Arizona republican., 1904-09-23

from the brown desert sands of Ari- zona in a midday temperature of 135 degrees in the sun. is one of the mod ern miracles of western irrigation. But A. J. Hansen of Kyrene. Arizona. was forced into the prestidigltateur line when a great scheme for raising sugar beets suddenly fell through, and not only did he outdo Rocky Ford from a basis of sand and water, but he has induced a railroad company to build two and a half miles of sidetrack out to the Hansen ranch.
 And, in the opinion of MT. Hansen, it is five times easier to make a canta- loupe out of sand than it is to get a railroad company to lay two and half miles of ties and rails through Arizona sagebrush
 Hansen was an adventurer in Arizo- ma agriculture. He was to have grown sugar beets on contract, when sudden ly the contractor for the supply scored a failure, leaving him with his equip ment of well drills, pumps and steam engine high and dry in Salt river val ley. This was before the United States government decided to build the great Tonto Basin dam, which is to leave lake thirty-hve miles long, eighteen miles wide. and 2SO feet deep, high above the Hansen ranch.
 In the middle Of the desert, eighteen miles from Phoenix. Hansen was too far from anywhere to be discouraged He went after water as the first move and he found it two hundred feet be- low the surface, in such force and such quantity that it rose within sixteen feet of the surface sand. Five wells were sunk before he ceased drilling
 
 to the sixteen foot level.
 With an engine and pumps of 100 horse power and with ditches and lat erals radiating from the high ground in the center of the 1,12O acre ranch, Hansen was ready for his experiment. He went to Rocky Ford, in Colorado, and laid in a supply of the seed of the famous gem melons. His pumps were discharging $500 gallons of ar tesian water a minute, and his main ditch was a river ten feet wide, with a heavy current down the slope. Frost Is unknown in the Salt river valley, and last spring when Hansens ground was ready for seed it was only Feb. 1. Rocky Ford had not begun to walk en from winters cold before the warm sun was touching the vines on the Hansen ranch.
 Three hundred and twenty acres were planted to these melons. The hills were set in rows 45zx6 feet, with every twelfth row left vacant for the pass ing of the sleds of the pickers and for the direction of the water for irriga- | ton.
 There is no dew in the Salt river val | ley and there is no rain. The sun | shines 366 days on leap years and it was discovered that this perpetual sunshine and this absence of dew and rainfall were conditions making for the | perfection of the gem melon. Seeds that were planted the first week in February were bearing ripened melons l on June 15. when the shipping season began. Until the week of Christmas these fruits will be gathered from the | ranch.
 Two hundred crates to the acre. av- 1 eraging foTty-five melons to the crate | is the yield of the Hansen ranch There should be no diminution from l this. The sunshine is perpetual and the water is under the Girect control oi 1 the rancher. There is no frost to en- danger the vines at any time. Ther, are no insects of any kind yet discov. cred. In the beginning rabbits and