The Arizona sentinel., 1897-08-14
picked from the open garden at Christmas
 IS II LAWLESS COUNTRY?

iS 1T LAWLESS COUNTRY!
 The man who goes to any considerable Arizona town with the idea of the South west derived from novels, or from "The Arizona Kicker" will be greatly mystifed. He will find as many churches as in towns of corresponding size in Pennsylvania or Ohio; and probably more schoolhouses. He will find plenty of iquor-snops. too, and gambling houses. and dancehouses, and vet he will see little disorder unless he hunts late at night for it, and he will be apt to 6nd-as at Phoenix-a community of ten thousand people requiring in the daytime only one policeman, and hardly requiring him. During my winter there l did not see single disturbance in the streets. or half dozen drunken men, all told. Min ing men and an occasional cowboy certainly had quarrels, sometimes, in the disorderly 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 Indians, who are encountered everywhere. have been friendly with the whites for generations, and there isn't an Apache within some hundreds of miles.
 WHICH TOWN IS THe BEST?
 Primarily that is question for the phy- sician, if there is a physician in the case if not, try them all. If a mountain region, considerable altitude and g comparatively low temperature is desired, Prescott is in picturesque region, near great mining districts, and has the social advantage Of an army post, whipple Barracks. Flag staff IS still higher, is in a region of dense pine forests, and is within hard day s journey of one of the wonders of the world, the Colorado Canyon. Oracle is a pretty mountain nook, embowered in splendid live oaks, like those of California, and is also near an important mining district. | If lower altitude and 8 distinctly semi. ! tropical climate are desired, the three places most likely to be 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 for visitors. Tucson is the oldest town in the Territory, and, after Santa Fe, perhaps the oldest in | the Southwest. Its adobe houses give it a Mexican look, and are thoroughly comfort able. It's newer houses are of a 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 i: somewhat cooler, and as there is next to no irrigation near it, the air is little drier Phoenix is the centre of the greatest irriga- tion in the Territory. The country foI 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, hes the Government Indian School, the Territorial Lunatie Asylum, and other institutions, and is the general focus for the Territory | Like Tucson, 1t has it's 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 hospitablo community. They will find a country full of mines, full of rich agricultural lands, abounding in cattle and horses, in vineyards and orchards and the beginnings of very successful orange groves "a country, in fact, as full of promise fol hardy and adventurous men now as Califor- mia was in the:ffties. Above all, it has been their lot to search for health in faI 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 climate as good of it's kind as any in the world.
 LANDS AND SOILS.
 The lands of Yuma County comprise the rive, bottoms and valleys and the uplands or mesas The bottom ands are moister and slightly mere fertile
 
 where all wonderfully productive and prolific The uplands or mesas are warmer and, perhaps,
 lightly for better the cultivation of the citrus fruits Yuma contains variety of soil The valley land of the Gils and Colorado rivers have for the most part deep sedimentary soil of brownish, gray sandy loam, resting, in most places, upon a gray clay subsoil at depth of from ten to twenty feet below the surface, The clay subsoil forms a hard pan which is imperVious to water These soils have been slowly formed by the decomposition of shales sandstones, marls. imestones, etc., mixed with or ganic and vegetable matter, washed down by the mighty rivers and have been gradually deposited | during the course of centuries. The fertilizing | brownish mud held in the wat tlof the Colorado and Gila rivers resembles that from the Nile, and ; it's quantity varies from 0.1 to 0.5 per cent, | though the water when even 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 g | triae less potassa, most phosphoric acid and bonade of limestone beds through which the Colo rado pass"s In other respects the sediment of the 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 aresan waters since it is constantly supplying the land with the richest tertiliziug elements. The soil of the valleys 1 is extremely rich in dedomposed vegetable matter and uncombined carbon, readily absorbing the aerial gases such especially, oxygen, which en- tering the soil, decomposes the organic matters that they can be taken up and nourish the plants which may be considered a leading featura in it's | fertility. It also readily takes up and retains moisture, while the frmness of its particles affords every facility for percolation and the activity ot capillary action. In ts mechanical composition it's particles are in a state of very fine division which l renders it more productive than coarser soils It