Arizona republican., 1901-12-19

Some time ago a sojourning and imaginative or too credulous news
 paper correspondent THE sent out the statement sAGUARA from Phoenix that the ALL RIGHT. giant cactus of Arizona
 Is doomed to speedy e1- tinction because of the encroachments of irrigation upon it's domain. The avidity with which the story has been picked up and circulated illustrates once more the fact that transformation will travel farther and faster than the truth can ever hope to so. and that eastern ignorance of the area and to- pography of Arizona yet awaits much enlightment. The generally well in- formed New York Commercial thus mourns the early destruction of the saguara:
 While from a purely industrial point of view the reclamation of the arid waste of Arizona by irrigation sys- tems will be great gain-really transforming a desert into a garden and destined ultimately to yield vast sums of money in profit-one regret table result will be the utter extinction of one of the strangest plants in the world. It will even make necessary the choice of new territorial Cor state) flower before many years have elapsed-for at a recent session of the territorial legislature the cereus gigan- teus the great cactus, better known perhaps as the saguara and peculiar to the soil of Arizona, was made the of fioial flower of that territory, and that is the plant that is doomed.
 When the first Franciscan Fathers 1 journeyed north into Arizona they carried back reports of the great cac- tus which covered ihe plains of the new country. and told about it's food value to the Indians. Now, as the art of the American has reclaimed. foot by foot, the former desert, and | the magic water has made orange, 1 peach and apricot orchards and great fields of alfalfa, the saguara has been driven out, and only in spots where water can not be placed can the odd plant be found. On the rocky, aravelly mesas, the saguaras. the largest of the cactus family. point their candela- brum-iike arms straight toward the | sky, not infrequently attaining a i height of sixty feet. The body ot the saguara. sometimes two feet in thick ness. is composed of thin pieces of porous wood. arranged in the form of a Corinthian column, covered and ! held together by the outside fibre of a pale green. At some distance from the ground large branches put out, while the whole surface is covered with sharp. prickly thorns. A large white. sometimes purple blossom comes forth early in the spring and ripens into a pear-shaped fruit by the last of June. , The giant cactus has no special value 1 for Arizonians except as an interesting | sight for visitors, and were it to dis ! appear there would be no general mourning. But It should be remem- bered that this territory is as "big as all outdoors" It has an area of some 11s.00o square miles. There are at 1 least 3o,000 square miles upon which the cactus Is seen. So far the irri- gated area does not comprise more | than 200, 900 acres. Perhaps when the | floods are stored in all conveniently situated reservoirs there may be water for million acres more. This acreage under irrigation, by the way. would yield greater wealth each year than most of the agricultural states. so that we are not backward in stating that after all the water available has been put to use there will remain some .eventy millions of acres upon which the cactus will be free to grow, so far as mans contention with it is con cerned. Intending tourists who have looked forward to a vicw of the won derful saguara need not fear meeting isaDpointment- for awhile. at least. 
 The government metailurgist of Vancouver makes the statement that