G 
BULLETIN 654, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
but the census of 1890 reported only 327 irrigators in the valley and [I 
only 35,212 acres under cultivation. 
The development of agriculture under such conditions was fitful i 
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 i 
in the valley. A few citrus, olive, and almond orchards survived the f 
vicissitudes of the times, and these are now producing profitable j! 
crops, although frosts in recent years have interfered materially 1 
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- 
fcract 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 
