Arizona republican., 1909-02-07

vast plain lying ten miles south of
 Mesa. Special reference is made to
 what is known as the Chandler holdings for there only is the pres- ent demonstration of. what Is about to be said. So far as known there is no accurate data available show ing temperatures on that part of the suppose that in accordance with the contour theory it is somewhat cold CT. though the difference cannot be great and probably is not sufficient to be noticed by anything less deli cate than a thermometer. In any event it could be only a very few degrees That that region is above a vast supply of underground water is too well known for comment. The Chandler wells watering 4,0O0 acres by pumps, electrically operated, have not yisibly Iessened the supply or lowered the water table. Doctor Chandler has demonstrated that pumped water is profitable even for raising alfalfa, but that is another story mentioned only to emphasize the fact that 1t will surely pay to pump the smaller water supply need ed for an orchard. And the philoso- phy to be yexpounded is that orange groves by the use of pumped water may be made profitable in that sec tiOn when they might not be with ditch water It has not been demon- strated by actual experiment that grove may be successfully maintain ed there with either, but 1t IS quite possible it may be by surface water and theoretically certain that it may be with pumped water. Any how, the land holder thereabout will make a mistake if he does not ex- pertinent with a few trees.
 The practice of the orange men wherever practicable, is to offset the temperature of a cold night by run ming water through the grove to ab- sorb the frost of the air, a theory said to be well proved by satisfying results. The grower dependent on surface water cannot always do this but the man with a pumping plant is always ready in such an emerg- ency, doing his winter irrigating at these most critical times. The water is always there when it is wanted. But the best of 1t all is that the water from the Chandler wells reaches the surface at a tempera- ture of about IS degrees which is much warmer than the surface wa ter. By using pumped water it is stated by Dr. Chandler that the tenn perature can be raised on a particu- lar area from eight to ten degrees He has experimented with his al falfa to that extent. finding his field thus irrigated at night that much warmer than an adjoining field where there was no irrigation. It is doubtless true that the surface water if turned in would have raised the some, but probably not so much by several degrees as the pumped water did. Suppose there fore that the temperature every win ter in those parts went down into the  pumps 1t could be raised into the very safe thirties. And by so doing it is believed that entire pumping section could be made into very practicable orange territory.
 THE FUTURE
 All this is only mentioned as a very interesting probability for the years to follow. The present con tention is only for the Mesa orange belt proper. which has been some what overlooked, but there is a fu- ture for the whole Mesa plain that is worth considering pr. Chandler has no purpose of turning his vast alfalfa acreage into an orange orchard. at least not for a long time to come, but 1t will not be many years until his acreage will give way to coloniZ- atiOn enterprises and more intensive farming. It will be the demand of the llfleS ana IL VIII dlSO De lO HIS interest. And when that time comes and the thousand acre patches are cut up into farm homes of ten, twenty and forty acres. more or less, 1t will be no detriment to anybody to know that the small farmer may include orange culture as one of his intensive crops, along with Ostriches, about which a good story might also be written. The doctor is raising all falfa, Ostriches and Hereford cattle, but there are scores of men coming after him who will raise on the same land almost everything that can be grown with a combination of the finest climate and soil on earth, the latter irrigated with water of that will make things grow no matter how late the winter time fingers in the lap of spring.
 Crump pays cash for eggs.