Arizona republican., 1922-04-17
IRRIGATION WATER
NOW BLESSES LAND
OF YUMA PROJECT

Yuma has at last realized her
1ondest dream. Irrigation water is
now on her "beloved Yuma Mesa"
the historic event having been ce!e-
brated Easter Sunday, April 16, 1922,
by an immense outpouring of people
from all over Arizona and California
to commemorate the occasion.
This has been Yuma's dream for
the past two decades. Now that the
sllt-laden waters of the Colorado
river are flowing in an inexhaustibie
supply over these frostless lands it
IS confidently expected that within
the next few years these famous
lands will be covered with oranges.
grapefruit. lemons dates. figs and
grapes. for it has been perfectly
demonstrated that all of these fruits
grow to their greatest known per-
fection on the Yuma Mesa. Indeed
these lands were officially charac-
terized by the late lamented Secre-
taTy Of Interior Franklin D. Lane as
the only Irostless belt in the United
States, and this was more than
proven during this last winter when
all the balance of the citrus fruit
belt Of the west suffered more or less
from the ravages of frost
The Yuma Mesa first came into
the ltme-light on Dec. 10. 1919, when.
Dy special act of congress, the secre-
tary of the interior was instructed to
open the first unit. This was done
by means of public auction sale of
something over 5000 acres. Suffi-
cient funds were derived from this
sale to begin the construction of the
necessary canals and pumping plant
to place water on q portion of tae
land sold. The land was sold at
minimum of 1925 per acre, in four
annual payments drawing six per
cent per annum. Buyers were pres
ent from almost every state in the
Union. At that time there was no
limit to the loose money in this coun-
try, and as a result there was no
trouble in disposing of these unsur-
passed lands. Yuma citizens pur-
chased freely. not stopping to think
that possibly the after effects of the
war might make money matters more
stringent, which proved to be the
fact. As a result of this stringency
IN the money market good many of
those who purchased land Ton the
Yuma Mesa at the government auc-
tion sale now find themselves "up
against it." Some of them are will
ing to transfer as least part of their
holdings, and some very rare bar
gains in five. 10 and 20 acre units
can now be had. When these lands
were purchased they We're nothing
but desert waste. 1t was a gamble.
pure and simple, as to whether or
not the government could put irriga-
tion water on them. If it could be
done the purchasers figured they
would have the best citrus fruit, early
vegetable and grape land in all the
world. The government has made
good" 1t has erected the finest
pumping plant ever erected in the
United States and on Easter Sunday
it was clearly demonstrated that
there is sufficient water to irrigate
every acre of land that was sold at
public auction.
In the meantime the man who had
plenty of money in 1919 is now placed
in a position where he must turn
loose all the more his misfortune.
His holdings in Unit B." on the
Yuma Mesa, would be worth a for
tune, IL they were located in the
proven orange belt Of California But
they are in Arizona. separated only
from California by the Colorado river.
As a matter of fact there isn't an
acre of citrus fruit land in the en-
tire state of California that can be-
gin to compare with the lands on
the Yuma Mesa. for the oranges,
grapefruit, dates and figs grown on
the Yuma Mesa are so much earlier
natured than anywhere else in the
United States that practically all the
fruit is ripe, harvested and sold long
before similar fruits are ripe enough
to ship from California. But all this
does the holder of some of these.
lands no good. when he is broke.
down and out" If he could, "hold