The Arizona sentinel., 1908-12-30
POSSIBILITIES 0F YUMA
 REGION UNEMPLOYED The Soil Simply Marvellous in Its
 PrOduCtiyeneSS And the Climate is IntOxiCatingIy
 SdIubriOuS
BY GEORGE V. BURTON, In Los Angeles Times.


 It is very far from standardization since 1hree 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 sentury since the United States of America sprang, so to speak. like Pallas Athene from the brain of love, q completely armed ad- dition to the family Of nations. It is but little -ver half century since California be- came a part of these United States of America, and less than generation since the settle Inent of the Great South west began.
 In all the l25 years since the Republic was founded also in the halC century since Cali fOrnia became one of the States af 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 9uore and 1nore 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 noJ reached the depths of this great ocean Of wealth with our plummet line yet.
 In q residence of forty years on fhe Coast the writer thought he knew a little about what there Is on the Coast, and as most of these years have been speni in and around Los Angeles. he naturally had little con- ceit that he was pretty well acquainted with ihe 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 its 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 wherc the government Is putting in the great Laguna dam. at the confluence of the tilla and Colorado Rivers. It is twelve miles from Yuma down the river to the Mexican bounGry 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 a few miles.
 ONCE A MIGHTY STREAM.
 Ages ago when the mountain ranges oi Arizona and California lowered toward the stars, at least twice as high as they do now, rains were very freduent and came down in sorIcntial 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 How. The Cobra do sink was at that time great inland sea, which spread over the country on both sides ot where the river now runs. As the erosion of winds and storms, landSIideS and glaciers wore down the mountain ridges year by year the great river carried down vast amount 1f silt, erosion from the rocks full of phos phates times and disinteTgrated granites as veil as the vegetation along It's banks; and this was all deposited in what are new the sinks of the Colorado.
 AS the mountain tops were worn down, the rains became less frequent and less in volume put the erosion of rocks and river banks, the Trees and vegetable mould torn from thc banks still came down and settled into the bottom Of the great inland lake. This geogcal process went on from age to age to our time leaving the Colorado at Yuma a stream abuu; ialf a mile wide and being at the present time about twenty feet deep !l the deepes; portion.
 It Is not necessary 10 remind Californians that ihe Spanish missionaries and explorers called this river the Colorado because of the .y-ddfsh color of ills waters. It is the Colorado gp in the Grand Canyon in A rizona and lown past The Needles. But at this lime oi hc year, after passing the mouth 9f the Gila. instead Of the red riverit becomes the brown river It actually looks today as if ten per cent of its flow was silt and only ninety pcI -ont water.
 RICHES OF SOIL WONDERFUL
 But the object of this story is to call atten. f,r prlta he hc,r -audlh time, to the riches Of the soil along