The Arizona sentinel., 1897-08-07
picked from the open garden at Christmas
 1s IT A LAvLEss COUNTRY?

| IS TIA LAwLEss COUNTRY?
 The man who goes to any considerable Arizona town with the idea of the South west derived from novels, CT from ''The Arizona Kicker" will be greatly my ssifed. lie will fnd as many churches as in towns ot corresponding size in Pennsylvania 0r Ohio; and probably more schoolhouses. He will ind plenty Of liqror-snops. toe, and gambling houses, and dancebouses, and yet he will see little disorder unless he hunts late at night for it, and he will be apt to ind-as at Phoenix-a community of ten thousand people requiring in the daytime only one policeman, and hardly requiring him. During my winter there I did not see single disturbance i'll the streets, or half dozen drunken men, all told. Min ing men and an occasional COW boy certainly had quarrels, sometimes, ill the disorderIy quarters at night; and there were stories of the use of the knife among Mexicans; but the visitor who went about his own business had as little trouble as on Board. way or Chestnut street. The Pima and Maricopa Italians, who are encountered everywhere have been friendly with the wiiites for generations, and there isu't an 1 Apache witlin some hundreds uf miles.
 WHICH TOWN IS Tile BEST?
 Primarily that is a question for the phy- Sicia,i, if there is a physician in the case if not, try them ai. If mountain region, considerable altitude and comparatively low temperature is desired, Prescott is in picturesque region, near a great mining districts, and has the social advantage of an army post, whipple Barracks. Flag staff IS still higher, is in region of dense pine forests, and is within hard days journey of one of the wonders of the world, the Colorado Canyon. Oracle is pretty mountain nook, embowered in splendid live oaks, like those of California, and is also near an important mining district. 4 If lower altitude and a distinctly semi tropical climate are desired, the three places most likely to bo considered are Yuma, 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 fof visitors. Tucson is the oldest town in the Territory. and, after Santa Fe, perhaps the oldest in the Southwest. Its adobe houses give it . 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, it is somew hat cooler, and as there is next to no irrigation near it, the air is a little drier. Phoenix is the centre of the greatest irriga- tion in the Territory. The country for miles around smiles with green fields, cover ed with almost countless herds of cattle, and it is everywhere shut in by lew 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 the Territory. Like Tucson, it has its occasional wind and sand storms perhaps not quite so often. At either place visitors who know how to adapt themselves to circumstances can be entirely comfortable, and in each they will find an intelligent, orderly, enterprising and most hospitable community. They will find country full of mines, full of rich a ao,r;oul+uroI Io rda o ohouod;or ;, o,44Io ,, l hor es, in vineyards and orchards and the beginnings of very successful orange groves Ia country, in fact, as full of promise for hardy and adventurous men now as Califor- mia was in the.fifties. 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 Icountrymen, within easy reach of their friends by telegraph or rail, and in climate as good of its kind as any in the world.
 LANDS AND SOILS.
 The lands of Yuma County comprise the river bottoms and valleys and the uplands or mesas The bottom ands moister and slightly mere fertile if, indeed, it is possible to m Ee comparisons where all arc wonderfully productive and prolific | The uplands or mesas are warmer and perhaps
 lightly for better tie cultivation ofthe citrus fruits Yuma contains variety of sail The valley land ,: the: t;ila and Colorado rivers have for the most Iar5 Q deep sedimentary soil of brovnish, gray san1y lo"m, resting, in most places, upon a gray clay s1hsnil St de Dtb Of from Sen to twenty feet 5el0V the sIrfIce, The clay sUbsoil forms a hard ral hiyh iS irapervious to wnter These soils have ] Joea slowly formed sy the decomposition Of s!alos sarGstones. rnarls lime torres, ete, mixed with or glnic and vegetable matter, washed down by the mighty rivers and have been gradually deposited turing the course of centuries. The fertilizing brownish mud held in the wat ,Iof the Colorado and Gila rivers resembles that from the Nile, and ! its quantity varies from O.I to 0.5 per cent, though the water when considerably discolor- ed by mui is good to Grink resembling in this res pect the Missouri river water. A 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 | trife less pOt1sSa, most phosphoric acid and car bonade Of limestone beds through which the Colo rado pass"s. In other respects thc sediment of the Colorado is almost identical with that of the Nile
 It will be nnticed therefore, that when this water is used for irrigation it is superior to artesian waters since it is constantly supplying the land with the hestfertilizinS elements. The soil of the valleys is extremely rich in dedompOsed vegetable matter ard unco nbined carbon, readily abso ping the aerial gases, such especially, oxygen, which en- terng the soil, dcconlposes the organic matters so that the: be taken up anl noIrish the plants ] which may be considered leading featur, in its al ak md