Arizona — Cornucopia to the Nation

ARIZONA... GORNUGOPia TO THE NATION

by L. D. McCorkindale The year was 1540. In the stillness in the San Pedro valley a lone jackrabbit stopped feeding in the swaying grass and jerked upright, ears stiffly erect. From the distance, south along the banks of the river, came the lowing of cattle and the bleating of sheep!

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Spanish explorer and adventurer, was marching northward from New Spain seeking the fabled golden cities of Cibola. The conquistadores were driving 150 head of cattle and 5000 sheep on the first cattle drive in the land now known as Arizona, U.S.A. It was a symbolic prologue to the thousands of sheep and cattle grazing on the rangelands of the American Southwest today, nearly 450 years later.

Nearly 11/½ centuries later the great "Padre on Horseback," Eusebio Francisco Kino, a renowned Jesuit missionary priest, played a leading role in the Arizona cattle industry. He regarded cattle as the most important item in the early Arizona agricultural endeavors, and was the first to make cattle a permanent fixture of our agricultural scene.

Although livestock production reigned as a preferred part in agriculture around 1700, Father Kino jubilantly described other crops in his writings. "There are already very rich and abundant fields, plantings, and crops of wheat," he wrote, "with corn, beans, chick peas and lentils. There are many Castilian fruit trees, such as figs, quinces, oranges, pomegranates, peaches, apricots, pears and apples. Garden stuff is present in plantings of cabbages, melons, lettuce, onions, garlic, pepper, and Castilian roses." His enthusiasm was boundless in promoting agricultural crops around his beloved missions along the Santa Cruz River south of the present city of Tucson.

In 1807 title papers from the Spanish government for 52,000 acres of land were granted to Juan Legarra, governor of the pueblo of Tumacacori, between the presidio of Tucson and the present border cities of Nogales, for farming and livestock production. Mexican tenancy of what is now Arizona with extensive haciendas (large ranches), utilizing the feudal system, was developing. There wealthy Mexican landholders lived in comparative ease and comfort while Yankees yet struggled against the elements and hostile Indians along the Atlantic shores of North America in the east.

An event known as the Gadsden Purchase, an unromantic sounding bit of history which took place in 1853, marked an impressive step in Arizona's past by adding almost 30,000 square miles to the southern portion of New Mexico Territory. Adventurous Americans from the east took advantage of this fortunate event, and for the first time began to settle in Arizona to live. There came mostly soldiers, camp followers, and a little later, Mormons in search of religious freedom. Homes were built and ranches established by these hardy desert pioneers.

Descendants of early Spanish cattle were the only ones to be found in Arizona until the coming of the first settlers from the American east. Durhams, commonly called "shorthorns," were the first cattle introduced by the Yankees. Native cattle were greatly improved by crossing with the shorthorns, and as the years passed and other breeds were introduced a kaleidoscope of colors rivaling Joseph's coat appeared on Arizona's landscape. Because of such mixing, colors ran rampant to include fawns, brindles, blues, buckskins, blacks, reds, whites, and some cattle even had manes.

People of the arid Southwest a century ago were thirsty for milk. One bull and five Holstein cows, a famous breed of dairy cattle, were brought into Arizona in 1876. The next twenty years saw dairying rapidly develop across the southern part of the state.Pandemonium prevailed amongst the livestock producers of Arizona in 1924 when the deadly and highly contagious "hoof and mouth disease" broke out in California. Arizona's governor invoked a drastic embargo on cattle, persons, and even automobiles passing from California to Arizona an embargo, in fact, on anything which might have been in contact with the soil in areas of that state where the dreaded hoof-and-mouth disease was active. Bloodshed was narrowly averted at some crossing points along the Colorado River. President Calvin Coolidge requested Hunt to ease the embargo, but to no avail. Not one case of the disease developed in Arizona, though, which evidently justified such stringent regulations.

Water was and still is the magic word in southern Arizona because most crops must be irrigated. A meager seven inches of rainfall for an entire year is the average for this area. The first American settlers to farm in 1869 near Phoenix utilized an irrigation ditch leading from the north side of the Salt River to irrigate land east of the present site of Phoenix. Bearing witness to the ingenuity of prehistoric Indians, these early farmers used the same ditch which was carved out of the desert floor hundreds of years before.

Rugged mountains rise from the floor of the Sonoran desert in central and southern Arizona, where abundant harvests are assured by a vast irrigation complex.

Arabian lore is plentifully sprinkled with stories about dates and date palms. The prophet Mahomet reportedly said about A.D. 600, "Whoever eats seven dates of the variety called Ajwek the first thing in the morning will not have to hear either poison or treachery that day." Probably the hardy Arizona farmers in the middle 1800s knew little about Mahomet, and cared less, but the blazing summers and dry climate convinced someone that dates would grow here and be profitable. First on record was a date palm growing on a ranch owned by Joaquin Carillo near Tucson, which was planted from seed prior to 1863.

