CHAPTER IV 

 RECLAIMING THE DESERT 



UNTIL 1903, a certain three hundred and sev- 

 enty-five miles of southern Arizona through 

 which two rivers, the Salt and the Verde, carried 

 their burdens of distant mountain waters to the sea, 

 were arid except for narrow river fringes here and 

 there of green. So far as eye could reach, nothing 

 was visible but desert sand thickly dotted with gray- 

 green sage and grease wood relieved by cacti of 

 many kinds. 



To-day, those identical three hundred and sev- 

 enty-five square miles are solidly green. Alfalfa, 

 wheat, oats, cotton, oranges, grapefruit, and broad 

 fields grazed by cattle, sheep and horses, have re- 

 placed the sand flats and the grease wood. Every acre 

 is under cultivation at an average crop return of 

 $75.74. Seven thousand, three hundred and three 

 farms, all prosperous, support a population of 

 45,000 persons, and twelve towns add 62,000 more. 

 Fifteen banks safeguard thirty-one million dollars 

 belonging to 43,200 depositors. Seventy public 

 schools and sixty-eight churches serve the region, 

 which is crossed by three railroads, two national 

 highways and many excellent lesser roads. 



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