The Arizona sentinel., 1900-01-06
ARIZ0NA'S AGRICULTURAL PROE
 DUCTS.


 zona, the agricultural developmeREt of the Territory has only begun. Hundreds of thousands of acres of the most fertile soil on the con- tinent, in 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- gation of vegetable life; next veal these same sands will feel the shrob
 of the irrigation veln, and where only the desert shrubs ones grew there will spring. up luxuriant vine.
 yards, 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 Arizons's
 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 whose
 wonderful fecundity will enable man to reap the fruits of his labors
 within an almost incredibly short space of time.
 g The soil of the A.izona 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 s tory, and especially those of ths g Salt, Gila and Colorado rivers, so ? wonderfully fertile. The soil ranges
 from black, alluvial mold near
 the water to rich, mellow, porous
 loam further back from the streams. f The former is especially adapted to 7 to the growth of grain and grasses, | while the sandy losm fulflls all the conditions for successful fruit cnI- D tHre. The growth of 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, 7 fruits and vegetables as Arizona. n Wheat, oats, barley, corn and all the smaller cereals yield enormous crops; every variety of vegetable known in the country is grown in s Arizona, and every variety reaches the acme of perfection. Alfalfa, clover, timothy, Kafir corn, 1nillst and all the grasses have luxuriant
 growth; cotton, sugar-cane, sugar beets, hemp, rice and tobacco thrive } in the soil, while there is scarcely : a fruit under the sun-apples, pears, plums, peaches, aprIcots, 4uinces,
 nectarines, dates, grapes, oranges lemons, figs, limesS olives, pome- |, granates and others of the citrus genus, all of delicious flavor
 that cannot be raised in the rich, g sandy loam. Fruits ripen month g 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; l grape cuttings often produce within , eighteen to twenty months; the
 farmer plants m November and by
 May his crop is ready to be harvest Ted. 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 Arizona shows that the future of the Terri
 tory depends not upon her mining industries alone, nor on Der timber, nor her herds and focKs of stock; but in later years 1t will be found that the era of social and intellec- tual development which she is even