Succeeding years began to change parts of the desert into an Arabian scene, especially in central Arizona's Salt River Valley around Phoenix, and in the region of Yuma along the Colorado River.

Maktum, Iteema, Hayany, Boo Fagoos, Saidy, Halawi, and Deglet Noor - all of these exotic names and more were varieties of date palms grown. Deglet Noor, probably the best commercial variety to be produced, means "The Date of Light" in Arabic. Look for it today in your favorite food market.

Initiative certainly was not lacking in the ambitious men who were struggling to make agriculture a success story in Arizona during the last two decades of the 1800s. Those luscious golden fruit, oranges, were first introduced into the Salt River Valley by W. J. Murphy, later dubbed "the father of oranges."

Ingleside Land Company was formed, of which Murphy was a stockholder, and 100 acres of Washington Navel oranges were planted just below the Arizona Canal in the vicinity of that famous Phoenix landmark, Camelback Mountain. This was the first commercial orange orchard in Salt River Valley and foreshadowed the 80,000 green acres of citrus trees to be found in the sun-blest Arizona valleys today.

Circa 1891 the University of Arizona, located at Tucson, launched a momentous program which would create a lasting and favorable impact on the economy of sunny Arizona. Four agricultural experiment stations were established. One was in Tucson at the University; one near Phoenix; one south of Tempe; and the fourth, east of Yuma. Logically, testing and analyses of soils and water began first; as soon as possible, numerous varieties of fruit trees and other plants were set out at the University's experiment stations. Questions which had plagued Arizona farmers for years needed to be answered in this dry, sandy country where nothing but cactus and other thorny plants were supposed to grow. Pressures from the farmers were mounting, and the agricultural scientists eagerly set out to wrest answers from the earth. Research was begun. Four bulletins relating to the feeding of cattle and irrigating of crops were issued within a year.

At this point another need in agriculture became apparent as plant crops for food became more prominent in the economy of Arizona. What about pollination of the plants and fruit trees to obtain better yields?

Domestic honeybees (first brought to Arizona circa 1869) are fascinating creatures which live socially in hives and fly from blossom to blossom, gathering nectar and carrying pollen, thus enabling the plants and trees to produce bountiful yields of fruits, vegetables, and melons. The production of alfalfa seed, cantaloupes, watermelons, vegetable seeds, and tangerines is largely dependent on honey bees for pollination. In 1897 a Tucson newspaper stated, "Think of the wonderful results which have come from two hives of bees brought by wagon 500 miles through desert and over mountains. There are now many thousands of stands [hives] of bees in Arizona. Honey is shipped out of the Territory by the carload. The mountains are swarming with bees." Beekeeping, as an industry and a hobby, had come to stay. Try honey on your toast for breakfast tomorrow morning. There are many flavors, depending on what kind of flowers the bees visited to collect nectar. The sun was an untapped source of permanent energy. There it hung in the sky, in all of its torrid glory, as it had for millions of years, cursed by most men during the hot summer months, praised by all when the winter chill covered the desert. In 1901 in Pasadena, California, a new solar engine was being demonstrated which used the heat of the sun to produce steam.

William E. Smythe, author of "The Conquest of Arid America," described the solar engine at Pasadena: "The sun's rays," he said, "fell upon 1788 little mirrors lining the inside surface of a large reflector resembling an open, inverted umbrella measuring 3312 feet in diameter at the top and 15 feet at the bottom. All of the reflections are concentrated on a boiler 1312 feet long in the center of the 'umbrella.' Steam from the boiler can be used to operate a pump to raise water from a well in the earth for irrigation of crops." He prophesied, "It is safe to say that solar power will be one of the great influences of the new century and will make arid regions of the West, and other parts of the world, the theater of the greatest industrial revolution of the future." Remember, that was 1901!

In 1902 in Phoenix the "Solar Furnace and Power Company" was incorporated. Unfortunately, after a few years, because small gasoline engines and electric motors were becoming available at much less cost and greater reliability, the solar engine disappeared from the desert. William Smythe, however, had predicted correctly about solar energy - he was merely 80 or 90 years ahead of the times.

Normally with the concentration of many acres of a single food crop in one location comes the danger of proliferation of insect pests to threaten Man's food supply. In 1899 Dr. T.D.A. Cockerell, a "pest expert" from New Mexico Territory, reported on a survey of certain insect pests affecting crop plants and fruit trees in southern Arizona. He reported, "[The] Salt River Valley has been found to be remarkably free from insect pests. It would be difficult to find another locality so favored, and at the same time producing such an abundance of different crops. While the present condition of affairs... is highly satisfactory, the cheerful optimism which assumes that pests cannot live here is hardly justifiable."

Dr. Cockerell, in his farsighted wisdom concerning costly insect problems, made additional comments. "Considering the fruit-growing population of the [Salt River] Valley, and the money invested, funds need to be secured to support a horticultural quarantine officer, who also can inspect orchards for pests, and conduct spraying operations. The importance of having such an inspector is obvious," he concluded.

