ARIZONA 356 



Arizona, 292 days out of each year, on an 

 ^c, being clear. To a traveler from the 

 Eastern states who reaches Arizona on a sun- 

 shiny hat he has never seen nor 

 felt sunshine before, so intense is the glow. 

 The northern plateau section has an average 

 temperature of about 48, which is approxi- 

 v that of New York, but the extremes 

 of heat and cold are not present. Particularly 

 delightful is this high region during the sum- 

 mer. On the southern lowland the average 

 annual temperature is about 68 but with a 

 summer extreme of 130. Yuma, at the junc- 

 tion of the Gila and Colorado rivers, is the 

 hottest city in the United States, and one of the 

 hottest in the world. The dryness of the air, 

 however, makes the great heat of the deserts 

 endurable. For Arizona is very dry in almost 

 i -very section; only in a few mountain districts 

 is there a fair rainfall. The northern plateaus 

 have about twenty inches a year, but in the 

 southern portion five inches is a 

 common yearly average. This 

 dryness of the air makes Arizona 

 one of the most healthful regions 

 of the United States, and of 

 recent years it has become a 

 favorite health resort, especially 

 for people with any affection of 

 the lungs. 



Everywhere the vegetation 

 shows the great need of water. 

 In the mountains, to be sure, 

 there are forests of oak, cedar, 

 pine, fir and spruce, and the Co- 

 conino forest, 6,000 square miles 

 in extent, is one of the very 

 largest unbroken pine forests in 

 the United States. In most 

 places, however, desert conditions 

 prevail, and little grows except 

 sage brush, bunch grass, various 

 species of cactus, the mesquite, 

 and the ever-present yucca. 

 After the summer rains grass 

 springs up over much of the 

 mesa land, and furnishes pastur- 

 age for stock. 



Agriculture. The lack of 

 moisture has kept Arizona thus 

 far from becoming prominent as 

 an agricultural state, for without 

 irrigation practically nothing will 

 grow, and water has been very 

 hard to obtain. In 1910 only 1.7 

 per cent of the land was under GIANT CACTUS 



ARIZONA 



cultivation, and of this 350,173 acres, over 

 ninety per cent, was irrigated. The small irriga- 

 tion schemes, of whu-h there were over 1,000 in 

 various parts of the state, had proved that the 

 valley lands were fertile and could be made 

 very productive, and the Federal government 

 determined upon a gigantic scheme the so- 

 called Salt River Project, or Roosevelt Dam 

 and Irrigation Project (see IRRIGATION). The 

 great reservoir, which was completed in 1911 

 and dedicated in March of that year by Theo- 

 dore Roosevelt, is large enough to contain 

 over 1,000,000 acre-feet of water, or water 

 enough to cover that number of acres one foot 

 deep. In the spring of 1914 this artificial lake 

 was less than one-third full, but within a year 

 the amount of water had increased to the point 

 when it became evident that Salt River Val- 

 ley need fear no lack of moisture. More than 

 200,000 acres of land will be reclaimed by this 

 mighty project. 



At Yuma, where the Gila 

 River joins the Colorado, an- 

 other great irrigation scheme has 

 been put into effect. It is esti- 

 mated that about 100,000 acres 

 of the rich river-valley soil will 

 be rendered capable of cultiva- 

 tion by the waters stored behind 

 the big weir dam. A part of this 

 reclaimed land is in California, 

 but the larger part is in Yuma 

 County, Arizona. 



By far the most important 

 crop of the state is hay, including 

 forage plants of all sorts, and of 

 these the most valuable is alfalfa. 

 Three, five or even more crops of 

 this are cut each year, and the 

 total yield approximates 500,000 

 tons. In no section of the coun- 

 try is the production of hay per 

 acre higher than in Arizona. 

 Grains, potatoes and sugar beets 

 are also grown, and experiments 

 seem to prove that Egyptian cot- 

 ton can be successfully produced 

 in certain sections. Orchard 

 crops, including apples, pears, 

 peaches, grapes, olives, lemons, 

 oranges and figs, do well and will 

 probably in time come to rank 

 among the important crops of 

 the state, and strawberries are 

 grown in some sections. In the 

 neighborhood of Yuma dates 



