The Florence tribune., 1895-06-15

Arizola and Casa Grande have always had water in plenty.
 THE GREAT RESERVOIR
 on tine line of the canal fourteen miles east If Arizola, is source of great < wealth and security so those below it who till the soil It is filled every winter and kept as full as safety will E allow as long as the river furnishes a surplus over that required by the 1 farnis about Florence and on the line of the canal above the reservoir. The ! consequence is that during the months If April, May and June, when crops 1 and trees of all kinds most need water, i there is an abundant supply. There has not been a season yet when the water in the reservoir did not last un- til the beginning of the summer. Each l succeeding year, as the embankment qf the reservoir settles and becomes more substantial, the reservoir is filled n little faller than the year rrsceling. This is made made necessary by the yearly increase in the acreage of inn proved land below the reservoir. It is the intent of the canal company to raise the embankment of the reservoir five or six feet in the near future to provide still further for the increase 
 TIE USE OF WATER.
 A thorough examination of the con dition of affairs will convince the pros- pective settler that there is no surer 6nd safer water supply in Arizona. This is one reason why this part of Plnal county is making steady and permaneat improvement.
 It may not be out of place in this connection to say something of the na- ture of inc soil in this part of the great Casa Grande valley. Much greater portion of it is sandy loan with mix ture of adobe and clay in varying quan- titles. This kind of soil is preferred by most people for the reason that it is easily worked, though it will bake hard on the surface if not properly treated. It is also preferred because of the fact that
 A1FALFA,
 which is grown here more than any other crop, can be started in it with far less trouble than the other soils. It is a very rich soil, and is as a rule from ten to fifteen feet in depth. There are some streaks and spots of lighter sandy soil, soil that is very rich, will never bake or get hard on top and will drink water like a fish every day in the year. While it will absorb an abundance of water, it will hold it's moisture when once wet long, CT than the other sandy soil. It ap- pears to be wanting in some of the elements necessary to make good crop of grain, though it will no doubt do better in this direction after hav- ing been planted deep and titled for a number of years. It will probably be demonstrated that if Irish potatoes are tolbe successfully grown in this part of the country they must be planted in this loose soil. There is a third kind of soil in this part of the valley, generally, though mistakenly, called adobe. It Is found in the lines of the numerous old old beds or washes of
 THE SANTA CRUZ,
 and is purely vegetable and mineral wash. The writer would be amused to see those who call this adobe try their hands at making adobe bricks of it. An ordinary sized brick would break into many thousand pieces while going through the ripening process in the sun. While all the soil of the val. ley is rich, it is claimed by many that this black soil is superior in strength to anything in the valley. It has pro duced near Arizola, on the ranches of C. ", Sanders and W. c. Smith, as good crops of wheat as were ever grown in any country and, superior to any grown in any other kind of land. In Mir. NJ. R. Moore's orchard are some trees on this soil that show
 4 WONDERFUL GROWTH.
 He has little patch of nursery in which are some buds that had grown six feet this year by the middle of May. The Phoenix Republican was bragging few days ago about an apricot tree that was planted by Hon. II. H. McCord thirteen months before, when only small twig, that ripened fruit this year. Mir Moore can beat that story by large majority. About the first of March, 1894, he planted thirty-five dormant apricot buds. This spring, at one year old, they all blos- somed and more that half of them ma tured fruit. Two of the trees have at tained height of over eight feet, and are two and half inches in diameter foot from the ground. Soil that will