The Arizona sentinel., 1903-06-10
THE GREAT COLORADO RIVER
Flowing Through Five States, Will Reclaim 5000 Acres Of Land
 o. in Yuma County.
By ARTHUR P. DAVIS, Photographer United States Survey.
TContinued from last week. 1 4 MILLION AND A HALF
 POPULATION

UlOn Ol AOU,UOU dCiGS IlOUd ohO Lower Colorado would support a population of 1, 500, 900 people, or a community more numerous than the entire population of any one of twenty three states of the Union, or about the same as that of the entire state of California at present, and exceeded by only twenty of our states.
 When we consider the great fertility of these lands, the i'm mense amount of power to be developed and the great mineral resources of the immediate vicih- ity, the eabove development seems to be far from doubtful. To re- fer to only one case: There is within twenty miles of the Colo rado river a large deposit of gravel extending to a depth of hundreds of feet and covering thousands of acres, which is rich in placer gold, but little worked on account of utter absence of water, which is hauled long distance in wagons. By the power of developments proposed it will be entirely practicable to pump water to this region and work the placers, which will yield hundreds of millions of dollars in gold.
 A BEAUTIFUL CLIMATE.
 The only serious obstacle to be overcome in the dense settle ment of this region is the climate, which, though delightful for eight months of the year, and always healthful, becomes un- comfortably hot in the three summer months. This also can be overcome by the abundance of cheap power which can be employed by the familiar meth Ods now i'll use for refrigeration, and the houses can be kept cold at all times at slight expense. Then, by confning outdoor em- ployments chiefly to the morn mgs, evenings and moonlitnightS, which are usually clear and cool, the short heated term can be passed in comfort. The process iof cooling houses need not be nearly so expensive nor protract- ed as that of heating them in Chicago or New York.
 Five California counties ex- pended in 1899 the sum of S594, 14O for fertilizers, or nearly S3 per acre irrigated. This will be un- necessary on the lands irrigated from the Colorado, as the silt in the waters will furnish all the necessary elements of fertility This saving, capitalized at } pel cent means that these lands are worth S60 per acre more thar those fertilized in the five cOun- ties mentioned. This should more than compensate for the greater heat of the summer il this region.
 ENHANCED LAND VALUES.
 The value of the farm lands and improvements, exclusive O. : buildings, in the five counties mentioned, estimated by the re cent census, is S136, GOO, GOO, O which nearly half is in Los An geles county, and is probabl. due largely to the presence of large city, and partly specula tive. Eliminating that county therefore, which embraces tn
 only large city in the region, W
 have remaining SIP, ,000,00 a
 the value of the irrigated land il
 the rural counties, or about S56
 per acre. If only one fifth o
 this be taken as land value an
 four ffths as improvements, W
 have SIP per acre as the valu
 of the bare land. At this rat
 the land to be reclaimed by tn
 Colorado would have valu
 of S134, 100000 exclusive of in
 provements, after settlement, o
 six times the estimated cost c
 the reservoirs and main canals
 It will be noticed, however
 that these great results can b
 achieved only by planning an
 executing the work as compre
 hensive whole, in accordanc
 with the results of an exhaustiV