SOIL SURVEY OF THE MIDDLE GILA VALLEY, ARIZONA. 15 



Up-to-date methods ai'e used in grain farming by the white farm- 

 ers, but the Indian is slow to adopt modern methods and the use 

 of machinery. Plowing for gi-ain is usually done in the fall and 

 winter months, about the time of the first winter rains or following 

 an irrigation, after which the crop is planted. In dry seasons the 

 crop is irrigated a number of times, but irrigation may be entirely 

 dispensed with in years of greater precipitation. Not much grain 

 is produced by dry farming. Indians continue to cut their small 

 fields of grain with the hand sickle and thrash the crop by driving- 

 horses over it oil a hard earth floor, later separating the grain from 

 the chaff by winnowing or throwing it into the air on a windy day. 



Little or no fertilizer except barnyard manure is used, and rota- 

 tions are not practiced to any extent. The application of very silty 

 irrigation waters, rich in organic matter, tends to maintain or in- 

 crease the productiveness of the soils, even though the same crop be 

 grown for a period of years. 



Facilities for irrigation and alkali-free soils have more to do with 

 the present distribution of crops than the minor differences in the 

 texture and color of the soil or the source and character of the soil 

 material. OrcMnarily grain does best on the rather heavy, silty soils. 

 Because of the droughty nature and low organic content of the up- 

 land soils, the present agriculture is largely confined to the river 

 bottoms. The farms on the heavier, low^er-lying soil types, in the 

 river bottom, are much smaller than those on the upland soils, prob- 

 ably owing to the fact that the Indians, occupying much of the river 

 bottoms, hold only small parcels of irrigated land. Except in case 

 of the Pinal gravelly sandy loam, topography has had little influence 

 on the distribution of crops, as the surface of all the other types 

 permits of irrigation and cultivation without great difficulty. 



Farm labor is supj^lied principally by the Pima Indians. Practi- 

 cally all the Indians own small tracts of land, which they cultivate 

 during part of the growing season, but many of them do farm labor 

 in the vicinity. In and around Florence and C'asa Grande there are 

 many Mexicans who perform day labor on the ranches in that sec- 

 tion. The wages of farm labor are relatively high at the present 

 time (1917). Mexicans are paid $1.25 to $1.50 a day and board for 

 hand labor, while men who handle teams receive $1.50 to $1.75 a day 

 and board. 



In 1910 only 1.3 per cent of the total area of Pinal County was in 

 farms. The total number of farms was 614, and the average size 

 70.4 acres. Of this 43.5 per cent, or 30.6 acres, was improved. The 

 average value per farm of all farm property was $3,757, the land 

 making up 51.4 per cent of the total and the live stock 37.2 per cent. 

 In 1910, 95 per cent of the farms were operated by owners, a small 



