Williams news., 1903-10-24

guns and squ1rt-guns, grown to a large tree foot in diameter and covered with the richest foliage, and then covered again with the large round, flat punches of wine red berries. And there are the spreading palm trees, the round topped umbrellas, the graceful ash the towering eucalyptus and the lordly cottonwood and the rows and banks and beds of flowers blooming the year round and con- stituting a very fairy scene of color and fragrance; different but equal ly beautiful are the Eastlake and City parks and City Hall and Cap ital plazas.
 Phoenix is the center of the Salt River valley, which, without any question, is the richest and most productive valley in the United States, and comparable only to the ancient valley of the Nile, which was for centuries known as the "granary of the world" It only exceeds the Salt River valley in size. The latter is 100 miles long by thirty wide and would easily support, if under full cultivation half million people.
 The Salt River runs through it's center and is the source of it's wa ter supply for irrigation, as well as domestic use, although water can be developed anywhere in this val ley few feet below the surface.
 The soil is formed by the wash from the mountains which surround the valley on every side and is in many places 100 feet deep. The crops grown are alfalfa, three to five crops a year, aggregating seven or eight tons to the acre, and which sells readily for from eight to twelve dollars per ton ard which also fur nishes the finest pasture for stock. Farmers can realize and do realize thirty and forty per cent profit on alfalfa farming in ordinary years.
 Fine crops of wheat, barley, mel ons and vegetables are also grown.
 The sugar beet here reaches the utmost perfection in both quantity and quality. A great beet sugar factory was in course of building when I left Arizona. As a result of this and erection of a dam and storage reservoir near Phoenix, the latter of which will cost $2,50O,OOO and double the cultivated area of valley, the price of land was advan- cing at jumps of ten dollars an acre when l came away. Prices of land with water for irrigation range from $25 to $50 per acre. according to location and the class of improve ments attached.
 Other products of this wonderful valley are melons in great abund- ance and of the finest quality, or anges which are the best l ever saw and which are ready for market three weeks earlier than those of California; plums, peaches, apri- cots, pears, grapes, figs, pomegran- ates, dates, almonds and olives.
 A curious fact about the fruit trees is the comparative amount of the tree that is above and below the ground. I found by actual measurements that there was be- tween four and five times as much of an ordinary peach tree below the ground as there was above it, and other trees proportionately. The mesquite, which makes excellent fuel, has the same characteristics.
 It is common for the alfalfa to have roots seven feet long and six inches thick.
 The cottonwoodis planted around the ranches for a fuel, fence posts, for ornament and for shade. The top may be cut off clean down to the trunk every year, as it will grow new top thirty feet high and oft en as wide in that period of time. When the limbs, six inches thick, are cut into fence posts and placed