Arizona republican., 1895-09-22

chards and took in the ostrich farm. They saw many things to delight them and their opinion of Arizona incre ased. At Peoria they took the train and re. turned to this city where they made pre- parations for the reception to be held at the opera house
 The committee on decorations did themselves proud for the interior of the opera house was converted into tropical flower garden. Large palms without mum Der decorated the walls and on the stage were many beautiful flowers. The decorating committee say that all the credit for the beautiful decor ations is due to Mrs. k. J. Bennett, who labored increasingly In foraging for flowers and the largest part of the work was done by her. She is deserving of all credit for the beautifully decorated interior which was the subject of many compli mentary remarks.
 At o'clock the evening program commenced preluded by several choice selections by Arriola's orchestra. Col. Jerry Millay, chairman of the com- mittee on entertainment, made short speech of welcome to the delegates and said that Phoenix would extend great hospitality to the next congress that will convene here next year. He then introduced Hon. Thos. Fitch, the ora tor of the evening. who was received with applause. After few introduc. tory remarks Colonel Fitch spoke as follows:
 Irrigation is an incident in the agri- culture of the eastern states, it is an important factor in the agriculture of California, but is the very life of the farmers here., Dry-ranching in Ari- zona has bankrupted about all who ever attempted it, except those who raised crops of Angora goats. Oaugh- ter.) Our farmers in this territory are helpless without irrigating ditches and a water supply, but with these they are rapidly developing con- monwealth that will prove one of the most prosperous and beautiful states in this Union. (Applause) I intend no invidious comparisons when 1 say that many times as much water now flows to the ocean through the channel of the Colorado river as runs in all the streams of California south of the Tehachipi range of mountains. Al! the summer ai1:,Ils and much of the winter contributions of the clouds in Arizona go down to the sea in sud | den and unused torrents. But, even as I speak, workmen are busy creating a great lake wherein will be stored the waters of the Agua Fria, and other workmen are creating another great lake to hold the waters of the Verde, F f(Applause) and when you come again, gentlemen, you will be able to say with the Ancient Mariner, water, water everywhere" I trust, though, that then, as now, our hospitality will prevent you from repeating the re- mainder of the quotation, "and not a drop to drink
 There are more than five millions of acres of land rich il all the elements of plant food to which the rainfall of our mountains can be profitably car ried Unlike Nevada and Utah and portions of California, this territory is substantially without water sinks All the water that falls here is carried l by the Colorado river and it's tribu- taries to the Gulf of California. As the mineral salts are leached from the land in one field they are not de- posted upon the surface of another to plague it's cultivator, but are trans ported by the law of gravity to the distant ocean, You will never see among us the wasted features o1 fever, for as soon as the malarial germ is engendered the policeman, whose name is Gravitation, seizes the disease breeder and hurries it out to sea to feed the fishes. (Applause.) An other advantage of the Salt River val ley is that the farmer here is seldom put to much cost to level the land Some prehistoric race-the vestiges o1 whose cities and aqueducts are all about us-has performed the labor o1 grading for us In brief, no portion ol these United States is better adapted to irrigational agriculture than is Ari zona, and her citizens fully appreciate the importance to them of promoting in every way the development of the science of irrigation.
 It is our practice to welcome all wis itors, but we welcome you with pc culiar earnestness and fervor because we recognize the value to us of the patriotic labors recently performed by you at Albuquerque to be renewed by you and your successors next year here in Phoenix. (Ap- plause.) We recognize how great ar advantage to us those labors must be for there is yet missionary work to be done in the cause of irrigation. The work is to be done in the education o1 public opinion in the east to the i'm portance of adding to the value of the national domain by large and compre
 hensive systems of storage reservoirs to be constructed with the aid ant under the direction of the federal gov ernment. (Applause.) It is to be
 done in the west in the framing O. constitutions for new states and tht