything is possible and it's value is only measured by the care that is given to it.
 TIE water privileges are from $6 to $1O an acre and the annual rental is 621S cents an acre, the water rights being attached to the lands and appurte- nant thereto. A perpetual supply is guaranteed by the company, the supply being one cubic foot flowing, per second, to every 160 acres.
 YOUR readers will say that we have done all this in the Salt River Valley. "We have canals and cheap water and fertile soil. We have twenty one ditchcs and many farms" That IS true, but you have not sub-diyided your lands, peopled colonies and made the valley "bloom like the rose" as they have here. They have gone into the farming regions of the East, to England, and France, and Italy, and Germany and brought out people and put from thirty to sixty families on every section. These five, ten, twenty and forty-acre lots have made Fresno County. They are now bringing Hollanders here and peopling colonies with them. They have established newspapers, literary bureaus and agencies in Amsterdam and are giving lectures on the resources and fertility of the country all over Holland, illustrated with stereopticon views. They bring no poor people, but whole families, worth from $3000 to $2O,00C each.
 Wu.m la tba xao,,lt9 That Erasno is