PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. 95 



SOU them "part of Colorado, where we arrived the next morning, that being 

 one of the festal days so common in that section, when the people come 

 together from all the surrounding country, by train loads. That particu- 

 lar occasion was what they called melon day, when thousands of water- 

 melons and muskmelons are given away to any who wish to eat them. 

 They had also an exhibition of fruits and vegetables, all showing what 

 could be produced under irrigation. After dinner we rode several miles 

 to the farm of a fruitgrower and nurseryman, where for the first time I 

 saw an irrigated orchard in bearing, the trees being loaded with fruit, and 

 water trickling in furrows between the rows; and as I thought of the 

 thrifty orchards in our own state, growing (as many of them do) near run- 

 ning streams, or in sight of the plenteous waters of Lake Michigan, I 

 wondered if necessity, which is said to be the mother of invention, was 

 not also the mother of enterprise, and hoped that before the necessity 

 grew on us much greater we might manifest some of the same enterprise 

 which was bringing such pleasant results to the people of that country. 



Another of the excursions and festal days in which we participated was 

 at Grand Junction, in western Colorado, and on the Pacific side of the 

 mountains. This was called peach day, and peaches were given away the 

 same as melons at Rocky Ford. The exhibition at this place was almost 

 entirely of fruits, and, though I have seen much larger collections, I 

 never saw nicer-appearing fruit; and, selecting one exhibit that was par- 

 ticularly fine, arrangements were soon perfected with the owner for visit- 

 ing his place, which was done the next day. Here, on about twelve acres 

 of ground, all under irrigation, were growing peaches, apples, pears, 

 plums, grapes, and other fruits, and an excellent opportunity was enjoyed 

 for studying the peculiarities of fruitgrowing in that country. 



Our time is too limited to tell about fruit day at Canyon City, where 

 nearly all kinds of fruit were given away, or of the numerous other places 

 visited, for probably some of you are becoming weary of these wanderings in 

 the "Great American Desert," and have been wishing the speaker would 

 come back to Michigan and tell us about irrigation here; but it will not 

 take a long time to tell all he knows on that subject, and so we will stop 

 on our return at one more point long enough to look into another and per- 

 haps not tht) least interesting method of western irrigation viz. : by means 

 of windmills. When at the Denver meeting we often asked about this 

 method and for a time were somewhat puzzled over the contradictory 

 answers received. A man from Colorado or other mountainous state 

 would tell us in substance that they were too small and insufficient to be 

 of any value, while another, from some state like Kansas, would reply that 

 windmills were a very decided success, and often give names of prominent 

 men using them for irrigating from five to twenty acres of ground. But 

 we soon discovered that the difference in opinion was simply the result of 

 different conditions. The man living where elevation was great, usually 

 had to go deep for water if pumped from wells; and besides he could take 

 gravity ditches from swift-running streams, and what need had he of wind- 

 mills or anything else to pump water, when it could be flowed directly 

 upon his land? Those having an inexpensive or insufficient supply of 

 ditch water, or none at all, and in a country where water could be obtained 

 from shallow wells, were loud in praise of windmill irrigation. This 

 method seems to have reached higher utility, or come into more general 

 use, near Garden City, Kansas, than almost any other place. Hence we 

 visited that point and spent some time riding over the country and inves- 



