A STUDY OF MARKETING 

 CONDITIONS 



m the 



SALT RIVER VALLEY, ARIZONA 



By J. H. Collins, 



Investigator in Market Surveys, Bureau of Markets, United States 

 Department of Agriculture. 



INTRODUCTION 



That portion of Maricopa County, Arizona, known as the Salt 

 River Valley, since the completion of the Roosevelt Dam in 191 1, has 

 enjoyed a position of considerable prominence among irrigated dis- 

 tricts of the Far West. It would appear that a commercial study of 

 the agriculture of this area should be of major importance to those in- 

 terested in western irrigation agriculture. The investigation outlined 

 in this report while ostensibly embracing Maricopa County in its en- 

 tirety has been confined for obvious reasons to the intensively farmed 

 district within the County. Since more than four-fifths of the irrigated 

 area lies in the Valley of the Salt River, it has seemed advisable to 

 refer to the entire area under consideration as the Salt River Valley. 

 This decision has been strengthened by a realization of the fact that 

 this terminology carries a greater significance outside the State of 

 Arizona, where persons who have heard of this Valley do not readily 

 connect it in their minds with the less well known County of which 

 it is a part. The irrigated area lying below the confluence of the Salt 

 and Gila Rivers known as the Buckeye and Arlington Valleys, together 

 with scattered areas in outlying portions of the district, comprising a 

 total of about 30,000 acres, are often considered as not belonging to 

 the Salt River Valley proper. The distinction, however, is a rather 

 fine one, and since the agriculture of these areas belongs essentially to 

 the entire district it has seemed best to avoid confusion by ignoring 

 unnecessary distinctions. The term Salt River Valley as used in this 

 bulletin refers to all lands which, because of topographical relations, 

 would naturally be a part of the entire Valley and should be dis- 

 tinguished from the Salt River Project whose lands constitute only a. 



