Arizona republican., 1908-04-17
SALT RIVER VALLEY
 LANDS AND WAFER
Present Conditions Demonstrate That Land Values May Double and the Property Still be- Dirt Cheap"

Probably nowhere within the Unit ed States is there so large a body of uniformly and abundantly productive soil as in the Salt River Valley of Arizona That is a strong statement. but not wild one Of this valley. a special committee from the United States senate who had visited it. re- ported: Senate Report 29S, part 1. May ,, 1890.
 Within our borders there cannot be found a soil so uniformly fertile and SO capable of varied production, under irrigation. as that of the GiIa, Salt and Santa Cruz rivers in central and southern Arizona. Analysis of this soil shows it's fertile qualities to be superior to that of the Nile earth" Orange Judd, editor of the Prairie Farmer, said of this valley, after a visa: We have seen thousands of acres of growing crops that rival in luxuriance those found in the famed | Valley of the Nile. which derives it's vivifying liquid, bearing fertilizing elements. from the far-off lands of upper Egypt. This valley of ;he Salt river derives it's Iuxuriousness from the mountain ranges of interior Ari- zona."
 Of such soil there lie in this valley more than half a million acres so uni formly level that they are practically ready for irrigation. They need but the. magical touch of water to cause them to spring into a luxurv and va riety of vegetation simply astounding to one unacquainted with the possi- bilities of this region of country.
 As yet. but about 250,OOO acres of this favored soil are under canals and less than that amount under cultiva- ton at any ore time.
 All the land under the canals has been located and proved up or is in process of being proved up; the title to these lands is therefore the United States patent
 The irrigating canals of the Salt river valley are the most extensive of the arid wastes and embrace more than 255 miles of water ways bearing the precious fluid to and over these rich alluvial lands. On the north oi Phoe- nix side of the river including the Buckeye country, are eight different canal systems and on the south side of the river six such systems, all in successful operation. Through these canals the farmer furnishes water to his crop when it needs water and only when it needs it. The supply of water for these canals will soon be increas- ed to all that the lands under them can profitably use, by the completion of the great Roosevelt reservoir on the Gs..uT Phoenix. which has now been under construction for more than three years. It will be furnishing stored water within the next eighteen months with the assistance of that other great work. the diversion dam at Gran ite Reef That means that there can be no drouth in the Salt river valley as the winter rains will ever keep the reservoir supplied with water from it's 5000 square miles of watershed which pour their floods into Salt river dur ing that season of the year. The es- sential thing of this irrigated region is that there is all the water needed at all seasons of the year for all the lands under the irrigating canals of this valley.
 One may form some idea of the immensity of this irrigation enterprise by the following figures descriptive of the dam, the reservoir and the land benefited by them:
 Height of dam from lowest founda- tion, 2S5 feet.
 Depth from surface to bed rock, 31 feet
 Thickness at crest. IS feet.
 Thickness at base 1S5 feet
 Length of dam at level spiIlway. 653 feet
 Area of reservoir, 15.OO0 acres.
 Capacity of reservoir 1.450.O00 acre. feet.
 Estimated cost sS.6OO,OOO.