The Arizona sentinel., 1897-05-29


 Tucson and Phoenix. The first is near the sea level; is the warmest and probably the driest of the three, has the least population, and the smallest provision for visitors. Tucson is the oldest town in the Territory, and, after Santa Fe, perhaps the oldest in the Southwest. Its adobe houses give 1t d Mexican look. and are thoroughly comfort able. Its newer houses are of handsome building stone, found in the vicinity. The Territorial University is here, and it was formerly the capital. Its elevation being more than double that of Phoenix, 1t is somewhat cooler, and as there is next to no irrigation near it, the air IS little drler Phoenix is the centre of the greatest irriga- tion in the Territory. 2ihe country for miles around smiles with green fields, cover ed with almost countless herds of cattle, and it is everywhere shut in by low mount aims. It is the Territorial capital, has the Government Indian School, the Territorial Lunatie Asylum, and other institutions, and is the general focus for tie Territory. Like Tucson, it has its occasional wind and sand storms-perhaps not quite so often. At either place visitors who know how to alapt themselves to circumstances can be entirely comfortable, and in each they will find all intelligent, orderly, enterprising and most hospitabIe community. They will find a country full of mines, full Of rich agricultural lands, abounding in cattle and hor es, in vineyards and orchards and the beginnings of very successful orange groves a country, in fact, as full of premise for hardy and adventurous men now as Califor- nia was in the:hfties. Above all, it has beer their lot to search for health in far countries, they will revel in the luxury of being in their own land, among their own countrymen, within easy reach of their friends by telegraph or rail, and in a climate as good of it's kind as any in the world. LANDS AND soI1s9
 The lands of Yuma County comprise the river bottoms and valleys and the uplands mesas The bottom ands moister and slightly mere fertile f. indeed. it is possible to make comparisons where all so wonderfully productive and prolific The upand5 or Inesas are warmer and, perhaps, lightly for better tte cultivation Of the citrus fruits Yuma containsa vsriety of soil The valley land of the Gila and Colorado rivers have for the most part deep sedmentary soil of brownish, gray sandy loam, resting, in most places, upon gray cla, subsoi at depth of frcm ten to twenty feet below the surface, The clay subsoil forms hard pan which is imperyous to water. These soils have been slowly formed by the decomposition of shales, sandstones, marls. lmestones, etc, mixed with or ganic and vegetable matter, washed down by the mighty rivers and have been gradually deposited during tke course Of centuries. The fertilizing brownish mud held in the wat tIof the Colorado aud Gila rivers resembles that from the Nile, and its quantity varies from O.1 to 0.5 per cent, though the water when considerably discolor- ed by mud is good to drink resembling in this pect the Missouri river water chemical analysis of the sediments of the Colorado and of the Nile exhibits wonderful similarity in the constituent parts of each. That Of the Colorado exhibiting a triho less potasSa, most phosphoric acid and bonade of limestone beds through which the Colo
 
 Colorado is almost identical with that of the Nile It will be noticed therefore, that when this water is used for irrigation it is superior to arteSan waters since it is constantly supplying the land with the richest fertizing clements The soil of the valleys is extremely rich in dedomposed vegetable matter and uncombined carbon, readily absorbing the aerial gases, such especially, oxygen, which en- tering the sol dccomposes the organic matters so '.ha5 they be taken up and nourish the plants which may bc considered leading feature in it's fertility. It also readily takes up and retains moisture, while the rmness of its particles affords every facility for percolation and the activity of capillary action. In ts mechanical composition it's particles are in state of very fine division which ] renders it more productive than coarser soils It acquires heat readily in the daytime, and the loss Of the heat at night is very gradual so that it re- mains always warm and Is not subject to sudden changes of heat and cold Besides its essential stituents of water, organic vegetable matter, sand and clay, chemical analysis shows that lime, soda, magnesia, iron, ammonia and available forms of nitrogen, phosphorc acid and potash enter into composition in the proportions best adapted to add to it's fertility, though, of course, is awa the in soil analysis, it's composition varies in different localities and is not always constant.
 The soi the uplands, mosas, lighter and more gravely and in some places of lree, loamy, calcareOus character. The mesa lands are warm and generous. They seem especially adapted for the grape, olive and citrus fruits generally. Their soil contains more magnesia, lime or chalk than the bottom lands. It cracks and retains moisture admirably in summer It is of that character which will produce a wine that will keep good for fifty hundred years, and improve annually, not being liable to sour, exposure to the air, after one year old, to become turbd and change color in the bottle or glass.
 We can safely say that the soil of Yuma County can nowhere be surpassed containing as it does all the essential elements of richness and fertility.