6 BULLETIN 654, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



but the census of 1890 reported only 327 irrigators in the valley and 

 only 35,212 acres under cultivation. 



The development of agriculture under such conditions was fitful 

 and uncertain. The raising of hay, grain, and live stock became the 

 leading enterprises. Several corporations were organized for the 

 development of the fruit industry on a large scale but all resulted 

 in failure, and only a few of the remnants of such efforts now remain 

 in the valley. A few citrus, olive, and almond orchards survived the 

 vicissitudes of the times, and these are now producing profitable 

 crops, although frosts in recent years have interfered materially 

 with the extension and success of the citrus industry. 



Fig. 2.— The Arizona Canal, Salt River Valley. 



An attempt to manage the water supply more successfully was 

 made in 1898, when all the canals on the north side of the river 

 were organized under one corporation, known as the Arizona Water 

 Co. These canals were operated by this company until 1903, when 

 all the canals in the valley, except the Tempe Canal, and perhaps 

 one or two small ditches, were brought under one control by the 

 organization of a corporation known as the Arizona Water User's 

 Association, into whose membership were brought all the water users 

 supplied by these canals. This corporation then entered into con- 

 tract with the United States Government for the development of 

 water and its delivery to the lands controlled by the association. 



A reclamation project for the valley was authorized March 12, 

 1903, and the construction of the Roosevelt Dam at the junction of 



