FARM ORGANIZATION IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA. 41 
not large. Only a few records on such farms were taken. The re- 
sults obtained on six truck farms averaging. 14.5 acres and upon 
which truck contributed 84.3 per cent of the total receipts were: 
Average total receipts, $824; farm income, $478; labor income, SI 10. 
Even home gardening is unpopular, gardens being found upon 
but 22.7 per cent of the farms studied. It is claimed by those who 
do not have gardens and by many who do that gardening does not- 
pay. Gardens must be irrigated oftener than once per week and 
after every irrigation they must be cultivated. It is not always 
convenient to receive the water upon a farm at the time when the 
garden needs watering, and garden irrigation is therefore neglected. 
During the summer season the intense heat makes it difficult or 
impossible for women and children to work in the garden, while 
larger and more profitable farm enterprises require all the time of 
man labor. Weeds grow rapidly and all soils but the more sandy 
ones harden quickly after irrigation, even when cultivated, making 
an uncongenial home for garden plants. Gardening may be carried 
on during the winter months, but the number of plants growing 
during this season is limited, their growth is slow, and they are often 
injured by frosts. Plant lice multiply rapidly at all seasons of the 
year and are a constant menace to garden plants. Chinese peddlers 
import vegetables from California and visit the farmers two or three 
times a week, extending their routes out as far as 14 miles from the 
city, and sell vegetables at prices stated by the farmers to be lower 
than it would cost them to produce them on their farms. Many 
farmers had kept books on their gardening operations, and these 
were very positive in their statements that the enterprise does not 
pay. In the Gila Valley, where the climate is somewhat cooler, 
gardening could be more successfuly carried on in spring and summer 
than in either Salt River Valley or Yuma Valley; but here the water 
runs are more irregular and less certain and therefore gardening is 
but little more popular than in the other two valleys. 
Approximately 2,000 acres of cantaloupes are planted every year 
in Salt River Valley, but the enterprise is not found to any extent 
in either of the two other valleys. They are grown almost exclu- 
sively on contracts with eastern commission firms, who furnish the 
seed and send inspectors to the field to superintend cultivation, 
picking, and packing. The firms contract to advance a stated amount 
per crate when the cantaloupes are received for shipment, the amount 
rarely exceeding the cost of production and more frequently not equal- 
ing it. The cantaloupes are then shipped and sold on commission, 
the charge by the firm usually being 15 per cent, the farmer paying 
all expenses, including freight, icing, cartage, and cost of crates. 
The returns received by the farmers fluctuate violently, being some- 
times high enough to make the enterprise extremely profitable and 
