James Cuming
Jim Cuming
Yuma - Yuma County
Inducted in 2022
James (Jim) Cuming is a life-long resident of Yuma County and a third-generation farmer. His grandfather, Edward Chetham Cuming, emigrated from Ireland to Canada in the late 1800’s where he worked as a carpenter at the Canadian Pacific Railroad and met his wife, Margaret Reid. Edward had received letters from his Uncle Tom claiming Yuma, Arizona was a veritable paradise with broad fertile valleys. In 1902, Edward and Margaret spent their meager savings to move to Yuma. Rumor has it when they stepped off the train to the 120-degree July heat, Edward said, “Margaret, I think we’ve found hell.” To add to the insult, they found Edward’s uncle poverty stricken and unable to help support the young family.
In 1904, after two years of odd jobs and carpentry, Jim’s grandparents decided to take advantage of the Homestead Act and to homestead 160 acres in the lower Yuma Valley. The land was covered in mesquite trees and willows because the entire Yuma Valley flooded many times each year from the Colorado river. The farmstead house was built on three-foot stilts to keep the water from entering.
Most times they would move the family 6 miles away to camp on the mesa and wait for the waters to subside, but sometimes they would remain marooned in the house. In 1921, when it was the Cuming’s time to “prove up” on the homestead of 160 acres, Congress changed the homestead law so that each person could only homestead 40 acres. Edward, Margaret, and Margaret’s mother Annie Reid, who was visiting at the time, each signed for 40 acres and the other 40 was lost.
Clearing and leveling the farm was tremendous work since it was all done by horse drawn fresno. It wasn’t until 1940 that Edward finally purchased the Model H FarmAll tractor with lug wheels which made work a little easier. Edward helped pioneer building the ditches that are still a vital part of farming in the valley today. The laterals and canals were named for the original homesteads; therefore, the Cuming lateral runs across the north and east edge of the Cuming property.
Edward worked as a construction worker on the Laguna Dam which was the first dam built on the Colorado River as part of the Federal Reclamation Yuma Project from 1905 to 1907. This was constructed to divert water from the Colorado River for irrigation of lands in the Yuma Valley and to stop the flooding of the valley. The flooding didn’t completely subside until the Boulder Canyon Project, Hoover Dam was completed in 1935. The Yuma County Water Users Association (YCWUA) was incorporated in 1903 to lobby the Federal Reclamation Service to construct the Yuma Valley Reclamation Project to reliably deliver Colorado River water to the farms. All the farms, including the Cuming’s farm benefitted from the Association and Edward participated in the management of the Association as a board member and was part of the 1922 Colorado River Compact. This important work continues to be carried on by Jim almost 120 years later.
Edward and Margaret had six children that all worked on the farm. The second child, Pat, was Jim’s father. In 1946, with the passing of Edward, Pat took over the homestead. Pat married Mary Gifford in 1933 and they had three sons: Clyde, Jim, and Bob. Clyde and Jim would later become partners and farm the homestead. Bob chose a different line of work. Throughout the past three generations all the Cuming’s have taken great pride in their hard work to run the farm as a family. At age 12, Jim worked on his father’s Model G John Deere with a 6’ disk and a 5-point chisel. “If you worked that tractor all day you could get 20 acres disked in a day and that was a long day!” said Jim. When he quit farming, Jim had a 20’ disc, airconditioned cab, GPS, laser scraper and a stereo and could easily disk 80 acres a day.
In 1955, Jim attended the University of Arizona completing a BS in agriculture. He met his wife Judy there and they were married in 1960. He returned to Yuma and took his first job as a fertilizer salesman for Rathburn Chemical. The next year he joined his brother Clyde and began doing custom cotton picking, purchasing his first cotton picker for $22,000. In 1963 his parents purchased 260 acres along the river bottom and leased additional property. They went into a family partnership now farming about 600 acres. They farmed maize, cotton, alfalfa, wheat, lettuce, melons, and sugar beets. Sad times fell in 1966 with the death of his father. Jim’s mom, Mary continued on as the bookkeeper for the farm until she resigned and leased the homestead to her sons in the early 70’s.They continued to work as a successful team and grew the partnership farm to about 1,000 acres.
In 1972, Jim was driven to purchase additional land and expand his own business. He purchased farmland on the mesa and lower Yuma Valley and began growing crops like cauliflower, broccoli, and lettuce for larger shippers, but he always retained a percentage of the crop. He says farmers don’t need to go to Vegas to gamble, they just go the fields every day!
In 1988, his brother Clyde decided to retire. Jim continued to grow his business and began specializing in growing cauliflower for the Salinas Valley Shippers. Jim retired in 2007, he was farming approximately 3,000 acres of owned and leased land. In 2021, he still owns and oversees leases on approximately 700 acres.
Jim gave back to his community in many ways. His service to the farming community is extensive and filled with accomplishments. Jim is particularly proud of his service as Director and past President of the Arizona Cotton Growers Association (1974-1990). Serving on the National Cotton Council 1980-86, he then became director of that council from 1986-90. He was fortunate in 1986, to travel to Hong Kong, Tai Pai, South Korea, and Osaka, Japan for the National Cotton Council trade team. During this time, he worked with lobbyist and other members to develop Cotton subsidy programs. During that same timeframe, Jim served on the Cotton Incorporated board which promoted and developed different methods of spinning and dying cotton.
Jim is a member of the Yuma Area Agricultural Council. He also became a founding member of the Arizona Agribusiness Association which is currently Arizona Agribusiness and Water Council. He served on the Agricultural Stabilization & Conservation Association board. This board oversees federal farm programs and works with the federal offices which makes decisions about different farm subsidy programs.
But it’s Jim’s dedication to Water in the Colorado River Basin that is undeniable and that which he remains most passionate about. Jim was elected to the Board of Governors of the Yuma County Water Users Association in 1971, has served on the board of directors since 1974 and has been the president for the past 44 years. He has also been a board member of the Imperial Dam Advisory board since 1977. Yuma has the best water rights on the Colorado river in the country as they were granted to each piece of land in the Homestead Act. Jim has been fighting to maintain these rights to forever preserve farming in the Yuma Valley. Jim firmly believes that you should not be able to sell the water off the land for development. “You have the right to use your allocation on the land and if you don’t use it, the water goes back into the river for others to use. We need to maintain the current water right “the Law of the River” and not allow the water to be sold off the land itself,” says Jim. He continued, “The water of the Colorado River is over-allocated by a million-acre feet and without diligent stewardship of this resource we will have huge impacts in our food resources as well as economic impact to the State of Arizona.”
In 1975, Jim learned how to fly airplanes and enjoyed flying himself to many of his board meetings in his own plane. His first solo flight was to Las Vegas for the annual Colorado River Water Users Association, and he has only missed one of those meetings since that time.
Today, Jim continues to work passionately on water rights for Arizona and Yuma. He is often seen talking to farmers in the fields or at the Water Users office. He remains a pillar of the farming community and loved by all for his integrity, generosity, hard work, and humble nature. He has leased his farm and lives in Yuma with his wife, Judy. He is also enjoying time on the golf course at least a couple of rounds a week!
Affiliations
Yuma County ASCA, 1969-1984
Yuma Regional Medical Center Foundation Board, 1976-1978
Somerton School Board, 1976-1982
Arizona State Parks Advisory Board, 1984 - 1986
Arizona Flying Farmers 1975-1986, member
National Cotton Council and Cotton Council International Trade Team, 1986
Awards
University of Arizona College of Agriculture, Lifetime Achievement Award
Agribusiness & Water Council of Arizona, Lifetime Achievement Award, 1978, founding member
