PIMA COUNTY. By Commissioner Herbert Brown, Tucson. The county of Pima has had greater prosperity during the year 1896-97 than for any year since the great mining excitement incident to the discovery of the rich silver mines near Tombstone in the early eighties. One of the chief sources of this prosperity has been the increased demand and consequently higher price for cattle. Prime steers that three years ago would not bring over $10 to $12 per head will now readily bring $18 to $20, and all lower grades of cattle bring correspondingly increased prices compared with the price of the same grade three years ago. Owing to the low prices in the past few years prior to 1896-97, the ranges were stocked to the full extent of the food supply, but the recent demand at good prices has induced our large cattle raisers to dispose of vast herds of beef and stock cattle, so that to-day our cattle kings not only have large bank accounts, by the sale of stock, but also have better ranges than for years past. The sale of surplus stock has lessened the consumption of range pasturage and left the stock in the vast cattle plains of Pima County with a much better food supply, which, with the bountiful rains of the past summer, gives promise to keep up for some time to come. The ranges to-day are covered with grass knee-high, which will more than supply the stock now running on them during the coming winter with plenty of food. The reports from all the round-ups are that the past season has been bountiful in calves, and therefore the prospects for a large stock of good beef cattle in the coming years is better than it ever was in the history of Pima County, and that is saying a great deal, as Pima County has always been famous for the abundance and quality of its beef cattle. The heart of the stock raiser truly rejoiceth. In the past year the sales of stock has reached the unprecedented amount of $1,500,000, and enabled our stock raisers to pay off their debts, improve their buildings, develop the water by digging wells, building storage reservoirs for impounding water, and otherwise increase their facilities for producing more and better cattle at less expense than heretofore, on the same ranges, while the values of ranges have increased by the development of canals where stock heretofore could not thrive for want of sufficient water. There is no industry in the county that gives greater promise of ample and early rewards than the raising of horned stock. The large herds of horses that formerly ranged over the plains of Pima County have to a great extent disappeared and left the pasturage to horned stock. The reason for this is that the introduction of electricity as a motor power for street cars instead of horses, and the universal use of the bicycle, which has largely taken the place of private and public conveyances previously drawn by horses, has relegated the horse to the background to such an extent that horse raising is no longer a profitable business. In years past an unbroken horse just caught on the range would bring twice as much as the finest beef steer, and it cost about as much to raise a steer as it did a horse; but the reverse is the case now. A good beef animal will now bring three or four times as much as the average unbroken horse. Any reasonable amount of horses could be bought today for from $5 to $6 per head running on the ranges, and the choice out of hundreds could be bought at from $10 to $15 per head. The day for horse raising has passed in Pima County, and the day for raising good beef stock is at its zenith. Considerable attention is being given to the larger production of sheep in the mountain ranges than heretofore, both on account of the higher price of wool, incident to the passage of the late tariff legislation by Congress, and the greater demand for mutton as an article of food, owing to the increased price of beef cattle. The great mountain ranges of Pima County are especially fitted for the support of immense flocks of sheep; they produce large quantities of the most nutritious grasses, which are not as accessible to larger stock as to sheep. This field of sheep industry presents a decidedly inviting opportunity for the employment of capital with the most profitable results. This is especially so for persons with limited capital, as it takes much less capital to start into sheep raising than it does in cattle raising, while the returns in sheep are much earlier than with cattle. MINES AND MINING. While silver mining, which was an important industry and source of profit in the county of Pima in past years, has largely decreased, yet there are a number of silver and lead properties still being worked at a profit, while gold and copper mining has more than doubled in the past year. The former silver miners and prospectors have yielded to the inevitable in the fall of silver, and with a good grace turned to the development of the immense rich gold and copper bearing ledges and veins that abound like a network throughout Pima County. 127 REPORT OF THE GOVERNOR OF ARIZONA. The production of gold has perhaps doubled in Pima County during the past year, while copper has maintained a good second and silver and lead have not fallen off, but have more than held their own as compared with the previous two or three years. There are vast deposits of iron, marble, lime, and onyx in Pima County, but neither of them are being worked to any extent owing to the cost of transportation to a market. There are now at least 250 gold, copper, silver, and lead properties being worked to a profit in Pima County as compared with about 175 a year ago. The output of gold and silver bullion and placer gold, together with copper and lead, during the past year has increased from about $250,000 to $400,000. The work done on old properties, both gold and copper, has more than doubled within the year, while the large number of new properties opened within a year have made marked progress toward paying development. A few among the most promising of the new properties are the Rosemont copper plant, the Columbia silver and lead plant, and the Saginaw gold, silver, and lead plant, the latter within about 7 miles of Tucson. All of these properties are in a most prosperous condition and give prospects of yielding rich rewards to their owners. There are 31 mills, representing about 250 stamps, several concentrating and cyanide plants, and 4 smelters now in successful operation in P'ima County, while large amounts of the higher-grade ores, gold, silver, and copper, are being profitably shipped to outside plants for treatment. Oro Blanco, Arivaca, and Guijas are the chief gold ore-mining districts, while Greaterville and the Canada del Oro Quijotoa are the chief gold-placer