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There is some cedar on the hills from the one hundred mile post to Yampai Divide, it will answer for wood and fencing. The cedar continues on the hills to the south of Aubrey Valley as far as Beales Pass and the Chino Valley, from there again till the Pineveta and Picacho Divive is reached there is no timber from Picacho Divide to the Colorado Plateau there is edar thick in places, then again opening out into beautiful parks making this a beautiful country to look at, carpeted as it is with fine Gramma grass and relieved from the monotony of a plain by thousand hills and valleys. There are probably a few pine trees on the Pineveta Range, but I did not see any. The first pines are to be found in johnsons Canon. They ae somewhat scattered until we reach Bill Williams Divide.

Then there are some bodies of pine timber with openings of prairie. A few oak trees are found with black locust bushes, fir and qualing asp on the mountains. There is but little cedar and juniper on the plateau. The side track at Station 9410 on our 2.6 percent grade line will probably be the receiving point for ties and lumber from the south and east sides of Bill Williams Mountain as a good road can be made with little cost. After reaching John Rogers ranch there is no trouble in finding places for side tracks to the end of the second hundred miles at convenient places for delivery of ties and timber.

There is excellent grazing from Peach Springs to the end of division, the only drawback to it is want of water and this can be remedied by constructing reservoirs and collecting rain and snow water. There is but little agricultural land, the only exception being two or three graden patches on the Colorado Plateau, where very fine potatoes, beets, cabbage, turnips, carrots and parsnips are raised without irrigation. Probably when the railroad reaches here they will plant more extensively. Mr. John Rogers showed me potatoes, the largest of which weighed 2.5 pounds.

The estimate of the main line was not made, but four miles of the "I" line estimated $34,212.00 the remainder will compare mile for mile with the other line and the four miles opposite this four on other line will estimate about $2,000 per mile so I consider that there is a difference of $26,212.00 in the estimate in favor of the Main Line. The reason for not making the estimate out in full was this: We ran the Main Line over Yampai Divide to about where the tangent would start across Aubrey Valley, then found that we saved so largely in distance on the other line that we concluded not to expend any further time on it.

portion of 197 and page 198 Splinters Volume 14 transcribed in altered form for the Web by Russell Crump

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