Douglas daily dispatch., 1927-09-25
RICHEST LAND With FINEST
WATER SUPPLY AT LEAST COST
BECKONS IN DOUGLAS DISTRICT.

"What striking situation" re-
marked an eastern visitor to Douglas
the other day. "Eere you have a
fine little city situated in the heart
of a cattle country and surrounded
by one of the most sumptuous agri-
cultural prospects have ever seen
and yet the city owes it's existence
to the mining and smelling business" !"
We did not explain the matter very
definitely TO the easterner, but COM
ment on the subject locally is not
SO polite as was that of the man
from the east. The situation is one
which grows on one from year to
year and it is worth great conSidera-
ton and thought.
It is pointed out that Douglas is
situated on main oss-continental
highway, the only route from coast
to coast that is open to traffic COM
fortably the year round. Douglas is
situated on a main line railroad
serving the great eastern centers Of
population at one end and the great
and growing urban and suburban
sections Of California at the other.
At the very doors to this city
stretches away a great fertile level
valley Tests made by the federal
government have demonstrated that
the soil in this valley is inferior to
none, that there is sufficient water
directly beneath the floor of the val
ley to supply every irrigation need
imaginable and that the climate is
such that crops may be produced the
year round.
There are almost no people in this
great valley. More than half of 1t
is not even encumbered with fences.
Nearly all of it is unimproved, hav-
ing a covering of grass and mesquite
Among the few people who do live in
the valley the percentage Of real
farmers is small. There are miners
and smeltermen who play at farming
between shifts at their regular task
in the mines of Bisbee or in the
Smelters. There are few cattlemen
and cowboys, a number of families
who live in the valley because they
like it, but for the most part the
valley is inhabited by jack rabbits
cottontails, gophers, grasshoppers and
coyotes with an occasional badger
large flocks of quail and dove and
some hawks and crows.
A few small herds of fine cattle
brouse over the open range and each
little ranch has small acreage
fenced i'll where two or three milk
cows and a pair or so of work horses
while away the hours. The farms OF
the eastern states have been aban-
doned because they were not pro-
ductive of anything but mortgages
and blasted dreams. Great stretches
Of the west and middle-WeSt have
been cast aside as farming poSSibili-
ties because of lack of water or lack
of fertility. The farmer and stock
breeder is moving westward.
Around the big cities and through
out the greater part of southern and
central California the land is practi-
cally all taken up, fenced, leveled
ploughed and placed in cultivation
This land is assessed for great paw
ing programs. 1t is assessed fol
water, for power and for a dozen
and one other things. 1t is quoted
on the market at figures ranging
from 500 an acre to $1,000 an acre
and higher After the prospective
farmer has paid for this high priced
land he is faced with the necessity
for producing all he can of the very
best crops all the time in order tc
pay the assessments of one sort AND
another. He finds that the markets
are in many cases overStocked an0
when he fails once or twice to Sc
cure ready sales for his crops he
loses his land to the bond houses.
In the central part of Arizona
there are a number of projects like
those of California There is the
Salt River valley, the Verde project
one at Yuma and the great Casa
Grande project. Land in all of these
ranges in price as high as does thai
of the California projects. Some oi
it is good land, most of it is better
than the average, but the farmer is
faced with the same necessity fol