Arizona republican., 1908-04-01
CONSOLIDATED CANAL COMPANY.

CONSOLIDATED CANAL COMPANY.
 The town of Mesa and the great farming district surrounding it is so closely allied to the Consolidated Canal Company. that the storyNOf one is the story of the other For years before the formation of this company, the attempts at irrigation were more or less successful. usually less.
 MT. A. J. Chandler. the leading spirit in the water company. came to the valley and located on the south side of the river in 1887. He recognized at once the necessity of an intelligent and well directed effort in the supplying of the land with water and he made a proposition to the Mesa Canal Com pany. then supplying water to the val ley farmers in the neighborhoOd. that he would put in d permanent head and supply them water at a stipulated rate. This proposition the canal com pany accepted and MT. Chandler went east and organized the capital He associated with him, D. M. Ferry and c. c. Bowen, friends of his, and the work was begun at once.
 A permanent head was put in. dit ches were constructed and thousands upon thousands of dollars were spent, but at last the people had a permanent supply of the one thing needed water Arrangements were made also with the Tempe people and the water was conducted in a canal around over the mesa to a point where it is dropped into the Tempe canal. This drop is forty feet and at this point the company develop electric light and power which is sold to the two muni- cipalities and to numerous private parties. There are under the ditches of the Consolidated Water company. about 10000 acres of the best land that ever laid outdoors and the com pany has been furnishing water for about 75.000 acres of this land. the remaider being desert land. This whole vast tract will be served with water as soon as the governments project is completed. and all of the rights and privileges of the water company will be taken over by the government This company have done a good work, they have been faithful to every trust and their one aim has been to furnish water at all times of the year at the least possible cost. If the same spirit had been manifest ed by the people toward the Consoli- dated Water company that has mark ed the conduct of affairs in establish ing the government scheme the whole valley would have had an adequate and permanent water supply years ago. But instead of a spirit of friend lin ass being shown, the company was compelled to fight long winded suits in the courts and had thousand and one things to contend with from per sons who would neither fish nor cut bait. But at last they succeeded and the magnificent farming community that has been built up around Mesa is n standing proof of their good in tentions.
 Not only have the gentlemen who from the Consolidated Water com pany built up a splendid water system. but they have gone further in their ef- forts to develop the country. They formed the Mesa Improvement com pany. the objects of which company was to buy. improve and sell real es- tate. The company now owns 15.0O0 acres of land. 5000 acres of which are improved. and this ranch. known as the Chandler ranch, has no superior anywhere in the southwest. Two thousand acres of alfalfa and 1000 acres of grain all in the highest state of cultivation. and productiveness. There may be pictures more gladden. ing to the eye than these fields of alfalfa in which from 1900 to 2O00 head of beef cattle and thousands of head of sheep are feeding and fattening for the market. but certainly it is a pie ture of peace and plenty that would brings a throb of pleasure to the heart of any behOlder.
 The company have spent great sums of money sinking wells and they have developed subterranean lake of water that covers a vast territory and the limits of which have not yet been de- fined. The water IS found at a depth of 25O feet and it raises to with in 90 feet of the surface and large pumps throwing a stream of water that fills II inch pipe that has been working for years, and has made no impression on the supply. The com pany have four of these monster wells on the ranch and more can be sunk at any time or at any place they may desire. The water comes out of the wells at 7S degrees and is a splendid water for irrigation or family use
 Irrigating with this water at night will raise the temperature of the soil ten degrees. Under these conditions frost is impossible. And the whole of thiS 15.000 acres becomes orange pro- ducing territory that has no equal in America. No state in the Union has such d vast tract of such splendid land. watered so abundantly. on which oranges can be grown. and no state in the Union can produce such a fine quality Of oranges as can be produced here. This tract will be divided and , ExS,SEs [, .s iaEE. {fZ1 aSI .I|Tsss y-s;-