Yours Sincerely and Sincerely to You

YEP! THAT'S RIGHT: You can take an Arizonan out of the state but you can't take the state out of an Arizonan. Eagerly each month I look for Arizona Highways, because each issue has at least one article close to my heart. My magazine has been the direct result of five Californians taking extended trips through Arizona in the past one and one half years.

Walter A. Lamb, Laguna Beach, California.

OLDEST POSTMASTER:

In looking over the September issue of Arizona Highways, which is a very interesting publication, I enjoyed the article on Leonard D. Redfield, reputedly the oldest postmaster in point of service in America.

Without detracting one bit from Mr. Redfield's colorful career, I thought you might be interested to know that the postmaster at Oxford, Maryland, is Miss Mollie Stewart, who was appointed on March 9, 1877, and has served continuously since that date. She is now 82 years old and has served as postmaster for a period of 62 years. She is on the job every day.

At the 1938 Convention of the National Association of Postmasters of the United States, held in St. Paul, Minnesota, Miss Stewart was honored as the oldest Postmaster in years of continuous service.

Regardless of the comparative years of service, both Miss Stewart and Mr. Redfield, I am sure, are typical of the dependable postmasters we have in this country and a credit to the Postal Service.

Joseph W. Clautice, Baltimore Association of Commerce, Baltimore, Maryland.

RANCH SCHOOLS:

Your September issue of Arizona Highways was very, very nice! We have heard many compli ments on it, and sincerely appreciate your interest in including us in your school group.

Mrs. Ann E. Hodges, Arizona Sunshine School, Tucson, Arizona.

LETTER FROM AFRICA:

Your Arizona Highways are a never-ending delight to me and to my staff and friends, and I am more than grateful to you for sending them. I envy Arizona. We have beautiful scenery, though nothing like the Canyon. Your brochures are so beautiful that I long to see the originals.

Miss M. Wilman, Curator, McGregor Museum, Kimberley, Cape Town, South Africa.

FROM CALIFORNIA:

I am a student at the University of California and am very interested in art and am wondering if I could have a copy of your magazine for August. Your magazine is truly the most beautiful of all Highway department magazines.

Miss Constance N. Ohnsorg, Berkeley, California.

I wish to take this opportunity to express my appreciation and gratitude to Arizona Highways and to those that cooperate to make it the splendid magazine it is. It was my privilege this spring to spend two weeks vacation in your wonderful state, making my third time to vacation in Arizona.

M. W. McFadden, Orange Car and Steel Company, Orange, Texas.

AND FROM COLORADO:

Your Arizona Highways magazine is very popular in our office and everyone pays it very high compliments. I think you are doing an excellent and outstanding job with it.

W. M. Williams, Publicity Director, State Highway Department, Denver, Colorado.

AND FROM WASHINGTON, D. C.:

As a former winter visitor to Arizona (Wickenburg) and a lover of the state, I cannot resist writing my admiration for Arizona Highways, which has been sent to my address in Nebraska City for many years.

Now, attached to a congressional office, I eagerly await the arrival of the magazine each month at the office of Rep. John Murdock who is our neighbor in the House Office Building.

I am particularly interested in those articles relating to Tombstone, Bisbee, Wickenburg and the Canyon country. As a newspaper man I have written much about your state and it is my hope and prayer that one day I may again bask in the sunlight on a ranch in the "Dude Ranch Capital."

You are doing a good work. As a newsman I know how infrequent are the kudos "to the editor." I want you to know that as one newsman to another, I think you and your staff are entitled to something more than polite consideration for your typographical and photographic efforts.

J. H. Sweet, Sec. to Congressman Heinke, First District, Nebraska, Washington, D. D.

FROM AN ENGLISH PEER BY WAY OF AN ARIZONA STATE SENATOR:

Very many thanks for your letter and for the pictured account of Arizona and the highways.

The production is magnificently done and does your publicity department a great deal of credit.

Beaverbrook, Chateau Frontenac, Quebec, P. Q., To State Senator Jimmy Minotto of Maricopa county came this praise for Arizona Highways one day several weeks ago. The letter was from Lord Beaverbrook, one of the great figures of our times, and one of the truly great men of England.

Each month our good friend Senator Minotto sends a bunch of magazines to friends all around the world. One of those friends, Lord Beaverbrook, pays us gracious compliment. Aren't there a lot of nice people in the world?

Neighborly Notes and Greetings That Came In The Mail From Friends Everywhere Arizoniques

Spines on desert plants were not, as many people believe, designed for protection. They are modifications of leaves, stems, etc., that resulted through a process of adaptation of cliClimatic conditions over a long period of time.

