The Parker post. (Parker, Ariz.) 1910-1918, 1915-08-14
PLAN TOOPEN
MESA LAND
COMMISSIONER CATO SELLS TO
BE ASKED TO APPROVE LEAS-
ING SYSTEM FOR RICH CITRUS
FRUIT LANDS AROUND PARKER
Affairs

Cato Sells, owing to an important en-
gagement in San Francisco on the
l4th, was unable to visit Parker this
week, hut it was given out Wednes-
day that he would make the trip
here On his return to Washington,
sometime during the latter part of
the present month.
Plans for the immediate opening of
mesa lands surrounding Parker have
been prepared by the Board of Trade
ana will be presented to the commits
sioner for his approval when he ar
rives here. The commissioner will
be asked to grant authority to the
superintendent of the Indian school,
Mf o. L. Babcock, to issue leas~
on tracts OF twenty acres, at an an
nua' rental of SO cents per acre; said
leases to provide stipulation that
the lessee shall, upon compliance
with all OF the terms of the lease,
Ee given preference right to pur-
chase the land whenever the surplus
lands OF the reservation are open u
entry and settlement, at such price
per acre as the department or an act
of congress may hereafter stipulat
and under such other rules and reg
uIations as other lands OF the res
Vation may be hereafter sold.
The plan further provides that the
lessee shall expend annually at leas
$500 per acre in Improvements, anC
before preference right shall accrue
to the lessee he shall have brought
under cultivation at least one-fourth
o. the leased tract.
The petition to be presented to the
commissioner, after detailing the
manner of leasing, continues as fol-
lows.
The lands desired to be leased
approximate ten thousand acres, and
are especially adapted for raising of
citrus fruits. At the present time
Lhese lands are in a desert state of
unproductiveness, and are of little
or no value to the Indians. They can
cllly be made valuable and produc-
tive by the enterprise of settlers.
"By the Inauguration of a leasing
system for the mesa lands, under the
terms as outlined above, a revenue
of approximately four or five thou
sand dollars annually would be de-
rived for the benefit of the Indians
belonging to this reservation Your
petitioners cannot conceive in what
other manner, than the one above
mentioned, could these mesa lands be
made to derive any revenue whatever.
Several wells have been sunk on
the mesa, and an ample flow of water
for irrigating citrus fruits and gar
den truck has been demonstrated.
The depth to the first water stratum
ON the mesa is about 70 feet, and a
pumping PlOPOOlIlOu at ILLS OOpLu Is
entirely feasible for citrus fruit cul-
ture
In the event that pumped water
from the wells should prove to be
impracticable for the irrigation of this
land, your petitioners are confident
that a cooperative, or mutual, irri-
cation district plan could be worket
out whereby the settlers would be
enabled to install pumping plant
on the Colorado river and pump
water on the mesa for irrigation pur-
poses. AS the mesa is approximate
90 feet above the level of the river,
it can readily be seen that such
plan would be entirely feasible. The
canal system on the mesa could be
constructed by the settlers them
selves, thus saving large expense
which would otherwise have to be
paid for in cash. I
by the adoption of this, or sim
liar leasing plan, such development
as would ensue would be of great
benefit to the Indians, as it woul6
provide a market for whatever crops
they might raise on their allotments,
besides furnishing labor to those In
dians desiring to work by the day
Such a leasing plan would also
attract settlers possessed of suffi-
cient capital to make a success of
citrus fruit raising, as the terms of
the lease would bar speculation in
the land, which is so often the case
in the opening of reservation lands
"The mesa land surrounding Parker
is exactly similar to the Yuma, Ariz.,
mesa lands, where the earliest citrus
fruits in the southwest are raised