Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1906-12-05
REPORT or SECRETARY
 or AGRICULTURE.
Makes Estimate of Crops for Yesr 1908 Which shows An Increass
 over 1906.

secretary of Agriculture Wilson has ,., made his tenth annual report of ,h,. work of the Department of Agricul. .,,. to President Roosevelt, which con. .,io. resume of the year in the agri. .ultural pursuits, gives estimates, value of crops, etc.
 Following will be found extracts from ,,s report which relates more nearly to Arizona than do the other portions of secretary Wilson's report:
 Advance Dstimata.
 The Secretary premises thot the asntc4 presented in his review of the ear full production are advance esti. mates preliminary to those to be made la,er by the Department. Estimates are made for comparison with every de. tail presented by the census. The farm nroduc,s of the year have a farm value of very nearly six thousand eight hun. lred million dollars, nearly half bl. lion above the value of 1905, and ex. cceding by over two billion dollars the axnrea for the last census.
 Value of Leading Crops.
 Corn remains by for the most valu. able crop, estimated at eleven hundred million dollars. Next comes the cotton crop, which, including seed, should be worth to the growers nearly six hundred and forty million dollars. The value of Day, which is third in order approaches .ix hundred millions. Wheat, the fourth crop, may be worth four hundred and fifty millions; oats, three hundred mil. lions; potatoes, one hundred and fifty millions. Harley, with n value of sixty. five million dollars, shows n gain of 2l per cent in production in the past seven years. The tobacco crop will be worth sbou, fifty.fvc millions. A remarkable development is that of the sugar beet, now the ninth crop in value. The pro. duction in 1906 is placed nt three hun. dr,l and forty five thousand tons. val ued at thirty four million dollars. Seven years ago the value of this crop was seven million dollars. Tho value of all kinds of sugar, sirup, and molasscs, ag. gregatcs evcnty.6ve million dollars
 Reclamation Work in Arizona.
 The record of the Cummings tract, near Tempe, in the Salt River Valley, Arizona. is excellent. The drainage system was installed early in 1904, but no water was available for teaching out the alkali until many months later. When the water supply became more abundant the removal of the alkali was comparatively simple. At the present time liia acres support fine stand of alfalfa, planted in November, 1905, while the remainder has produced n heavy crop of barley. The owner of the land is fully satisHed with the show. lng of the crops and only awaits the seeding of the small tract of alfalfa before accepting the land according to the contract originally agreed upon. AS the water supply of the valley is still further increased by the extensive Op. erations of the United States Rcclama. 'ion Service in constructing storage res crvoirs, the subject of eliminating nl' kali and controlling the ground water will become more important, and the Bureau is very fortunate in having un' deriaken and completed this work at such an opportune time.
 AkaM LAnds Reclaimed.
 The progress of the work on the sev' cral alkali reclamation tracts has been gratifying, as regards both the success of the experiments and the stimulating effects that these results have had upon private initiative. These tracts are To- eased in Utah, California, Washington Arizona and Montana. The experience on these tracts demonstrates the wis dom of extending the work to other alkali districts.
 Timber Sales.
 In Colorado and Arizona sales of tim Der totaled over 27,OOOOOO board feet for each state, and in Utah and Cali fornia over lO,OOO,OO0. In Colorado and Utah these sales were mainly Of hre'killed timber, largely used in min ing. In Arizona large quantities of ma lure accessible timber permitted ex tensive cutting without injury to th' forest. In other states cutting was com paratively insignificant in amount, save in Idaho, where near 9,OOO,OOO feet were cut.
 Dry Land Farming.
 The Secretary voices caution to tho