Williams news., 1904-03-19
IRRIGATION IN ARIZONA
Vast Increase of the Amount of
 Land Under Water.

mas been transmitted to the QlreC- tor of the census by Chief Statician L. G. Powers. The report was pre- pared under his direction by Clarence G. Blanchard, and is based upon information obtained by cor respondence and through field in- vestiga tions by William J. Barrows. It will soon appear as part of the irrigation report for the United States for the year 1902. The sta tistics are for the several drainage basins, and indicate considerable progress in irrigation since the crop year 1899.
 The industrial art of irrigation in the United States began in Ari zona, and indications are found throughout the valleys of the Gila and Salt rivers; that large areas now barren and fordidding were once occupied by a numerous pre- historic race. The canals now in use in many places follow quite closely those of ancient systems. These early ditches reveal engin- eering skill of a high order, and must have required an immense expenditure of labor Their ori- gin is lost, even in traditi on, for they were abandoned as early as 1542, when Coronado visited these valleys in search of the "seven cities of Cibola," but ethnologists date their operation as early as the eighth or ninth century. Portions of the beds of these ancient ditches today are utilized in modern sys- tems.
 Arizona Geographically consists of two distinct regions, plateau and plain. More than one-half of the territory has an elevation of over 5000 feet, and forms what is gen. erally known as the Colorado pla- teau. One third of the territory is below the level of 5000 feet, and along the valleys of the Colorado and Gila rivers, in the extreme southwestern corner, the elevation is less than 100 feet. Several short irregular mountain ranges extend from the southeast to the north west, the highest being the San Francisco range, 13O0O feet in ele- vation in the north central part of the territory.
 With the exception of a few square miles in the extreme south eartern part the entire territory of Arizona belongs to the Colorado river drainage basin. The Color ado river enters the territory near the center of the northern boun- dary. flows southwesterly and forms all but sixty. miles of its western boundary. The deep canyons which the streams have run through the plateaus of Arizona form a distinct i've feature of it's topography. The Grand Canyon of the Colorado is in the northwestern part, and scat tered throughout the mountain ranges are many smaller ones.
 In some some portions of the ter ritory, particularly the plateaus among the mountains farming is practiced to a limited extent without irrigation, but it is only in the val leys, where water may be supplied to large areas, that agriculture has been especially developed. AS yet little more than 8 per cent. of the total area of the territory has been reclaimed, and while there is still a large area of arable and arriga- ble land, reclamation cannot be carried much beyond its present stage without resorting to the stor- age of the spring and summer flood waters.
 The climate of sections in the southern half is so favorable and the soil SO fertile that as long as a supply of water can be had one crop immediately succeeds anoth- CT. The principal field crops are alfalfa, barley, corn, oats and