Farming by Eari.y White Settlers 539 



were established. In 1875, William Mulligan located at Springer- 

 ville where he cultivated about five hundred acres of land, his prin- 

 cipal crop being barley, which was sold at Fort Apache for five 

 cents a pound. 



In Yuma County, M. M. Redondo began farming in Laguna 

 Valley in 1871, cultivating about 1200 acres. His principal crop 

 was alfalfa which was sold for about seventy-five dollars a ton. 

 Considerable irrigating water was taken from the Colorado River. 



At Quijotoa in Pinal County, farming, by means of supple- 

 mental irrigation with floodwaters, is said to have been commenced 

 as early as 1883. Manuel Ramerez began to farm fifty acres in 

 1887, at Picacho, in Pinal County by methods similar to those of 

 the Indians. His success soon attracted other farmers, and a per- 

 manent settlement was established. 



Dry-farming began at Moccasin on the "Arizona Strip" in 1903 

 when Jonathan Heaton planted about fifteen acres of rye, which 

 yielded about twelve and one-half bushels per acre. An additional 

 five acres yielded fifty bushels of wheat. 



While farming with floodwater was practiced at Fredonia as 

 •early as 1884, no strict dry-farming was engaged in until 1910, when 

 the Brown brothers and Owen Judd located on White Sage Flat, 

 where they have produced as high as twenty-five bushels of wheat 

 per acre. 



In 1881, Thomas McWilliam grew six to seven tons of potatoes 

 per acre, selling them at twelve and one-half cents a pound. At the 

 same time C. H. Shultz raised thirty bushels of corn per acre. A. 

 H. Beasley grew good crops of potatoes and barley in 1884, selling 

 liis products at three and two cents per pound, respectively. 



Little information is available about the earliest farming in 

 Mohave County. In 1911, B. W. Hall planted eleven acres of wheat 

 near Salome on the Parker cut-ofif. The wheat attained a height 

 of four feet and yielded twelve tons of hay. 



While a few cattle ranches were established in the early 

 eighties in Sulphur Spring and the upper San Pedro Valleys, little 

 dry-farming was attempted until 1907. Despite a number of suc- 

 cessful attempts at dry-farming by the early settlers of Arizona, no 

 great interest was shown until about 1910, and the ensuing four 

 years mark the greatest advance of the industry, when fairly ex- 

 tensive developments occurred in various parts of the State. 



