The Arizona sentinel., 1894-06-09
FRUIT CULTURE.

Fruit production throughout Arizona is a sub ject of great interest at present, and will no doubt, be the principal industry in Yuma County ! The remarkable results that have sprung from very superficial and imperfect culture has de- monstrated that the soil and climate of Yuma County are peculiarly adapted for this branch of agricultural enterprise. The development of these resources is of the utmost importance and is at tracting careful attention. Experiments have been made with care and facts in regard to the culture of different kinds of fruits have been collected which cannot fail to convince even tbe most skept- ical, of the wonderful superiority of Yuma County over Southern California in fruit growing, and which must lead to a large and varied production of the most remunerative character.
 The Commissioner of Immigration in is report, published in SS6, writes follows of the rich valleys of the Gila, Colorado and Salt rivers.
 'The soil of these valleys is among the richest on the continent It is formed of the detritus, which the streams for ages have brought down from their mountain homes in their journey to the sea. By constant overfows and change of channel, the deposit of this rich vegetable matter has form ed soil of .xtreme fertility, Near the streams it is dark alluvial mold, well adapted to small grains and grasses. Farther back there is rich sandy loam, mellow and porous, and especially favorable for fruit culture. It has been already demonstrated that the productive capacity of these valleys is not surpassed by lands of equal in any part of the United States. So rapid and prolific is the growth of the fruits cereals and vegetables that the labor of the eultivator is reduced to the minimum. In nearly all of them two crops year can be growth, and vegetation is month ahead of California. The farmers plants cottonwood sapng before his door, and within the year he has shade tree twenty-five feet high! Alfalfa be cut six times during the season, and it is actual fact the grape-cuttings have produced within eigh- teen months, What State Territory make such showing? The climate, it must be remem- bered, is nearly perpetual summer. Snow never falls in these southern valleys. The farmer begins to plant in November, and by the middle of May his harvest is ready. Roses in bloom, fruit trees blossomng, and the grain fields a sea of green, when the fields of the Eastern farmers are covered with snow and ice.
 Every variety of grains, grasses, fruits and vege tables grown in the temperate and semi-tropic zones can be produced in the valleys of Arizona Wheat corn barley, oats and all the small grains give yield of from twenty-five to fifty bushels to the acre. Alfalfa, clover, timothy, Bermuda and all the cultivated grasses grow luxuriantly, the former giving from eight to ten tons to the acre each year, Every variety of vegetable raised in the United States can be grown in Arizona, and nowhere they found of better quality.
 Besides the products mentioned, these semi tropical valleys produce cotton, sugar-cane, to- bacco, hemp and rice. With the exception of the sugarcan but little attention is paid to the cult
 vation of other staples; but it has been demonstrat ed that the soil and climate are specially adapted to their successful growth. Cotton growing is no experiment in Arizona, for it is on record that when the Europeans first penetrated this region they found the Pima Indians wearing fabrics made of cotton grown in the Gila valley.
 ''But it is their adaptabty for fruit culture that assWres to these valley lands dense popula- tion aBd aprosperous future. Almost every var iety known be raised in their fruitful soils The apple, pear, plum, peach, apricot, quince and tarine, are of delicious flavor, and give gen erous yield The grape of all varieties is at home in these sunny vaes No place in the grape-grow- ing belt of the Pacific Coast show so prolific yield, The quality is all that could be desired