The Arizona sentinel., 1897-10-09
picked from the open garden at Christmas
IS TIA LAWLEss COUNTRY?

IS IT A 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 liquor-shops. too, and gambling houses, and dancehouses and yet he will see little disorder unless he hunts 1 late at night for it, and he will be apt to | tind-as at Phoenix-a community of ten thousand people requiring in the dayti only one policeman, and hardly requiring | him. During my winter there 1 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 nse 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 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 a region of dense , pine forests, and is within g. 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 5 also near an important mining district. k If lower altitude and a distinctly semi
 tropical climate are desired, the three places P most likely to be considered are Yuma, p 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. e Tucson is the oldest town in the Territory, 7; and, after Santa Fe, perhaps the oldest in n the Southwest. Its adobe houses give it a e Mexican look, and are thoroughly comfort & able. Its newer houses are of a handsome H,,,l1 in 4ha
 Territorial University is here, and it was
 formerly the capital. Its elevation being
 moro than double that of Phoenix, it is J somewhat cooler, and as there is next to no . irrigation near it, the air is little drier Il Phoenix is the centre of the greatest irriga- y tion in the Territory. The country for l. miles around smiles with green fields, cover ed with almost countless herds of cattle, d and it is everywhere shut in by low mount U ains It is the Territorial capital, has the Il Government Indian School, the Territorial Lunatic Asylum, and other institutions, ! and is the general focus for the Territory 1T Like Tucson, it has it's occasional wind and 2 sand storms-perhaps not quite so often
 At either place visitors who know how tC
 adapt themselves to circumstances can be q entirely comfortable, and in each they vii find an intelligent, orderly, enterprising and ,r most hospitable community. They vii T. find country full of mines, full of rich 6 agricultural lands, abounding in cattle anG ,r horses, in vineyards and orchards and the IF beginnings of very successful orange groves -s "a country, in fact, as full of promise fol 70 hardy and adventurous men now as Califor n mia was in the:ffties. Above all, it has 70 been their lot to search for health in fa # countries, they will revel in the luxury o1 " being in their own land, among their Owr : countrymen, within easy reach of theil friends by telegraph or rail, and in a climate :. as good of it's kind as any in the world.
 LANDS AND SOILS.
 c The lands of Yuma County comprise the rive I, bottoms and valleys and the upands or mesas Int
 bottom ands are moister and slightly mere fertile II if, indeed, it is possible to make comparisons where all are so wonderfully productive and prolific , The uplands warmer and, perhaps
 
 Yuma contains variety of soil The valley lanc
 of theI Gila and Colorado rivers have for the mos N part deep sedimentary soil of brownish, gray y sandy loam resting, in most places, upon gray e clay subsoil at depth of from ten to twenty feet e below the surface, The clay subsoil forms hard
 pan which is impervious to water. These soils have
 been slowly formed by the decomposition of shales sandstones marls limestones, etc, mixed with or t ganic and vegetable matter, washed down by the 1T mighty rivers and have been gradually deposited :, I during the course of centuries. The fertilzins
 brownish mud held in the wat CIof the Colorado l. its quantity varies from 0.1 to O.5 per cent, | though the water when considerably dscolor- r ed by mud is good to drink, resembling in this pect the Missouri river water. chemical analysis l of the sediments of the Colorado and of the Nile exhibits wonderful similarity in the constituent r tri1e less potassa, most phosphoric acid and e bonade of limestone beds through which the Colo
 rado passes In other respects the sediment of the
 Colorado is almost identical with that of the Nle
 It will be noticed therefore, that when this water is
 used for irrigation it is superior to artesian waters
 richestfertilzing elements The soil of the valleys
 is extremely rich in dedomposed vegetable matter A and uncombined carbon, readily absorbing the
 aerial gases, such especially, oxygen, which tering the soil decomposes the organic matters that they can be taken up and nourish the plants
 L;oh, ha n at11ra in ifc