Arizona weekly citizen., 1895-04-20
VO'IL XIII
WEEKLY CITIZEN. SATURDAY, APRIL 20, lS9o
ITO BE OR NOT TO BE-"
FORT RILEY, Kansas,


 clfic railroad in Arizona, was speakln ID my hearing of the dry and unpr ductlveness of the land adjacent to sal road. I called his attention to the pr ductivepess of the soil and the wealth vegetation that could be raised tnereo If subjected to the necessary lrrlgatiol He then said, "If such Is the case wh is itpot q. ne?" and 1 wondered the sam thIng myself. Why do they not stor the water that runs to waste ln th mountains north of Tucson!
 Why are the waters which flow pel petualIv into the Riliito not husbande for us. and the mesa lands about Tut son aRd Fort Lowell made prod uctlV and home supporting? Would It nl multiply wealth in the county and sho' Arizona more aavant6geously to IL travelling pu bile than 1t does nov Kindly advise ne as to the cause or ih land on ;he fertile plains of Pima coun tv lyinl idle and all the flood wat rs O the mountains going to waste whel same could used with profit and Ht nt great excense considering ihe magnlh cent advantages that would result there from By answering this you Will ooilg' reader.
 The foregoing letter, although not ID tended for publication, so voices th' sentiment of every thinking man ths we give in its entirety and take the lib erty of using the name of the author. l WAS written by Seri. P. Bartsch of th' Signal Corps. He was formerly station ed at Lowell and is thoroughly familiar with the country whereabouts.
 In the late legislature an irrigation bill was introduced which, had it become a law. would have worked immense ben efits to Arizona, but unfortunately this important measure was overloaded with a detail of "localettes" which hsmpered rather than facilitated its passage. They required too much explanation and the bill WAS talked to death before it could take up its burden of usefulness. This is to be regretted, for the reason that much future development of the territory was promised through it.
 The original purport aud aim of the bill. as we understand it, WAS the plat ting of the territory into irrigation dis tricts which were to be severally studied and the advantages and requirements of each particular section worked out end made known.
 In Arizona water is king and the wealth which We daily struggle for IS al lowed to waste itself before our very doors. The rainy seasons are not only far apart, but like the dGrkey's white man "mightv unsartin." But when they do come the roar of the cataract is heard and mountain canyons run full, the lit le brooklets become rivers and the rivers torrents. Here, then. is our opportunity, the flood waters of the semi tropical storms should be husbanded. They would be better than gold mine, for the results would be more certain. The amount of water that is wasted during these periodical floods is enormous, and its loss is the greater because of our necessities.
 In countries of like character te ours the flood wGters are hosrded and the land is made rich. Then dry and arid plains become fertile and productive. Population and wealth increases and pien nty smiles over our thrice blessed land, but unless we avail ourselves of these advantages which nature has so benIfcently placed at our doors, the halcyon days of the vine and fig tree will never come to pass, and even the cattle that browse the waste plains will con- tinue to suffer in want.
 Ir the mountain ranges that every where hem our valleys in are deep canyons susceptible of conversion into cacthment basins, at greater or less ex- pense, but the value of tEese IT comparls- on with the creative cost has yet to be determin d. For this capable engineers should be engaged and an authoritative map made of the several districts, into which the arid region should be divided The district should be carefully survey ed and each cacthment bas marke out The cost of construction should oe thoughtfully considered, its capacity estimated and the area of land beneath it determined. Before a boulder was turned or rock put in place the result could be forseen even to the value ano extent of the resultant crops.
 This done capital seeking pro fitable investment could be secured and Tn the course of few years our country would not know itself The population would treble in decade and the wealth of the crunty augment proportionally.
 Tucson is commercial town. It has no manufactures, and agrIculturaIly speaking 1t deg ends elsewhere for sup port. The rich but arid plains which begirt the southern Pacific and touct our very doors weary the eyes with theIl never en ding monotony. The little grass that had precariously tbriven ha: been trsmped out or eaten off anc sterility and barrenne6s ends only witt the limitation of human vision. But II the mountains to the northeast, anC distsLt but few miles, is a great rift o enormous proportions and through
 THE democrats were red hot for slarger and greater Tucson" in the las municipal election. The republican, that were elected and who now endeavor