The saguaro, or "giant cactus" is the "Monarch of the Desert," and is especially fitted to get along in areas where rainfall is limited. This cactus is really a work of art. Its extensive root system may spread in all directions from the main trunk for as many as fifty feet. The roots are close to the surface; so that rainfall to the desert is readily assimilated and stored in the pulpy interior of the main plant, where it is utilized when needed.

Quicksilver deposits in Arizona have been worked in the Dome Rock Mountains, near the western boundary of the state; in Copper Basin, southwest of Prescott; in the Phoenix Mountains; and in the Mazatzal Mountains, north of Roosevelt Dam. Smaller showings have been reported in other sections of the state.

According to Bulletin 125, "The Mineral Industries of Arizona," published by the University of Arizona, the plant of the Apache Powder Company at Benson has a capacity of 18,000,000 pounds of explosives per annum.

Asbestos production in Arizona began in 1914. While never produced extensively, the output in 1920 amounted to nearly three-quarters of a million dollars. Mining men predict a great development of asbestos in Arizona when market demands and prices warrant large-scale development.

The Indians of Arizona have utilized in many ways many of the native plants of this region. Probably the most important of the desert plants to the Indians and the prehistoric people of Arizona have been the agave or mescal. Food, drink, medicine, soap, wood, fiber and needles were obtained from this one plant. The roots of several of the agaves make excellent plant soap, having detergent qualities. The pounded roots form a fine lather when mixed with water and this soap is satisfac tory for washing the hair or even for washing fine fabrics.

The Organ Pipe National Monument, near Ajo, is the largest of the Southwestern Monuments, having an area of 330,687 acres. The Organ Pipe Cacti are very at-tractive plants and have up to twenty branches, five or six inches in dia-meter, all coming up from the base of the plant at the ground. They grow as high as twenty feet and carry their flowers, reddish in color with light purple centers and nearly white mar-gins, near the top of the plant. The fruits are edible.

The Yucca, or Spanish Bayonet, found extensively in Arizona, partic-ularly on southern Arizona mountain sides at an elevation of three to four thousand feet, is a member of the lily family. It has narrow, stiff leaves, triangular and tapering to a sharp point. The flower stalk rises from two to six feet in the center of the plant and carry white, waxy flowers. The flowers are incapable of self-pollina-tion and are dependent on a tiny female moth for fertilization.

David J. Jones, Park Ranger, writing in the "Southwestern Monuments Monthly Report," says of the pollination of the Yucca: "The fertilization of the Yucca flower is probably one of the most remarkable in the vegetable kingdom. A tiny moth, following an instinct that appears like reason, flies from one flower to another at night, gathering pollen in one, laying its eggs in the seed producing organ of another. It then tightly closes the opening of the ovary with pollen. Upon the ripening seeds the larvae of the moth feed, seldom consuming more than one third of them. So great is the interdependence between the moth and the Yucca, that no other insect can pollinate the plant, nor can the moth survive without the Yucca. Hence, they are confined to the same geographical distribution.

"Observations were made upon the efficiency of the moth in the pollination, although it was never possible for me to see one at work. On a single stalk an abundance of flowers are produced, ranging in number from 24 to 42. If a flower is fertilized, the seed-bearing organ developes rapidly, attaining a length, many times, of more than three inches and a diameter of one and one half inches. Upon no stalk were more than 12 pods observed, a few had none. The most accurate range of fertilization, according to my observations, was that 8 percent to 29 percent of the flowers were pollinated. Apparently enough of these seeds reach maturity to maintain the species in this Wupatki area."

for me to see one at work. On a single stalk an abundance of flowers are produced, ranging in number from 24 to 42. If a flower is fertilized, the seed-bearing organ developes rapid-ly, attaining a length, many times, of more than three inches and a di-ameter of one and one half inches. Upon no stalk were more than 12 pods observed, a few had none. The most accurate range of fertili-zation, according to my observations, was that 8 percent to 29 percent of the flowers were pollinated. Appar-ently enough of these seeds reach maturity to maintain the species in this Wupatki area."

Coles Bashford was the first lawyer admitted to practice in the Territorial courts of Arizona. He began his practice in Tucson in May, 1864.

The first legal hanging in Arizona took place, according to the historian Barney, in Yuma, May 2, 1873, across the street from the only school in the town. The teacher, Miss E. Post, to quote Barnes' "Arizona Place Names," not wishing her pupils to witness it, dismissed the school for the whole week. Entire town turned out, including the aforesaid school children, to witness the execution. The victim was a Mexican named Fernandez, who had been sentenced in the district court. Phoenix is the only town in the state having a street railroad, although several other cities operated street railroads at one time or another.

There are 7,718,083 acres of grazing land in the state. It is estimated that there are in Arizona 31,955,000 feet of standing timber. There are twenty operating railroads in Arizona having a total of 2,722 miles of standard gauge railroad. The companies have an evaluation of $77,842,197.

A few notations gathered here and there concerning Arizona and her citizens