The Coolidge examiner., 1937-03-18

March l issue Of Arizona Pro
ducer carried the following fine
story relative to farmers activities
in Pinal County:
Pinal County, folks-now there's
a place where things are happen
ing.
The greatest agricultural develop
ment that any part of Arizona has
experienced for many years is un-
der way down there. If centers
around Eloy, in the BLACK land
country" of Santa Cruz Wash.
Over forty new wells have been
drilled in Pinal this spring, or will
be drilled in time to irrigate cotton
this year on land "just out of the
brush" Hardly any of these wells
will irrigate less than haf a section
of cotton and some will lift water
for as much as a section.
If we figure conservatively that
there are forty wells and that each
will irrigate 800 acres, that means
total of 1880 acres. But the
chances that the number of new
wells is closer to fifty, and that
half-section estimate is away low
Furthermore, some of the old ones
have been deepened and the
capacity of their pumps increased
A few motors have been replaced
with larger ones of greater horse
power.
In all probability the new land
being brought under cultivation is
well above $4,000 acres. Possibly
three-quarters of this is Eloy black
soil, which ought to produce a bale
of Acala to the acre with any sort
of a growing season. Farmers with
old land"-which has been in pro-
ductlon year or more-are talking
confidently of bale and a half
Salt River Valley
That Pinal development has many
significant angles. Salt River Valley
farmers are interested not only be-
cause a neighbor district is adding
to the productivity, taxable wealth
and population of the State, but also
because it is supplying a vast mar
ket for electrical power generated
by Salt River project plants. Every
kilowatt of current consumed is
bought from the Water Users
Assn.
An idea of what this means in
dollars and cents is afforded by
figures from A. Van Wagenen of
the Arizona Farm Products Corpora
ton. Last year Mr.. Van Wagenen
and Jack Prefer, Sr, grew $500
acres of cotton with ten wells.
Their power bill was $4,000.
This year the Farm Products
Corporation, successor to the Pret-
zer-Van Wagenen partnership has
overhauled most of the ten old
pumps and raised their capacity
which means that they plan to buy
more electricity. They have put
in five new pumps, in wells
averaging cosiderably deeper than
their old ones. With a total Of
fifteen pumps, they are expecting to
pay the Water Users som1thingt
like $4,000 before their 1887 cotton
is matured.
The A. F. P. operations, all un-
der Pretzer's supervision, are south
of Eloy, in that phenomenaIly rich
black land which is the detrital
wash deposited through past
centuries by the flow of the Santa
Cruz, which there spread over the
countryside before steps were taken
to divert it into channela where j.
can do no harm to farm crops. That
soil is full of humus and holds
water remarkably well E. C. Grasty,
who owns a half-section about six
miles north of Eloy, says that three
acre-feet of water is plenty to grow
cotton crop in black land On his
place he has some white land" that
takes four feet or more, then does
MT yield so much lint.
Premium Cotton
incidentally, all the cotton from
the Grasty place brought 100 points
premium in 1886. This means that
when the price of cotton was eleven
cents pound, the young man rent
ing the Grasty place received
twelve. Most of the other growers
IN that area also received sub
stantial premiums for quality.
Mr.. Grasty is quite frank in ad-
mttlng that he finds is very profit
able to own black land cotton
farm. His total investment in that
half-section is only $4,000, yet his
quarter of the proceeds from last
years crop was $4,000. SO he took
long-term lease on the adjoining
800, put down another well, and
turned it over to the same we'll
satisfied renter.
At Grasty's the pump lift is only
sixty feet. 1t is more than double
this an equal distance south of
Eloy. For instance, at the Arizona
Farm Products Corp we'll shown in
the illustration, the lift is 124 feet
That is the distance from the sur
face to the first water stratum.
Total depth of the twenty-inch bore
is 662 feet, and before the casing
was perforated, the water rose 73
feet above the 124-foot mark. In
that case perforating was a mistake.
for water from the lower depths