The Arizona sentinel., 1897-08-21
picked from the open garden at Christmas
IS IT A LAwLEss COUNTRY?

Arizona town with the idea of the South west derived from novels, OF from ''The Arizona Kicker" will be greatly mystifed. He will dnd as many churches as in towns of corresponding size in Pennsylvania or Ohio; and probably more schoolhouses. He will find plenty of liquor-shops. too, and gambling houses, and dancehouses, and yet 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 I 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 1 quarters at night; and there were stories of the use of the knife among Mexicans; but tile visitor who went about his own business had as little trouble as on Board way or Chestnut street The Pima and Marioopa Indians, who are encountered CNCl " bCt nav DSSn ILICHutJ Nlbu tiIc whites for generations, and there isn't an Apache within some hundreds of miles.
 1 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 mountain region, considerable altitude and 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 region of dense pine forests, and is within hard day journey of one of the wonders of the world, the Colorado Canyon. Oracle is a pretty mountain nook, embowered iu splendid live oaka, like those of California, and is also near an important mining district. If lower altitude and a distinctly semi. 1 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
 
 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 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 somewhat 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 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 the Territory Like Tucson, it has it's occasional wind and sand storms-perhaps not quite so often. At either place visitors who know how to Iadapt 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 agricultural lands, abounding in cattle and hor:es, in vineyards and orchards and the beginnings of very successful orange groves La country. in fact, as full of promise for hardy and,advent1rous men now as Califor- mia was in the.6fties. 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 climate as good of it's 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 are moister and slightly mere fertile if, indeed, 1t is possible to m Ike comparisons where all wonderfully productive and prolific The uplands or mesas are warmer and, perhaps, lightly for better the cultivation the citrus fruits 1 Yuma contains "a variety of soil The valley land of the, Gia 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 subseil forms 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 fertiIizin2 1 brownish mud held in the wat CIof the Colorado ! and Gla rivers resembles that from the Nile, and : it's quantity varies from 0.1 to O5 per cent, | though the water when even considerably discolor- ed by mud is good te drink resembling in this res 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 8 1 trife less potassa, most phosphoric acid and car | bonade of limestone beds through which the Colo rado passes. In other respects the sediment of the Colorado is almost identical with tbat of the Nile
 It will be noticed therefore, that when this water used for irrigation it is superior to artesan waters 1 since it is constantly supplying the land with the rchestfertilizing elements. The soil of the valleys is extremely rich in dedomposed vegetable matter | and uncoabined carbon, readily absorbing the aerial gases, such especially, oxygen, which terng the soil, decomposes the organic matters SO l that they can be taken up and nourish the plants which may be considered a leading feature in its fertility. It also readily takes up and retains moisture, while the frmness of it's particles affords every facility for percelation and the activity of capillary action. In its mechanical composition it's particles are in state of very fine division, which renders it more productive than eoarser soils It acquirios heat readily in the daytime, and the loss