sheep will be fattened here on pulp. Another by-product is refuse sirup. This will be diffused with other cattle foods and may be employed in the manufacture of alcohol and vinegar.

Below is given a comparison of beet and other crops, avoiding comparative consideration of land rent and the price of water for irrigation:

The market for sugar-beet products is almost without limit. It is said that the per capita consumption of sugar in this country is 25 pounds annually, and 70 per cent consumed in the United States is beet sugar. This is imported liberally from Germany, France, and Russia. There are 48 beet-sugar factories in the United States, and their combined production is capable of supplying only enough refined sugar for the demand of three States of medium population.

Ranking high in the list of future agricultural products in this valley will be the date crop. About sixty of the date trees planted at the United States experimental farm in the last few years are beginning to bear, and it is expected that the yield will amount to about 500 pounds of fruit. Other trees will come in bearing every year hereafter at the experimental farm, and this orchard is the nucleus for thousands upon thousands of acres of land in central Arizona to be converted for date culture. Most of the territory to be used for this purpose is unfit for other kinds of cultivation. Conditions unfavorable to other forms of vegetation are most conducive to the growth of the date as it is grown in Africa.

Practically all the dates consumed in the United States are imported from across the sea. In Phoenix, however, date culture has risen to local commercial importance, and the most delectable fruit of the kind on the local market is the home product. Climatic and social conditions here are almost identical with those of the home of the great Arabian staff of life, and, while date culture now is merely of local importance from a commercial standpoint, there is reason to believe that a seed has been sown which in time will play an important part in the date commerce of this country.

The Government has gone into the experiment of date culture on a large scale. When the trees at the experimental station are all bearing they will form the largest date orchard in America, and perhaps in the world. Various species imported from Africa have been planted there, besides about 1,000 seedlings.

Water storage and irrigation.-Under the magic touch of water Maricopa County, containing the beautiful Salt River Valley, is on the verge of entering into a new and important era, for the Government has undertaken the improvement of the irrigation system and the transformation of vast arid lands into garden spots. The average resident of the eastern States can not understand how population can

exist as it does in the West, where six months pass sometimes between showers. Yet it does exist, and in prosperity. The uncertainty of direct rainfalls for crops is already removed here in a measure by means of ditches that take up from the river supply the water that is distributed far out upon the once arid but now fertile plains. The Government has undertaken to regulate in a more reliable manner and to manifoldly increase the supply for irrigation by the conservation of flood water.

Under the stimulus of great irrigation works to be created by the Federal Government, the arable areas of Arizona and the Southwest are regarded as the components of the coming agricultural empire of the continent.

There are now about 110,000 acres in Salt River Valley under cultivation, of which probably 40 per cent has been insufficiently irrigated during the past three years, and seldom has there been an adequate water supply for the reclaimed land within the last decade. There are located, however, under the canals already built 254,000 acres of land now barren but susceptible of a high degree of cultivation and production when fed by the flow of the Verde River and the conserved flood waters of the Salt River.

When the Government determined to expend $3,000,000 in the construction of the Salt River dam, 60 miles northeast of Phoenix, it took the first step in the creation of the greatest artificial lake on earth. The Salt River dam will be 270 feet high, attaining the greatest height of any reservoir dam in the world, and it will store 1,478,000 acre-feet of water, backing it into the mountain canyons for miles. It is to be the greatest irrigation project ever developed in this country. It means an abundant water supply for an immense district which has been in process of retrogression through thirst. It means addition of millions upon millions to the wealth of the Territory and probably means the solution of the problem of irrigation in the West, for it is generally agreed that upon the success of this measure will depend the building of many other great irrigation works in the West. The Salt River dam site presents conditions most favorable from an engineering standpoint, and it is said to be the most logical site in the country for testing the efficacy of water storage and reservation. Hydrographers and construction engineers believe that this dam and reservoir will serve in the future as models to dam building througbout irrigable regions of the western part of the country.

