Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/550

 428 UNITED STATES: — ARIZONA

Charity. — The State has reform and industrial schools and 11 penal and benevolent institutions (exclusive of almshouses), which had on June 30, 1910, 875 inmates. The general supervision of charitable and penal institutions is vested in a board of control consisting of the governor, the auditor, and one citizen of the State. In each county the care of the sick poor is entrusted to a contractor, who must give a bond of 5,000 dollars for the faithful performance of his contract, or the Board of Supervisors of the county may employ a physician at an agreed salary to attend the sick and furnish medicines, and a superintendent to take charge of the institu- tion and such other attendants as may be required. The almshouses in the State on January 1, 1905, had 191 pauper inmates (180 white and 11 coloured).

Finance, Defence. — Revenues are derived mainly from the general property tax levied on all property not specially exempted. The first State Legislature created a Tax Commission to determine the value of all property. The revenues from all sources, and expenditure for all purposes, in the year ending June 30, 1910, were : —

Dollars Taxes and other sources ..... 986,872

Special Services ....... 134,508

Total. 1,121,380

Disbursements ..... . 976,103

Balance, June 30, 1910 .... 145,277

The bonded debt, June 30, 1910, amounted to 3,055,275 dollars. The assessed value of taxable real and personal property amounted to 140,000,000 dollars for 1912.

The militia, or national guard, with headquarters at Phoenix, consists of cavalry and infantry ; total strength (1911), 50 officers and 703 enlisted men.

Production and Industry. — Arizona, with its dry climate, is not well suited for agriculture, but along the watercourses and where irrigation is used the soil is productive. The wide pasture-lands are favourable for the rearing of cattle and sheep. Several large reservoirs for the storage of water have been and are being constructed by the United States Government, notably the Roosevelt dam, which supplies water to^the rich Salt River Valley District, of which Phoenix is the principal city. The Federal Government is now engaged on the Yuma project, which will make use of the water of the lower Colorado River and add hundreds of thousands of acres to the agricultural area.

Alfalfa is the most important crop ; next to it, wheat and barley. In the south are grown figs, grapes, almonds, &c. ; in the north potatoes, apples and other fruits. On January 1, 1910, were 115,000 horses; 6,000 mules; 25,000 milk cows, and 626,000 other cattle; 1,020,000 .sheep; and 22,000 SAvine. The wool clip in 1911 amounted to 5,950,500 pounds of wool, valued at 981,750 dollars. The national forests in the State have an area of 13,668,366 acres. There is considerable ostrich-farming (begun in 1892) In 1910 Arizona had over 6,000 birds, being about 80% of total in the United States.

The mining industries of the St'ite are important. The output of copper in 1911 was 303,202,532 pounds; lead, 858 short tons of merchant lead ; gold, 170,348 fine ounces ; silver, 3,228,900 fine ounces. The quarries