Arizona republican., 1904-03-07
HE WAS GENERALLY PLEASED
Ex-nayor Baker of Fort Collins, Colo
 Who Spent the Winter Here.

| lins, Colo, spent the early part of the winter in Phoenix. In a letter to his home paper the Fort Collins Express he conveyed his impressions of the country, which were generally favor able. At any rate he was favora bly, impressed by his landlady's daughter. His ideas of irrigation under the pro- posed reservoir are somewhat crude. l Nor does he think that the territory is quite entitled to statehood His let ter is as follows;
 We went.to church this morning at the Presbyterian. They have a very bright young minister. I don't be- lieve I ever heard a better. They had a little fire in the stove and I thought I had my wife just where 1 wanted her. with winter clothing on. I can tell a tenderfoot every time, some of the women wear furs when we are glad to sit in the shade.
 We are located in a very nice resi- dence portion of the city, with lady and her daughter, the latter fine\loCk- ing. She clerks in the County Clerk s office, so I got slightly acquainted with the Clerk, Assessor and County Treasurer when on my rounds. They are pleasant people here and we play games and people come in. Only one fault, they are democrats. But you know l like some democrats.
 You would be surprised to drive out in the farming country. We saw one thousand hogs, big, black hogs, in one field. They looked so strange in the green alfalfa. They pasture their al falfa, have many cattle and they look fine. They change them from field to field and irrigate a field and let it dry; then turn in fresh green feed. But l find many farms abandoned for want of water like the Long Pond place. But farm here without water will not produce like Long Pond farm, it is so very dry. They claim they will have water enough when the s3,OOO, 900 reser- Toir! soon to be built by Uncle Sam, is completed. It is the Tonto Basin dam in Salt river so miles from here. They are to build a cement plant and electric plant and a O0O0 wagon road first. It will take them three years at least. Then the government will sell the farmers water at $1.50 per acre. can't see where they will get the water Salt river is dry. Three ditches that will carry roc cubic feet will have to come first and they can't get filled
  rado river and fill this dam, others say not, and that it will be filled from Salt river in flood time.
 We drove to the orange groves. Early oranges had been picked and shipped east before California fruit ripened. They had about cars only. Some are being brought in town and sell at ten to twenty-five cents per dozen. They are very sweet. Many large orchards have no water and the trees are dead. Apricots, almonds and peaches are raised. Figs also do well and are nice; we had some for lunch today. The almond trees are now in blossom.
 A good farm two miles out of town with water and fair buildings is worth S100 per acre. Alfalfa sells for s13.O0 per tons from wagons. They cut first crop in April, and cut five times and it has to be watered five times: then watered four times in winter if pastur- ed. Beef, butter and milk are all nice here because stock gets green feed. They ship some fat steers to California.
 We drove by one ostrich farm where they had 95 birds paired off in little fields.
 These chaps can tell pretty big yarns about things here. And they don't like to hear anyone say joint statehood. They have nice little capitol building and they want to be admitted very much. I don't believe they will just yet. They have a whole lot of Mexi- cans that never ought to count in a statehood deal, because they are not fit to vote. And for Arizona to have two senators, same as New York and Ohio. does not look just right. But how they kick if anybody says join in with New Mexico and go in that way.
 We went out to the Indian school and into the school rooms. There are 125 students there, good teachers, fine accommodations, good mechanical department, and the government has spent three times as much in buildings as they have at the college at Fort Collins. But I would hate to be teacher there They are so slow. They make most of their clothing and do all of the work with one white overSeer in each group. That is, if a squad goes to do a piece of work on farm grounds, a white man looks after the work But you ought to see them get up and run when the dinner bugle sounds. Cant make the people here think it does them any good. Some good it does. no doubt. I saw a wagon all painted up and it looked like a Cooper wagon and everything about it had been done at the school by the Indians.
 We had a line from the Mandevilles at San Diego. They have rented a : room house and have a room for us. But how we will ever get there is more than I can tell. because the train leaves here for Ash-forks, at 4:30 a. m. and we lie in our beds at 7:30 and hear the birds singing through the open windows and begin to think about getting up. I am at a loss to know how we can ever make that train. And there is only one train each day.
 Many people are here who are just little sick. Many are well to do people who are from New York and Ohio to get out of the rain and cold. Many are young dissipated men sent here by their fathers to keep them out of mischief at home. Many are here as the very last resort. They die every day and many are shipped back home and some are buried here. If you go about the town looking for rooms or a