Aside from the favorable engineering conditions which are probably responsible for inviting the early attention of the Government, it seems a matter of justice that one or more reservoirs should be built in Arizona for the benefit of the settlers, for the reason that owing to the lack of forest restrictions and the perpetration of overgrazing on the watersheds in the past the water supply gradually has diminished and the reclaimed land has been returned to the desert. The watershed of the Salt and Verde rivers embraces more than 12,000 square miles, and was once well covered with luxuriant growth of grasses and an undergrowth which conserved the water and regulated the drainage. The Government is now making a vigorous effort to improve conditions on the watershed, and under the administration of Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the Division of Forestry, the forests are being preserved and grazing is being restricted where it interferes with the reservoir capacities of the watersheds. This division of the Government plans a

reforestation of the drainage area and its cooperation is of distinct advantage to the reservoir.

In this or any other irrigated country a reasonable supply of water, regulated and furnished the crops at periods of greatest need, will produce much greater crops than large supplies of water applied spasmodically and without regulation, as is done here to-day. With the regulation of the water supply, contemplated by the reservoir, highly intensified and diversified farming will be possible. The records of the flow of the Verde River have been kept for about seven years, and the record of the Salt River for more than fourteen years, showing the water supply to be in no wise a matter of conjecture.

The place where the dam will be built is in a narrow box canyon on Salt River, just below the junction of Salt River and Tonto Creek. The solid bed rock on which the dam will rest is less than 25 feet from the surface of the creek. This is one of the best features of this project, from an engineering standpoint, giving the foundation for the dam which will insure its stability. At both ends the dam will be built into solid rock, and once constructed will endure for all time. It will be so built that the heaviest flood can pour over the top of the dam without injuring it in any way. This is the most important part. in the construction of dams in Arizona. The rivers of the Territory are torrential in their character, rising at times with great rapidity and carrying an immense volume of water for a short time. During one month there was a solid wall of water 5 feet in depth pouring over the Arizona dam in Salt River. Over 400.000 inches of water were then going to waste. The river immediately sank, but even when it is comparatively low there is much water running to waste.

The cost of the dam alone will be about $2,700,000. The cost is smaller in comparison with the magnitude of the work because the rock from which the dam will be built will be quarried from the face of the canyon right at the dam. The cement used in its construction will be manufactured at the dam from materials existing in abundance in the immediate neighborhood-the power canal leaving the river above the reservoir and running around above the water line of the proposed reservoir will carry the full amount of the natural flow of Salt River, which is now appropriated under the old water acts on the river. This canal will be brought down to a point on the side of the canyon just below the dam, and then it will be dropped through a standpipe to the power house, generating at least 1.500 horsepower, which will be used in manufacturing the cement and furnishing the power and light necessary for the construction of the dam. It will require 700 continuous working days of twenty-four hours each to complete the structure. Electric lights will furnish the lights at night. Once begun the work of laying the stone in the cement must be continuously carried forward until completion to insure an even strength in the structure. The water drawn from the reservoir for irrigation will be let out through gateways which can be placed at least 100 feet above the base of the structure. These gateways will be operated by electrical power, which will turn great screws passing down through the stonework of the dam. The height of the dam above the water surface will be 230 feet. The area of Tonto Basin, the reservoir site, is so large that the lower 100 feet can be given up so as to give this 100-foot drop for all the water drawn from the reservoir. This will generate a very large amount of power in addition to that generated

from the power canal. It is estimated that over 5,000 horsepower will have been generated from all sources at the dam.

One of the most remarkable features of this great irrigation project is the fact that there are many thousands of acres of land in the Salt River Valley having an ample underground supply of water within 30 to 50 feet of the surface. Every investigation so far made indicates that this underground supply is fed from the high plateaus and mountains to the northeast of the valley, and is practicably inexhaustible. It is not seepage water from the present canal systems, though there is a considerable area of the valley comprising the lowlands along the river which has a good underground water supply from seepage sources. One pumping plant about 3 miles southwest of Phoenix pumps a continuous stream of 200 inches of water from this source, enough to irrigate a section of land.

The construction of the reservoir will regulate the flow of Salt River for fully 50 miles through the canyon between the Salt River dam and the diversion dam at the head of the valley. The river has a very considerable fall through this dam, and a large amount of electric power can be developed along this part of the river, which will increase immensely the total amount of power available for pumping.

