Horticultural Resources of the Regions of Colorado. 5.*5 



wondei'ful to contemplate. But lujtwith^taiuling the advantages ollered in 

 soil and markets, 'where the prodneer and consumer live side by side, 

 protected from successful competition by tlie- great plains on the east, 

 and the mountains on the west requiring expensive transportation to 

 reach and compete with us, yet we are sorry to admit, horticultural en- 

 terprise, especially the growing of fruits, is sadly neglected. Tiie hun- 

 dreds of car loads of fruit shipped in, and the large sums of money con- 

 tinually paid to our horticultural brethren, east and west, for these indis- 

 pensable luxuries, is not true evidence that we can not produce fruit. Up 

 in Colorado we live high and fast. Always in a hurry, our people have 

 not time to wait for trees to grow, or to engage in any enterprise that 

 does not promise large and speedy returns. ' They stick to the old silver- 

 plated way of raising apples — three pounds for a quarter. 



So engrossed are they in mining and mining phrases that when giving 

 prices on fruit they quote, " Strawberries assay tifty cents a qu irt in silver, 

 with a visible trace of wood." The boys, also, catching the same infatuation, 

 will often take their portable reduction works after night jump somebody's 

 grape or watermelon lead, to test the free milling qualities of the fruit. 



Owing to the peculiar topography of the country, of mountain, valley and 

 plain, the season of fruit ripening varies according to elevation, extending 

 the time of a single variety of the strawberry from May to September. 



Fruit trees come into bearing fully two years younger than they do East. 

 Our apnles and pears do not compare with the same class of fruits grown on 

 lower elevations, but in quality and flavor they are superior, being smooth, 

 heavy, juicy. Grown and ripened in a dry atmosphere, they also are good 

 keepers. 



Our country is pre-eminenty adapted to small fruit culture. Under our 

 system of irrigation small fruits, especially the strawberry, produce large 

 crops of excellent fruit. Irrigation not only brings the whole crop to full 

 maturity, but it extends the time of ripening all classes of small fruit^j, al- 

 most double. 



By a judicious selection of varieties of strawberries, frcjm the earliest to the 

 latest, we can extend the picking season from 40 to GO days. 



While fruiting, we irrigate this crop at least twice each week, soaking the 

 ground thoroughly. 



All other varieties of small fruits except the grape require a liberal irriga- 

 tion during this period. 



These crops as grown around Denver yield a gross income from $10(» u> 

 S1,000 per acre; according to soil, age, and manner of cultivation. Tiie prwes 

 obtained range from twenty cents to fifty cents per qu irl. In tli.- mining 

 districts prices rule higher. 



The shipment of strawberries from Kansas and Missouri aflect the prices 

 of the Willson and other early kinds to some extent. These .shipments, how- 

 ever, are of short duration, and soon leave the field clear for our later varie- 

 ties which always bring good prices. The mountain people, on account of 



