The Arizona sentinel., 1895-11-23
WHAT IRRIGATION WILL DO.
The Future of Arizona Under its Re-
 yivifylng Influence.

JOTGtU pu'llSneu dG I-OS AHS6ltS, MI 0. T. HeintZ has the following to say respecting the future of Arizona under irrigation. Mir. Heintz is a frequent visitor to Arizona he is a shrewd ob- server, and what he says is well worth considering.
 "The cultivated portions of Arizona are worked almost entirely by irriga- ton. In the mountains few tracts where something is raised on the rain fall, and there are few places where damp land is used, though this is really sub-irrigated But almost the whole of it is worthless for agriculture of any kind without water.
 "Its development was long retarded by the stupidity of our government in dealing with the Apache who, as fast as he was caught, was turned loose again in land where his knowledge of the water-holes alone was worth all the military skill of the army off cers, while his ability to go without water was worth all the superior drill of the privates. Settlement and in ducement to capital were almost i'm possible until the nation wearied of the pranks of it's pet. When we con- sider what a short time it is since the Apache girdled it's richest portions with a trail of fire and blood, how re- mote they have been from all the ordinary avenues of travel and market, how absolutely hopeless in any at tempt to work the soil without irri- gation; and how impossible irrigatio n was without the expenditure of great sums long before any income could be expected, the development of these sections and the progress made by such as Phoenix are the most remarka- ble in the United States and probably in the world.
 Arizona is now past the eXperi- mental stage For a time it was be- lieved that nothing could do we'll in an air so dry and in places so hot for so long period. It was said that no matter how much water was about the roots the leaves must suffer in so dry and high heat. Time has proved that this is not only nonsense for al- most all things, but for many others is actually an advantage; an advantage not only in curing but even in grow ing, while the almost entire absence Of rain is as much ot benefit as it is Tn California. Water has proved here what 1t has everywhere else, that des- ert soils are the most fertile of all and that the eye Is no judge of poverty in any soil. Arizona has proved even more conclusively than any part of California that land that has to be irrigated to raise anything is better off, if it has plenty of water, than a land where considerable can be raised on the rainfall. In other words, where you have plenty of water for irrigation rain is nuisance and not benefit.
 "What irrigation will do for Arizona Tn the future can scarcely be cOmput- ed now. Its waters are almost un- touched. Ninetv-nine per cent runs to the Gulf of California unused, while of the little that is saved seventy-five per cent is waisted in the old Cali 1 fornia style. It seems that no section can learn anything from the experi- ence of California in this respect, but must work out it's own experience through long years of steady loss. But when Arizona does learn the les son, and when the vast reservoir sites in which she surpasses all the rest of the country are used, as they some day will be, her irrigated sections will produce as much wealth to the acre as any part of the United States.
 Though these irrigated parts are small compared with the whole area the vast tracts of apparent desert that lie between raise great herds of cattle from the fattening of which the irriga
 ted portions have sure and good re-
 venue, while, in the rugged hills tha
 loom all around one, lies many a veir
 of metal so rich that in hidden wealtl Arizona probably leads the Union Many of these mines could not b,
 worked were it not for the irrigatet
 portions. If 1t were necessary to sent to other states for supplies to worl
 them, many a one would lie unworke, for ages. But when all the availabl storage sites are used, Arizona can no only furnish the supplies for all it mines, but have an immense surplu 7 to sell, while such sections as the Sal River Valley (when worked to it's ful ] capacity with the California econom and skill in the use of water that the
 will yet have to imitate) will suppoI
 population enough to make almost
 new State"
 Especial attention is called to tn l remarks of Mir. Heintz reSnectino th