Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1904-08-03
FRIEND OF ARIZONA.
Neither SparseIy Settled Desert
 Nor Prey to Long DrOughts.

The following letter in defense Of Arizona was published recently in the Washington Post, its author being Matt R. Lorirg,a a popular young mar, formerly a resident of Prescott, but now an employe of the postoftice in Washington:
 Being a native son of Arizona, ] cannot help criticizing the article iL your issue of June 26, 1904, entitled the Possibilities of the Great South west. 7" 1t is very plain that the authors knowledge of the described country is very limited. Most of the statements are wrong, and the others are so distorted that their value is lost To a stranger reading the article 1t would tend to create very un- favourable impression of the Terri tory. It is little wonder that the spreading of such literature through out the east has produced the CT roneous impression concerning that country s fitness for statehood. The writer says: "Down in the Salt Val ley, which should be Salt River val ley-the government has erected modest irrigation system covering sixty square miles. The observer sees, from mountain eminence, a vividly green oasis so sharply defined by the surrounding wilderness as to resemble a tiny island in an endless ocean of rand. The cattle ranch seen in the illustration cuts sharply into the dry bone desert on one side; on the other it borders the canal waterfall, which is fairly smotbered by tropical yer dure. The sixty mile tract supplies the whole Territory with feed and beef and butter. '
 In the first place, the Salt River valley dose not embrace mere sixty square miles, but is covered with hundreds of sections under a high state of cultivation. The country is not hemmed in by deserts, but are bordeTed with mountains. The gov ernment is in no way connected with the present irrigation system. It was put in by private capital, and is one of the largest and finest systems in the world. The government, seeing the splendid possibilities of the stor- age system, decided on the Tonto Basin project.
 The writer says that grave doubts have been aroused by the continued drought as to the possibility of filling the Tonto Basin reservoir. The gov ernment has been keeping record of the rainfall, and the flow of the rivers for years, so that it is not likely they would embark on project of such magnitude unless they were reason ably sure of success. Ore drought does not mean the everlasting ruin of country. There is enough water from the streams flowing into the Tonto Basin in the spring to fill it several times over.
 It is plain that the writer has seen but a very small section of the terri tory and that must have been through a ear window. Aside from the Salt Rivre Valley, there are thousands of acres all over the territory under cul tivation. The land bordering on the Verde River in the northern part and the Gila in the south is very produc tive and supports large population.
 Instead Of beef, butter and hay as the sole products, as the writer would convey, the territory produces every thing that can be grown in a semi tropical climate, the fruit and vege- tables being especially noted for their early maturity and fine quality.