DATE CULTURE IN ARIZONA. 131 



evaporation of the river water. Other alkali areas are found along 

 the foot of the bluff, being caused by a small amount of seepage from 

 the high lands above. " a 



In regard to the control of the overflow water, which is the problem 

 of first importance in all ordinary agriculture, Holmes says: "Until 

 this water is effectually in hand no farming worthy of the name can be 

 done. To control the overflow it will be necessary to construct a dike 

 or levee along the river, to connect with the mesa land below, of such 

 height and strength as to keep out the river. As has been previously 

 stated, the ground water of the valley rises and falls with the river, 

 and some places are now overflowed 6 to 8 feet. The confining of the 

 river would cause it to rise higher in the channel, so that the ground 

 water over the present overflowed part of the valley would have sev- 

 eral feet of head, thus bringing it near to or above the surface. This 

 would necessitate the installation of a drainage system, with a pump- 

 ing plant at the lower end of the valley to lift the water above the 

 levee and back into the river. This leveeing and draining would be 

 expensive, but since the subsoil is usually quite porous the drains 

 need not be close together, and the natural fertility of the soil, 

 together with the advantages of abundant water and almost tropical 

 climate, would certainly make such reclamation a paying investment." 6 



If it is found, as now seems probable, that the date palm can be 

 grown on the lands subject to overflow without artificial irrigation and 

 without any such expensive system of levees and of drainage by pump- 

 ing, then it will doubtless be possible to grow dates here as cheaply 

 as in the Bassorah- region, where likewise no hand labor is necessary 

 to carry out irrigation when once the canals have been dug. c 



The luxuriant growth and abundant fruiting of the seedling date 

 palms (PL XX, fig. 2) grown by Mr. Hall Hanlon in the flood*plain 

 some miles west of Yuma, on the California side, show that, in some 

 places at least, the seepage from the river, which goes on throughout 

 the year, and the thorough soaking which the land receives at the 

 time of the annual overflow, render irrigation unnecessary. The 

 deposit of mud left by the flood waters suffices to maintain the fertility 

 of the soil and renders any manuring superfluous. 



Although the meteorological records kept for several decades at 

 Yuma, Ariz., on the banks of the Colorado River, show the summer 

 climate to be nearly as hot as at Phoenix, in the Salt River Valley 

 (though much cooler than in the Salton Basin), the dates planted by 

 Mr. Hanlon usually fail to mature and must be ripened artificially. 

 As was mentioned above, on page 50, this failure to mature the fruit 



Holmes, J. Garnett, Soil Survery of the Yuma Area, Arizona, 1902, p. 786. 

 & Holmes, J. Garnett, 1. c., p. 791. 



c Fairchild, D. G. Bulletin 54, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, p. IK. 



