The Arizona sentinel., 1899-12-30
ARIZONA'S AGRICULTURAL PRO.
 DUCTS.

Although thousands of acres of land are under cultivation in Ari- zona, the agricultural development of the Territory has only begun. Hundreds of thousands of acres of the most fertile soil on she con- tinent, in a land of perpetual sum- shine and in climate conducive to the growth of all the products of temperate and semi-tropic zones. await only the life-giving touch of water to convert them from. desert tracts into luxurious gardens. This year the hot sands defy the propa- gatlon Of vegetable life; next year these same sands will feel the ,brob of the irrigation veln, and wbsr. only the desert shrubs once grew there will spring up luxuriant vine. Yaros' orchards heavy with delici- ons fruits, beautiful gardens and broad fields of grain and grasses. A prosperous population will find homes in the valleys of Arizonais rivers, attracted not only by the luxury of life in land of eternal sunshine: whero every breeze carries With It message of health and vigor; where the scourges of other localities-blizzards, snow storms, floods and cyclones-are unknown but also by the fertile soil vho.a wonderful fecundity will enable man to reap the fruits of his labor, within an almost incredibly short space of time.
 The soil of the Arizona valleys is as Inexhaustible as it is fertile. For ages the streams have carried down from the mountain districts the detritus which forms this soil. Ere quent inundations and shifting of channels have caused the deposit of the rich vegetable matters which have made the valleys of the Terri. tory, and especially those of the Salt, Gila and Colorado rivers, 50 wonderfully fertile. The soil ranges from a black, alluvial mold near the water to rich, mellow, porous loam further back from the streams. The former is especially adapted to to the growth of grain and grasses. while the sandy loam fulfills all tho conditions for successful fruit cul- ture. The growth 6 all products fruits, cereals and vegetables-is rapid and prolific. In many in- stances two crops are grown in a single year, while as many as SIX crops of alfalfa have been harvested within that period.
 There is scarcely locality on the globe that can successfully grow as great variety of grains, grasses, fruits and vegetables as Arizona. Wheat, oats, barley, corn and all the smaller cereals yield enormous crops; every variety of vegetabls known in the country is grown in Arizona, and every variety reaches the acme of perfection. Alfalfa, clover, timothy, Kaffir corn, millst and all tbe grasses have luxuriant growth; cotton, sugar-cane, sugar beets, hemp, rice and tobacco thrive in the soil, while there is scarcely fruit under the sun-apples, pears, plams, peaches, aprlcots, quinces, nectarinea, dates, grapes, oranges, lemons, figs, Times, olives, pome- granates and others of the citrus genus, all of delicious flavor that cannot be raised in the rich,' sandy loam Fruits ripen month earlier in the Territory than in 
 California, and in consequence of their being placed on the early market bring better price than the fruit products of the coast.
 The prolific and rapid growth of vegetation is remarkable feature ot Arizona soil. A cottonwood sapling becomes shadetree twenty. five feet high within two years; grape cuttings often produce within eighteen to twenty months; the farmer plants Tn November and by May his crop is ready to be harvest ed. Alfalfa yields from eight to ten tons per acre each year, and the cereals from twenty-five to fifty bushels per acre.
 A review of the agricultural con- ditions that prevail in Arizons shows that the future of the Terri tory depends not upon hOr mining industries alone, nor on her tim mber,