districts. Oro Blanco and Arivaca have been worked ever since the early days of the Spaniards. The chief copper districts are Ajo, Washington Camp, Duquesne, Rosemont, and Twin Buttes, while silver and lead are found at nearly every mining camp in the county in more or less quantities. There is scarcely a point in Pima County in which gold, silver, copper, or lead are not found, and frequently all of these metals are found in paying quantities in the same localities, The principal seats of population and business in Pima County are Tucson and Nogales. Tucson is perhaps the oldest place in the United States settled by Europeans or their descendants. Santa Fe, N. Mex., and San Augustine, Fla., dispute precedence with Tucson as to early settlement, but it is believed Tucson is the oldest of the three early Spanish military posts. In population Tucson is the second largest city in Arizona, while in the number of children attending the schools it outranks for population any other city in the Territory. Commercially and financially it leads any other place in Arizona. The banks make a better showing than those of any other point. The combined deposits in the Tucson banks amounts to over half a million dollars, the exact figures being $518,425.74, nearly as much as is deposited in all the other banks in the Territory. The cash resources of the Tucson banks in May last, according to the report made to the Comptroller, was $399,799, while the national banks in Phoenix and Prescott combined only showed cash resources of $402,050. These figures show the financial stability of Tucson people, and show that the "old pueblo" is solid, and more, the conditions show that this is one of the best localities for business in the Territory. The wealth of Tucson represents the steady accumulations of the merchants, mechanics, and shopmen. No outside capital has ever been loaned here for any kind of improvements. No one brought any money when they came to Tucson; what they now have was made in Tucson. The public records show but a small percentage of mortgages on the record, and notices of sheriffs' sales in the local newspapers are scarcely ever seen. The increase in taxable property in the city of Tucson for 1897 amounts on the tax roll to $149,720. The climate for healthfulness is unsurpassed in the world. The machine shops, roundhouse, freight depot, hotel, and offices of the Southern Pacific Railroad for the division on the long stretch between El Paso, Tex., and Yuma, on the border of California, are located at Tucson. Almost $80,000 a month is paid in wages to the employees of the company on this division, about $60,000 of which is spent in Tucson, and goes to augment the monthly transactions. The mountain town of Nogales on the international line between Mexico and the United States is a wide-awake, progressive city that has advanced as much in business and substantial improvements as almost any point in the Territory. Until recently the city of Nogales has been claimed to be located on one of the land grants, which has heretofore stood in the way of its development, but the recent decision of the land court has cleared the cloud from the title to the land on which it stands, and the effect has been magical. Substantial and costly business buildings, commodious aud comfortable homes, and new business undertakings at once sprang into existence, and Nogales is more than keeping step with the advancing column of progress. In her social advantages, churches, schools, and other evidences of civilization Nogales has little of the border town, but much of the cosmopolitan. UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA. TUCSON, ARIZ., September 29, 1897. SIR: In compliance with your request, I take great pleasure in making the following report for the University of Arizona: Number of instructors in the faculty, 14. These instructors are occupied in the work of teaching, in original investigation in agriculture and horticulture, and in commercial assay work. Number of students enrolled last year, 151. Five regular courses are offered, as follows: (1) General, (2) agriculture and horticulture, (3) civil engineering, (4) mechanical and electrical engineering, (5) mining and metallurgy. Special courses are given in agriculture and horticulture, biology (botany and zoology), chemistry, civil and hydraulic engineering, drawing (free-hand and mechanical), elocution and physical culture, English language and literature, geology and mineralogy, history and civics, mathematics, mechanical engineering, mining and metallurgy (mill work, etc), assaying, ancient and modern languages, physics, stenography, and typewriting. Expended by the agricultural experiment station in original investigation. 14,999.35 Very respectfully, Hon. HERBERT BROWN, Commissioner of Immigration for Pima County. HOWARD BILLMAN, President. PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF PIMA COUNTY. The first law for establishing public schools in Arizona was passed in 1867. It was amended by the law of 1868, and greatly improved by the law of 1871. The first public school in Pima County, and probably the first in Arizona, was opened in Tucson in the spring of 1869, with an enrollment of 59 boys. By 1872 the enrollment had increased to 138 boys, nearly all of whom were of Spanish parentage. In 1872 the first public school for girls was opened. In 1883 the city of Tucson exhibited its claims to educational leadership by securing from the legislature the right to issue bonds to the amount of $40,000 to erect a modern public school building, the first in the Territory. The same year a regular course of study was adopted, the school arranged in grades without respect to sex, and coeducation started on its work in the old pueblo. The enumeration of school children in this district has risen from 1,330 in 1885 to 1,853 in 1897. Among the earliest public schools outside of Tucson were those of Harshaw, La Noria, Tubac, Oro Blanco, Arivaca, Greaterville, Calabasas, San Xavier, Crittenden, and Nogales. During 1896-97 there were employed in Pima County 42 different teachers by 31 different districts for periods of from five to nine months at salaries from $50 to $125. Of the teachers employed six were graduates of State normal schools and as many more held life or educational diplomas in Arizona. The average school for the entire county was 6 months. The schools of the county enrolled 1,833 pupils out of a census enumeration of 1,934. Twenty-one schools are classed as primary and 15 as grammar schools. Of the pupils 1,300 attended primary schools and 521 grammar schools. The districts of San Xavier with 2 teachers and Nogales with 3 teachers are the only graded schools of the county outside of Tucson., |