The Arizona sentinel., 1907-04-03
ONCE A 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 rains
 were very frequent and came down in torrential
 volumes all along these mountain ridges The
 Colorado River in these past ages was mighty
 stream, sweeping down debris in tons every
 second of it's 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, 1 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
 granites, well as the vegetation along it's 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 Colorado at Yuma q 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 Gla. instead of the red river it becomes the brown river. It act ualy looks today if 10 per cent of it's flow was silt and only % 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 off, 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 depoSting of this mass of debrls 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, Calexico 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 a matter of history for at least 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 them.
 If you ask q farmer along this stretch of country if the soil is six feet, his eyes will open with astonishment at your ignorance. He will l tell you no one knows whether it is 60 feet, 600 or 6OO0 feet deep It is practically without bot tom It is so thoroughly we'll mixed with sand, | granite and other rocks that it | never bakes. It is as easily worked as a heap 1 of ashes, and responds to cultivation in way that is marvellous.
 CUT TEN CROPS YEARLY.
 Arizona has established an experiment statio2 in the heart of this biz valley, which is some twenty four miles long and in spots ten to twelve miles wide down on the lower level. The results are wonderful. Last week they were cutting a 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 l uxuriance, and this rich aluvial soil will Dc 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 carly 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 carly days of May, and aprcots by the middle of the same month. Chickens and turkeys flourish there in the winter time beyond Ill experience anywhere else.
 The rainfall is exceedingly light and comes only three or four times in 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 4ilicVlt elsewhere, Thege is DO spot ia South