SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES 205 
Bureau of Reclamation, the agricultural products were valued at 
$38,000,000 from an irrigated area of 404,315 acres. Production and 
irrigated area have about doubled since 1920. 
The development of irrigation was slow and irregular under private 
management, and there were many complaints of inadequacy of water 
supply and much conflict in respect to claims for water and canal 
rights. Finally the United States Bureau of Reclamation “ reorgan- 
ized the project and built the Roosevelt Dam to hold the water of the 
Salt River and its tributary Tonto Creek in a huge reservoir in the 
mountains 80 miles east of Phoenix. (See p. 213.) 
In the Salt River Valley, as in most other irrigated lands in the 
Southwest, alfalfa is the most extensive crop, yielding from 5 to 8 
tons to the acre; other forage plants are also raised, most of them 
giving two crops a year. The value of the cotton crop in 1929 is 
estimated at $12,435,000 by the State College of Agriculture, including 
much of the itehanlh variety introduced from Egypt, for which 
the region is well suited. Cotton was a minor product prior to 
1912, when its area was only 400 acres. The cost of producing 
cotton in the Salt River Valley in 1928-29, according to careful 
investigations by the State College of Agriculture, ranged from 8.72 
to 20.46 cents (average 13.4 cents) a pound for ordinary cotton and 
from 17.2 to 38.8 cents (average 23.8 cents) for long-staple cotton. 
This included picking, which cost 1.5 and 2.5 cents respectively, and 
ginning, 45 cents per 100 pounds of seed cotton. The ginning is 
more than paid for by the value of the seed. 
Cattle feeding and dairy farming have the advantage of having 
open pastures the year round, but a staggered system of pasturing is 
used to provide for regrowth of the grass. About 25,000 dairy cattle 
were reported in 1929. Many sheep are wintered in the Salt River 
Valley to be fattened on alfalfa. 
The sugar mills are busy for much of the year, the cane crop coming 
in as the beet crop ends. Citrus fruits are extensively produced, to 
the number of 453,330 boxes in 1929 (Census report). The very 
young grapefruit trees can not be left out in winter, so they are taken 
up in December and placed under cover until spring. This process 
is called ‘‘balling,”’ because a ball of earth is taken up with the roots. 
It was in the suburb of Ingleside, at the foot of Camelback Mountain, 
Up to June 30, 1929, the Government 
L 3: 4 -j kL. + @19Eec ANN Ann: 
46 This bureau of the Government 
was an outgrowth of plans of Maj. J. W. 
ree- 
Powell for the reclamation of the arid 
lands of the West, and it was brought 
into existence by the irrigation act of 
1902, fostered by President Theodore 
Roosevelt, with the late F. H. Newell as 
the first director. The Roosevelt Dam 
was the first large project completed. 
lamation projects in the United States 
(not counting interest), and the total 
repayments have been $36,350,000. 
The repayments in the fiscal year of 
1929 amounted to $6,308,000 (U. 8S. 
Bur. Reclamation). 