Just 10 years later the Territorial legislature created what today is the Arizona Commission of Agriculture and Horticulture; due to the commission's functions, Arizona still is virtually pest-free when compared to other states producing such a variety of warm-climate crops.

The citrus industry in this state, for example, need spend but $20 per acre each year for pesticides on the average, whereas in neighboring California the annual cost per acre for such pest control can cost up to $180.

"Think white! Think cotton!" could have been the slogan 60 years ago as it is today. Cotton was already a common crop. However, some experimental Egyptian cotton, about 5 acres, was planted by Dr. A. J. Chandler near Mesa in the spring of 1899. The cotton made strong Broad open fields yield abundant crops to the harvest, a chopper from Yuma Helicopters sprays seemingly endless orchards, and (below) water from Imperial Dam on the Colorado River makes this agricultural market basket possible for both California and Arizona.

(Above) An example of mature cotton, Arizona's most important commercial plant crop. (Below) Neat rows of an irrigated cotton field near Coolidge. (Left) Strange devices to Middle Westerners, perhaps, but these wind machines ward off the cold by stirring the air when frost threatens the citrus.

growth and produced an abundance of bolls. It was beautiful, but for some unknown reason workers would not pick this strange, new type. Dr. Chandler plowed under the entire field. "The operation was a success," he said, "but the patient died."

That, however, was not to be the end of Egyptian cotton in Arizona. Egypt must have been the country with which Arizonans were most intrigued when comparing similarities in climate. Both dates and cotton were examples of desert crops. In 1908 the first successful new variety of Egyptian cotton, named "Yuma," was developed in the hot Colorado River Valley of southwestern Arizona.

In 1910 Pima cotton, a more desirable higher yield type, was developed, which by 1919 had replaced the Yuma variety. When shopping in your favorite store look for this best-quality "cool" cotton. It very possibly could be Egyptian cotton from the deserts of Arizona. In no other state are the yields of cotton per acre so high; with its assorted varieties it is the most important plant crop commercially produced and presently covers from 300,000 to 400,000 irrigated acres of land each year. There has been an increase in cotton use since the oil crisis resulted in a cut-back in the production of synthetic fabrics.

Water is defined as "a major constituent of all living matter." Desert dwellers can never forget that fact. An adequate supply is mandatory at all times, a requirement for successful farming which led to the incorporation of the Salt River [Irrigation] Project in 1903. For farming alone, there were already 4000 individual landowners anxiously waiting to secure water for irrigation. In 1906 work was begun on the picturesque Roosevelt Dam, located in the mountains northeast of Phoenix. After completion of the dam in 1911, no one doubted the future of the Salt River Valley.

Some will be surprised to learn that Maricopa County in central Arizona the state's most populous is currently the fourth most important agricultural county out of more than 3200 counties in the nation! This fact surprises many people because of the generally arid nature of the region; also, the region boasts one of the fastest growing urban areas in the United States, the metropolitan area of Phoenix and the Valley of the Sun. As early as 1916 Maricopa County won first prize at an international soil products exposition, in competition with county agricultural exhibits from many states and foreign countries. The honor was bestowed again in 1917 because of the excellence of the fruit produced. Only five years since statehood, Arizona was gaining national agricultural prominence.

From the small missionary herds of cattle brought into Arizona nearly three centuries ago by Father Kino, the livestock products industry today produces cash receipts reaching more than $600 million annually.

Agriculture is certainly big business in today's Arizona. State income from agriculture in 1975 is estimated at 1-1/5 billion dollars, and shows every sign of healthy growth for the future. Cash receipts of Arizona's agriculture are very nearly divided between crops and livestock.

What has turned out to be Arizona's most profitable and thereby most important plant crop cotton was a virtual commercial oddity in the state prior to World War I. From 400 acres planted to cotton in 1912, the total leaped to more than 17,000 acres by 1914. Nearly a quarter million acres of the fluffy stuff was under cultivation in Arizona in 1920; today, there are nearly a half million acres to the profitable crop. The combined value of cotton lint and seed in 1975 has been estimated at nearly 180 million dollars.

Most people will not be surprised to learn that such subtropical crops as oranges, grapefruit, and dates are grown in this desert state. But some readers are unaware that much of the nation's winter lettuce and, in 1976, more than 341,000 acres of wheat and a quarter million acres of hay were harvested in Arizona.

Known throughout the space-age world for its electronics and aerospace research and manufacturing accomplishments, one quarter of the metropolitan Phoenix area is, surprisingly, still devoted to agriculture, that ancient occupation which is the stabilizing influence of our economic and social culture. The miracle of agriculture, the gathering each year of the fruits of a well-managed land, feeds our nation's and the world's multiplying, food-craving millions. Bountiful Arizona, our "food basket in the desert," is justly proud of its vital role in providing its share of that miracle.