The Arizona sentinel., 1908-06-24
POSSIBILITIES OF YUMA
 REGION UNEMPLOYED The Soil Simply Marvellous in Its
 Pr0duCtiyeneSS And the Climate is lntoxiCatingIy
 Sa!ubriOus
BY GEORGE x. BURTON, In Los Angeles Times.

In Los Angeles Times. It Is very far from semi-Inillenium since three little open boats under the flag of Spain first touched the waters of the western hemi sphere and revealed the new world to the eyes of Europeans. It Is only little over a century since the United States of America sprang so to speak, like Palms Athene from the brain of love, completely armed ad- dition to the family of nations. It is but little yer half century since California be- came part of these United States of America and less than generation since the settle ment of the Great South west began.
 In all the l25 years since the Republic was also in the half century since Cali fornia became one of the States of the Union. and during every year of the last thirty, re- alization 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 astonishing to the minds of men, One would suppose that by today We knew pretty thoroughly what the undevelop- ed resources of the Great Southwest might reasonably be expected to become. We have not reached the depths Of this great ocean of wealth with our plummet line yet.
 In a residence of forty years on the Coast the writer thought he knew a little about what there is on the Coast, and as most of these years have been spent in and around Los Angeles he naturally had little con- ceit 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 a tenderfoOt who had come in on the last train New to him. this wonderful region and it's possibilities are pretty well known to a great many readers of The Times by the stories published, if not by the demon- stration 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 boundry line on the Arizona side of the river At one point. Just below Yuma the intcrna- tional boundry line runs up along the river which there takes a westerly trend and from Yuma to Mexico is only few miles.
 ONCE A MIGHTY STREAM.
 Ages ago when the mountain ranges Of Arizona and California lowered toward the stars, at least twice as high as they do noWr rains were very freduent and came down in torrcntial volumes all along these mountain ridges The Colorado River in these past ages was a mighty stream, sweeping down debris in tons every second of it's flow. T'le Cobra do sink was at that time great inland Se;t, 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 phos phates times and dIsntergrated granites, as well as the vegetation along its banks; and this was all deposited in what are now the 1 sinks of the Colorado.
 | AS the mountain tops were worn down, the rains became less frequent and less i'll volume | but the erosion of rocks and river banks, the trees and vegetable mould torn from the hanks still came down and settled into the bottom of the great inland lake. This geogical process went on from age to age to our time | leaving the Colorado at Yuma a stream about half a mile wide and being at the present time about twenty feet deep h the deepest portion.
 His not necessary to remind CalifOrnians that inc Spanish missionaries and explorers called this river the Colorado because of the
 
 LID in the Grand Canyon in Arizona and down past The Needles But at thls time O. the year, after passing the mouth of the Gila instead of the red river It becomes the browr river. It actually looks today if ten pel cent of it's flow was silt and only ninety pc cent water
 RICHES OF SOIL ONDERFUL
 Bat the object Of this story is to call attcn ton once more and for perhaps the thou Sandth time to the riches of the soil along the Colorado on both sides, incident to tn deposiudg of this mass of debris during al the mast ages Going through the countr! on the Arizona side of the river, for severa miles below Yuma, one encounters the sam type of country and soil that is found in th Imperial Valley country around Brawley Calexico and other points west of the rive The fertility of the black prairie soils of Hi nois has astoniShed people engaged in agr culture for nearly one hundred years. Tn fertility of the valleys Of the Nile has bcen
 matter of history for at least 60C0 years. Thos who are familinr with Illinois prairie sni and those who know what the valley of tn Nile is for agriculture. know that this lowe Colorado River region surpasses both of them
 If vou ask farmer along this stretch C country if the soil is six feet his eyes wi open with astonishmcnt nj your ignorance | He will tell you no ore knows whether it 60 feet, G0C or 6C00 feet deep. IL Is practcal without bottom. It is SD thoroughly we mixed with sand, disnteGrated granite an other rocks that it never breaks. IL is q easily worked as a hcap of ashes, and r' spends to cultivation in way that Is ma velouS. 4
 CUT SEVEN CROPS YEARLY. Arizona has established an experimcn station in the heart of this big valley, whic is some twenty-four miles long and in spot ten 10 twelve miles wide, dowu on the lowe level. The results are wonderful. Last wee they were cutting a crop of alfalfa OH this c, perimental farm, and for seven consecutiv months they will cut succeeding crops. Th only months when the crop IS not cut hero ar December and January.
 Cotton and tobacco grow with the greates luyuriancn, and this rich alluvial soil will noted in q very few years the ideal spot the whole country for dairying, hog raiSin; the production of poultry and vegetables whic one heSitates to call early or late, as they wi be perennial. New potatoes will be produce in the middle of January. tomatoes will | ripe by the first of March, ripe grapes will r gathered in the early days of May, and apr cots by the middle of the same month. Chi
 Ecns and turkeys flourish there in the wint'
 time beyond all experience anywhere else 3 The rainfall is exceedingly light and come
 only three or four times in q whole wirte
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