WESTERN SL'PKEMACY. 33 



worthless,' these same lands, under proper tillage, pro- 

 duce forty to fifty bushels of wheat, seventy to eighty 

 bi^hels of oats and barley, from two hundred to four 

 hundred bushels of potatoes to the acre, and fruits and 

 vegetables equal to any other state or territory in quan- 

 tity and quality." ' There are vast tracts which cannot 

 be irrigated, but even such, lands are not necessarily 

 without agricultural value. Arizona has been consid- 

 ered a waste, and undoubtedly much land there is arid 

 and irredeemable ; but, on the other hand, there is much 

 also which is wealth-producing. Gen. J. C. Fremont, 

 who, as Governor of the Territory for several years, had 

 exceptional facilities for gaining information, in his 

 official report in 1878, said: "So far as my present 

 knowledge goes, the grazing and farming lands com- 

 prehend an area equal to that of the State of New York." 

 And a writer in Harper's Magazine for March, 1883, 

 says: "It is estimated by competent authority that, 

 with irrigation, thirty-seven per cent, can be re- 

 deemed for agriculture, and sixty per cent, for pastur- 

 age. " - Certain it is that when the Spaniards first visited 

 the territory, in 1526, tliey found ruins of cities and ir- 

 rigating canals, which indicated that it was once densely 

 populated by a civilized race which subsisted by agricul- 

 ture. 



There is more barren land in Nevada than in any 

 other state or territory of the West. The wealth of the 

 state is not agricultural or pastoral, but mineral. Never- 

 theless the Surveyor-General of the State says: "In our 

 sage-brush lands, alfalfa, the cereals, and all vegetables 

 flourish in profusion where water can be obtained, and 

 the state is speedily becoming one of the great stock- 

 raising states of the Union. " Below the Grand Canon 



lA resident of Utah writes me that he has never heard of more than 

 twenty-eight bushels of wheat or forty-five of oats to the acre. 



2 From all the information I can gather, this latter estimate seems to me 

 too large. In my computation of the valuable lands of the West, page 35, 1 

 have called 26,700 square miles in Arizona, nearly one quarter of the terri- 

 tory, worthless. 