All the land on both sides of the river at these points is government land, and has been reserved from entry by the Government. The purposes of the Government are to reserve it permanently to increase the area of desert land that can be reclaimed by pumping water from underground sources known to exist over a wide area of territory in the Salt River Valley, lying chiefly between Phoenix and Maricopa.

MOHAVE COUNTY.

[By Mr. John P. Feeny, recorder and clerk, board of supervisors.]

The funded indebtedness of Mohave County is $105,363.29; the floating debt, $34,228.91.

The increase in population for the past year has probably been in the neighborhood of 400, principally miners in the new mining camps. This increase brings the population of the county to about 4,250,

There has been little, if any, increase in the settlement of land. While no country can excel the valleys of Mohave County in fertility of soil, the scarcity of water for irrigation retards their settlement. The system of dams on the Colorado River, as proposed by Arthur P. Davis, hydrographer of the United States Survey, would place under irrigation hundreds of thousands of acres of land excelled by none in the world. In Mohave County alone sufficient land could be irrigated to support a population of half a million people.

In addition to the great benefit to be derived from these dams for irrigation, the immense power developed could not only be used for power in mining operation, railroads, etc., but could be used also for the reduction and refining of ores.

There has been little change in the past year in the matter of stock raising. While the quite frequent rains of the past winter helped and encouraged those engaged in this industry, the uncertainty of the rainfall discourages new investment.

Mining is the great industry of Mohave County, and the past year has been one of wonderful strides in the development of innumerable mineral-bearing veins.

The Hualapai mining district.—This district embraces the southern half of the Cerbat range of mountains, and extends from Stockton Hill, on the southeast, to Chloride, on the northwest, and is, as far as known and defined from present development, about 12 miles long and 4 miles wide, and includes within its area, besides Stockton Hill and Chloride, the mining camps of Cerbat, Campbell, Oro Plata. Union, Todd and Bobtail Basins, Lane Springs, Mineral Park, and C. O. D. Camp.

The entire district is seamed and fissured with numerous large, welldefined parallel fissure veins, carrying commercial and high-grade ore of gold, silver, lead, and copper.

The mines belong to that class that are characteristic for their permanency and continuity, and are remarkable for the great number of rich ore chutes found in the outcrop and in the superficial mining done to develop them. The formation is regular and shows no unfavorable displacements, and can be geologically described as metamorphic, belonging to the granite series, with the exception of the porphyritie hills that rise out of the Sacramento Valley along the extreme western boundary of the district. It is in some of the hills of this porphyry uplift where the famous turquoise mines of Mohave County are found.

The mineral veins are as a rule large, with the outcrop more or less prominent, and in some instances the outcrop can be followed nearly the whole length of the district.

The general course of the veins is from the southeast to the northwest, and they cut the lines of the metamorphic formation at an angle of 90 degrees, with a vertical or slight dip to the northeast.

This district has been the principal wealth producer of Mahave County for many years, but from a mining standpoint it is not yet even prospected by the mining and development already done.

There are many mines that have a splendid showing, and also many lying dormant that have produced fortunes.

The district is close and very accessible to two railroads; the Arizona and Utah, commencing at Kingman, skirts the west side of the district, with its northern terminus at Chloride, while the Santa Fe travels the Hualapai Valley and skirts the district on the east.

The ores, as a rule, are composite, and of such a character that they are easily concentrated. Iron and lead sulphides are the most common and characteristic bases, while much milling ore has been mined near the surface, the general character of which is a high-grade composite composed of gold, silver, lead, and iron, with copper and sometimes zine occurring.

At Stockton Hill are the Cupel, Infallible, Blue Bell, Fountain Head, Prince George, Vigilant, Miner's Hope, Eagle, Stockton, Earle, De La Fontaine, and many others. From many of these fortunes have been taken from the surface workings, and now need only development to place them among the producers.

At Lane Springs are the Night Hawk, Alpha, Omega, Summit, Forunatus, Silver Monster, Pan Yan, and others.

At C. O. D. Basin is the C. O. D. mine, with a 60-ton concentrating plant. This mine has produced over $1,000,000. The company now working this property is about to make extensive improvements, including an increase in the capacity of the mill and an upraise from the end of the 1,000-foot drift on the 300-foot level to the surface