The Arizona sentinel., 1907-02-27
POSSIBILITIES OF YUMA
 REGION UNEMPLOYED. The Soil Simply Marvellous in Its
 PrOduCtiyeneSS. And the Climate is lnt0xiCdtingly
 SdEubri0uS.
BY GEORGE ". BURTON, In Los Angeles Times.

BY GEORGE w. BURTON. In Los Angeles Times.
 It is very far from semi-mellcnium since three little open boats under the flag of Spain first touched the waters of the western hemi- sphere andsrevealed the New World to the eyes of Europeans. It is only little over century since the United States of America sprang, so to speak like PallaS Athene from the brain of love, a completely armed addition to the family of nations. It is but little over half century since California became part of these United States of America, and less than a generation since the settlement of the Great Southwest began.
 In all the 125 years since the Republic was founded also in the half century since California became one of the States of the Union, and dur ing every year of the last thirty, realization of the vast riches of the American continent, of the territory of the United States and of this Great Southwest has been more and more as tonishing the minds of men. One would sup pose that by today we knew pretty thoroughly what the undeveloped resources of the Great Southwest might reasonably be expected to be- come We have not reached the depths of this great ocean of wealth with our plummet line yet.
 
 writer thought he knew little about what there is on the Coast, and as most of these years have been spent in and around Los An geles, he naturally had little conceit that he was pretty well acquainted with the Great Southwest. Last week a trip to the Colorado River bottoms, below Yuma, made him feel as tenderfoot who had come in on the last train. New to him, this wonderful region and it's possi-
 
 readers of The Times by the stories published, if not by the demonstration of their own eyes.
 Yuma lies on the map just twelve miles from where the government is putting in the great | Laguna dam, at the confluence of the Gila and Colorado Rivers. It is twelve miles from Yuma down the river to the Mexican boundary line on the Arizona side of the river. At one point, just below Yuma the international boundary | line runs up along the river, which there takes westerly trend and from Yuma to Mexico is only few miles.
 ONCE A MIGHTY STREAM.
 Ages ago, when the mountain ranges of Ari- zona and California lowered toward the stars, at least twlce as high as they do now, rains were very frequentand came down in torrential volumes all along these mountain ridges. The Colorado River in these past ages mighty stream, sweeping down debris in tons every second of its flow. The Colorado sink was at that time great inland sea, which spread over the country on both sides of where the river now runs. As the erosion of winds and storms, | landslides and glaciers wore down the mountain ridges year by year, the great river carried down vast amount of silt erosion from the rocks full of phosphates Times and disintegrated l o11o 4l,a ion al banks, and this was all deposited in what are now the sinks of the 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 Coloradoat Yuma a stream about half q mile wide and being at the present time about twenty feet deep in 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 as 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 off of the flow of the river where the railroad is trying to close | the break much more difficult Once choked 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 once more, and for perhaps the thousandth time to the riches Of the soil along the Colorado on both sides, incident to the depositing of this mass of debrls during all the past ages. Going l through the country 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 1 valley of the Nile has been matter of history for at least 6oO9 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 them.
 II country if the soil is six feet his eyes will open with astonishment at your ignorance He will tell you no one knows whether it is 50 feet 600 or 5000 feet deep. It is practically without bot tom. It is so thoroughly well mixed with sand disintegrated granite and other rocks that il never bal1eS. It is as easily worked heaI of ashes, and responds to cultivation in way that is marvellous.
 CUT TEN CROPS YEARLY.
 Arizona has established an experiment statios in the heart of this big valley, which is some twenty four miles long, and in spots ten tC twelve miles wide, down on the lower level The results are wonderful. Last week they were cutting a crop of alfalfa on this expert 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 greateS luxuriance, and this rich alluvial soil will bt noted in very few years as the ideal spot 1T the whole country for dairying, hog raising, thu production Of poultry and vegetables, which onC , hesitates to call early or late, as they will bC perennial. New potatoes will be produced il the middle of January tomatoes will be ripe bl the first of March, ripe grapes will be gath cred in the early days of May, and apricots by the middle of the same month. Chickens an( } all experience anywhere else.