The Arizona sentinel., 1908-07-01
POSSIBILITIES OF YUMA
 REGION UNEMPLOYED The Soil Simply Marvellous in Its
 PrOduCtiyeneSS And the Climate is IntOxiCatingly
 SaIubriOuS
BY FORGE N. BURTON, In Los Angeles Times.


 It is very far from a -millenium 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 pyes 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, 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 a generation since the settle ment of the Great South west began.
 In all the I25 years since the Republic was founded also In the half century since Cali | fornia became one of the States of the Union. and during every year Of the last thirty, a 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 he expected to become. We have not reached the depths of this great ocean Of wealth with our pummet line yet.
 In a residence of forty years on the Coast the 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 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 hlm 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 dnrc Of Q l,y 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 interna- tional boundry line runs up along the river which there takes a westerly trend and from Yuma to Mexico is only few miles. ONCE \ MIGHTY STREAM. Ages ago when the mountain ranges of Arizona and California lowered toward the stars at least twice as high as they do now, rains were very freduent and came down Tn 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. The Colora- do sink was at that time great inland sea, which spread over the country on both sldes of where the river now runs. As the erosion of winds and storms, IandslideS and glaciers wore down the mountain ridges year by year, | the great river carried down a vast amount of silt erosion from the rocks full of phoS phates. times and dIsintergrated granites, as 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 geogica process went on from age to age to our time leaving the Colorado at Yuma stream about half a mile wide and being at the present time about twenty feet deep i1. the deepes portion.
 It is not necessary to remind Californlan' that the Spanish missionaries and explorers called this river the Colorado because of th' reddish color of it's waters It is the Colorado up in the Grand Canyon in Arizona ant down past The Needles. But at this time the year. after passing the mouth of the Gila instead of the red river it becomes the browl river. It actually looks today as if ten pc cent of its flow was siltand only ninety pc cent water
 RICHES OF SOIL WONDERFUL
 But the object of this story is to call atten ton once more, and for perhaps the thou sandth time, to the riches of the soil alon . the Colorado on both sides, incident to tn depositidg of this mass of debris during d the past ages. Going through tue countr on the Arizona side of tho river, for severs miles below Yuma, one encounters the sam ! type of country and soil that is found in tn Imperial Valley country around Braw'e, CaleXico and other poin Us west of the rive > The fertility of the black prairie soils of III S nOis has astonished people engaged in agr culture for nearly one hundred years. I'll > fertility of the valleys of the Nile has been ] matter of history for at least 5000 years. Tho' who are famlinr with Illinois prairie sci > and thoec who know what the valley of tf } Nile is for agriculture. know that this lowe Colorado River region surpasSes both of then } Ifvou ask a farmer along this stretch
 
 open with astonishmcnt ali your ignoranc He will tell you no one knows whether it 60 feet, soc or 6,C0O feet decp It is practical without bottom. It is thoroughly we
 mixed with sand, disintegrated granite ar
 other rocks that it never breaks. It is
 easily worked as heap of ashes, and I
 spends to cultivation in way that is ma
 vicious.
 CUT SEVEN CROPS YEARLY.
 Arizona has established an experime
 station in thc heart of this big valley, whiC
 is some twenty-four miles long, and in spo
 ten 10 twelve miles wide, down on the low
 level. The results arc wonderful. Last weC
 they were cutting a crop of alfalfa on this e - perimental farm, and for seven conSecuti
 months they will cut succeeding crops. T
 only months when the crop IS not cut here a ? December and January.
 Cotton and tobacco grow with the greate
 luxuriance, and this rich alluvial soil will
 noted in d very few years the ideal spot
 the whole country for dairyng hog raisir
 the production of poultry and vegetables, whi
 one hesitatcs to call early or late they W
 be perennial. New potatoes will be produc in the middle of January, tomatoes will
 ripe by the first of March, ripe grapes will
 gathered in the early days of May and ap
 cots by the middle of the same month. Oh
 kens and turkeys flourish there in the wint
 time beyond all experience anywhere else. no The rainfall is exceedingly light and con
 only three or four times in a whole wint
 With an abundance Of green alfalfa and veg