Connecticut western news., 1899-06-15
ARIZONA.

] Phoenix, Arizona, May 2Sth. 1899. "I suppose you will want to know something about this country, its burn
 ing plains, mountains of solid rock,- with not tree or shrub on them; Wild
 Indians, Gils monsters, pronounced
 hela) rattlesnakes and cacti. We'll in
 the first place the country where it is
 not irrigated is a desert sure enough,
 and nothing but sand and cacti; the
 home of the "Giant Cactus" which
 grows nowhere else. They grow the
 shape of an ear of corn stood up on end.
 and some are 20 to 30 feet high and
 covered with the sharpest of needles, so
 thick you could not stick your finger
 between them, some of them have
 branches like smaller ears of corn stick
 ing out from the parent stems. Imag.
 inc these things higher than the roof of
 your house, and 8 to 4 it. in diameter,
 and you will have some idea of them. There are other varieties, but these
 predominate. The ball cactus grows
 very large also, plenty of them as big
 as 6 bushel basket. Imagine valley
 sixty miles long, and from fifteen to
 thirty miles wide, surrounded on all
 sides by black mountains of bare rock,
 and nearly level, with an irrigating ditch along, and as near the high side | of the plain as it could be built; on the upper side of the ditch an slkah plain
 without shrub. except the cactus, and | orange, apricot, peach, pear. olive and almond groves, with vast fields between | of the greenest of clover as high as the fence, ripening wheat and barley and l oats. by the thousands of acres; beauti- | full homes embo wered in giant palms as | big as apple trees. Oleanders ss high | as the house and fairly loaded with red and white blossoms. Pome-granite | hedges with their fiery flowers; and magnificent roses, beautiful pepper leaves are prettier than the finest ferns, umbrella. china, ash, elder, which grow to be 8 large tree, cottonwood which are always a nuisance, and alasys in evidence, and only tolerated because they grow so quick (thoy will get to be quitefa tree in three years from cut tings)
 The apricots are now ripe. they are first cousin to the plum, of a light yellow color with tinge of red on one tart when stewed. They ship all they the balance. One man who has an or chard of I6O acres near here has 250 hands picking and drying; men, women nd law | to come in is peaches. and I expect to eat all I want for once; am cloyed on spricots and strawberries. The big ditch spoke of is about 24 fit. wide and 6 to it, deep, they take the whole of salt river some thirty miles above here (of course they have & very large reservoir to store water for the summer) and they have lateral ditches from the big ditch to carry water all over the valley; each lateral ditch is connected to the blg ditch by a gate, which Is kept locked at all times except the day that the wster belongs in that certain ditch. once every eight days, and then only 8 certain number of inches, just what that certain ditch requires to water the farms along its line. Each farmer pays water rent to the ditch company for a certain amount of water.
 This is town of 15,0O0 people, fine churches and brick blocks, cement sidewalks, electric cars, waterworks, and right bang up-to-date. snd the quietest town I was ever in. either great or small. They only have three policemen in the city and have never yet seen either of them, and have never yet seen a drunken man on the street; or heard bit of vulgar talk on the street. About the only thing a man ever gets arrested for here (so they tell mel is for splitting on the sidewalk, they have city ordi- nance prohibiting it, and if they catch 8 man splitting on the walk "they won't do thing to him. ss they say in Texas; just 30 days and ten dollars fine. It's goed thing. ...-.=
 The white folks here are from all over the states There are a good many Mexicans, gsod many Chinese, some Jsps and some negroes. The Chinese and Japs are very industrious; Me1i- cans "No wano" Inc good,) negroes ditto. There are several tribes of "Injuns'' near here and an Indian school three miles from town. Some of the Indians do 8 little farming and dress like white folks, except they never wear a hat. 1 have never yet F seen sD Indian with any sort of hat on, and 1 see dozens of them every day. Their hair hangs down nearly to their waists and is black and gl ossy as a crows wing. The squsws also come in town dressed just the same, except they gen orally have a Pappoose strapped on their back and three or four of assorted sizes tagging along behind. The squsws nearly always bring iu water jars to sell, which they carry on top | of their heads without ever touching them with their hands. They are moulded of certain kind of clay and baked in ditch oven, or some other kind of an oven; they are said to keep water cool; they are of varions sizes, but gene, ally about the size of & b1shel basket; sell for two bits apiece The Indian women bring them in 12 to l5 miles, and walk around all day with the things on their heads, or until sold. and as soon as sold go immediately and invest in red calico. The Indians call these jars "Oyshs".
 Oh, yes, there is an ostrich farm three miles from town where they raise ostriches. They have 150 now of all sizes, from chicks just hstched to full grown birds which are about eighs feet high, twice as big as any birds I ever saw at 8 caravan. It takes four years for them to attain their full size; then they weigh about 400 lbs; some more, some less. When they set. the female sets in the daytime and the male all night. and this program never varies The old cooke are vicious, and it is not safe to go near them. They are kept in pastures, with a high wire fence around same as cattle; different ages in different fields and when one wants to set she and her mate has small lot to themselves. They do not feed them at all except "settin" hens and the very small chicks, they live on grass (alfalfa
 The old male birds are all black and the hens brown, but some have tlfts of of white plumes in their wings; the nice feathers all come from their Hinp