1901.] DOUGLAS — RECORD OF BORINGS. 1 63 



from the risk of spring frosts. In the fruit culture experiments 

 made the extreme cold occasionally registered in January did not 

 seem to injure even such delicate trees as the almond, due doubtless 

 to the absolute aridity of the soil and the air. But the trees broke 

 into bloom in February, and the fruit was fully formed when April 

 frosts destroyed it year after year. The terrific midday heat of 

 summer days would also cause a plant apparently healthy in the 

 morning to wither and die before evening, although the root was 

 thoroughly irrigated. 



The result of our experiments led us to believe that these broad 

 valleys, which originate in Southern New Mexico and Arizona and 

 stretch into Northern Mexico, though arid at the surface, have at 

 comparatively shallow depths a subterranean water supply sufficient 

 to irrigate their very large areas of very rich land ; that the winds 

 are sufficiently strong and constant to raise the water to the surface, 

 through the agency of windmills, for the irrigation of fruit trees on 

 farms large enough to occupy the energies of single ranchers ; that 

 the climatic conditions are the principal hindrances to the success 

 of that branch of agriculture ; but that if cooperative efforts were 

 made to cultivate very large tracts, these climatic conditions would 

 be so modified as to render the cultivation of these vast tracts possi- 

 ble and profitable. 



