The Arizona sentinel., 1907-05-01

where the government is putting in the grea ! Laguna dam. at the confluence of the Gila ant ! Colorado Rivers. It is twelve miles from Yum;
 down the river to tho Mexican boundary line O, 1 the Arizona side of the river. At one point
 just below Yuma. the international boundar!
 line runs up along the river, which there take
 6 westerly trend and from Yuma to Mexico i only few miles.
 ONCE 4 MIGHTY STREAM. Ages ago, when the mountain ranges of Ari zona and California lowered toward the stars at least twice as high as they do now, rain: were very frequent and came down in torrentia volumes all along these mountain ridges. Int Colorado River in these past ages was mighty stream, sweeping down debris in tons ever! second of it's flow. The Colorado sink was a
 that time a great inland sea, which spread ovel
 the country on both sides of where the river now runs. As the erosion of winds and storms landslideS and glaciers wore down the mountair ridges year by year, the great river carried down vast amount of silt, erosion from the rocks full of phosphateS, Times and disintegratet granites, well as the vegetation along its banks and this was all deposited in what arc now the sinks of tho Colorado.
 As the mountain tops were worn down, the rains became less frequent and less in volume but the erosion of rocks and river banks, the trees and vegetable mould torn from the banks still came down and settled into the bottom of the great inland lake, This geological process went on from age to age to our time, leaving the Colorado at Yuma stream about half a mile wide and being at the present time about twenty feet deepin the deepest portion.
 It is not necessary to remind Californians that the Spanish missionaries and explorers called this river the Colorado because of the reddish color of it's waters. It is the Colorado up in the Grand Canyon in Arizona and down past The Needles. But at this time of the year. after passing the mouth of the Gila. instead of the red river it becomes the brown river. It act ually looks today if 10 per cent of it's flow was silt and only 90 per cent water. The great weight of this mass Of liquid impregnated by so much solid makes the cutting of of the flow of the river where the railroad is trying to close the break much more difficult. Once chohed of, however the silt will settle around the rocks and make solid dam for all time to come.
 RICHES OF SOIL WONDERFUL.
 But the object of this story is to call attention OHCS ulOT6, dHu IOt tiic time to tho riches of the soil along the Colorado on both sides, incident to the depositing of this mass of debris during all the past ages. Going through the country on the Arizona side of the river for several miles below Yuma one en- counters the same type of country and soil that is found in the Imperial Valley country around Brawley, Calexco and other points west of the river. The fertility of the black prairie soils of Illinois has astonished people engaged in agri- culture for nearly 100 years The fertility of the valley of the Nile has been q matter Of history for at least 6 09 years. Those who are familiar with Illinois prairie soil, and those who know what the valley of the Nile is for agriculture, know that this lower Colorado River region sur passes both of then.
 If you ask farmer along this stretch of country if the soil is six feet his eyes will open with aStoniShment at your ignorance. He will tell you no ono knows whether it is 60 feet, 600 or GOOD feet deep. It is practically without bot tom. It is so thoroughly well mixed with sand, granite and other rocks that it never bal1eS It is as easily worked as a heap of ashes, and responds to cultivation in way that is marvellous.
 CUT TEN CROPS YEARLY.
 
 in the heart of this big valley, which is some twenty four miles long, and in spots ten to twelve miles wide, down on the lower level. The results arc wonderful. Last week they were cutting crop of alfalfa on this experi- mental farm, and for ten consecutive months they will cut succeeding crops The only months when the crop is not cut here are December and January.
 Cotton and tobacco grow with the greatest luxuriance, and this rich alluvial soil will be noted in very few years as the ideal spot in the whole country for dairying, hog raising, the production of poultry and vegetables, which one heSitates~to call early or late. they will be perennial. New potatoes will be produced in the middle of January, tomatoes Will be ripe by the first of March, ripe grapes will be gath cred in the early days of May, and apricotS by tho middle of the same month. Chickens and turkeys flourish there in tho winter time beyond Bll experience anywhere else.
 The rainfall is exceedingly light and comes only three or four times in d whole winter. With an abundance of green alfalfa and vege- tables in the dry and not oVerheated climate prevailing in the winter months, chickens are free from the diseases that make their raising 1ialeuIt elsewhere. Ttegc is DO spot in South