Weekly journal-miner., 1911-04-12
SKULL AND FERGUSON
 VALLEYS VERY FERTILE
GFrom Thursdays Daily)

at PrescOtt's door.
 With soil of richest black loam
 from six to fifteen feet deep, Skull
 and Ferguson valleys alone contain
 enough acreage ready for the plant ing to supply the inhabitants of Yav- apai county with all the vegetables,
 berries, and deciduous fruits neces-
 sary for its consumption, allowing
 for its imminent growth in popula- i tion.
 Probably 90 per cent of the pop ulation of Prescott have never round ed the turn a nalf-mile from Skull
 Valley station, where at this time a profusion of pink and white blossoms
 in the orchard of J. l. Gardner en- trance the eyes with their beauty and the nostrils with their sweet scent.
 MT. Gardner's eight acres in 1 peaches, apples, plums and pears, have netted him handsome sums for the past several years, and the same may be said for the fruits and vege- tables of W. L. Roberts, whose pie turesque ranch nestles against the hills in the same rich little valley. MT. Roberts has made his cabbages pay something like $40O an acre, net, and a large consignment of these sent to Phoenix last season, realized stiffer prices than the Salt River article, because of their gratifying succulence and crispness. In. this rich soil as in that of Ferguson val ley, into which Skull Valley leads over a gentle slope, there is no doubt asparagus and Bermuda onions would bring a rich harvest to their culti- vators.
 The prize ranch, as to possibili- ties, over all other tracts in the Fer guson valley, is that of E. W. Ste phens, who has over two hundred acres of rich, sub-irrigated black lOam, and one hundred and twenty five acres of slightly pebbly disinte- grated granite soil, with a large amount of humus, making it particu- larly ideal ground for the raising of fruits, such as those grown in Skull valley, besides affOrding many shelt- cred banks by the brookside for berry culture. The meadow lands in this ranch are now green with sprouting alfalfa tendrils, and fOrty-aere patch on the other side of the brooklet is ready to SOW to beans, with ffty-aere lot of corn next. Three years ago this land was bought for song, together with range priv ileges for 5000 cattle the year round, besides water rights, which have since been damned and for small further outlay might be made capable of irrigating hundreds of acres.
 Down the center of this valley runs scar made by the freshets, exhibiting a cut with the black loam visible for fifteen feet in depth, with out the suggestion of stratum of clay.
 Just in front of the Stephens ranch house, springs gush from the subsoil, forming, one hundred yards down the wash, fifty miners inches of iee-eold water, which triekles, un- appreciated, down the vale.
 Abave the Stephens place, and out of the sub-irrigated zone of the Fer gusOn valley, James Davis bids fair soon to be pointed out as the rich est "dry farmer" in Yavapai eOun- ty. His beans and corn are a by word for their excellence, and, as to the latter crop, he harvested sixty | bushels to the acre for his first year (l910). Prior to that time the land had lain for years without attract | ing even a prospective purchaser.
 c. L. Miller, for the past three years, has taken off fifty acres, be- sides that used for the needs of his cattle, hay netting him $2,OOO a year. This year he has added new acreage by dynamiting immense cot ttOnwood stumps from the soil.
 Adjoining E. W. Stephens ranch is that of J. c. Young, once a part of the Russell property, where an- other burst of fruit blossoms greets the eye. Last year, an "of" sea- son in fruit production for this val ley, his apple, peach and Bartlett pear trees staggered under their weight of fruit, one apple tree alone providing twenty-six boxes of lus- eious fruit, which brought $2 a box, f. O. b., Skull Valley.
 Frank WilliamsOn's s small orchard. just maturing, promises to put him beyond the reach of Dull Care,, for. last year, with his improved varieties Of auDlac and naaobaS bo l