42 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



There are many larger orchards in Fremont county which are won- 

 derful producers, but Mr. Felton has always contended that ten acres 

 are enough for any man, and the manner in which he conducts his 

 place and the success he has had with it in the past few years would 

 indicate that he is not far from right. 



"It is not at all strange that the price of fruit land in this county 

 ranges from $100 to $1,000 per acre, when such land has been known 

 to pay for itself in one and two years." — The Canon City Record. 



Mr. Felton is postmaster at Canon City and a very busy man, 

 but he kindly showed us over his highly cultivated acres, and we 

 soon brought up at the cider press, where a "wee drop" of unfer- 

 mented apple juice much refreshed us after our long walk. If Bro. 

 Darttor any other good prohibitionist should happen to call me "to 

 order" right here, and should like to know what cider has to do 

 with irrigation, please say to those noble reformers that I shall still 

 claim the floor on the plea that irrigation comprehends both plant 

 and throat irrigation, and that the latter is kept up here in Pueblo 

 with a mighty force, and that with no lack of energy, zeal or cash — 

 unceasingly — night and day; while state ditch No. 1, and many other 

 contemplated ditches, have been obliged to halt for the want of 

 "free coinage of silver." There is no animal industry or branch of 

 irrigation more successful in Pueblo at present than throat irriga- 

 tion; but our last election gave to women full and equal suffrage; 

 hence, the man who reports to your honorable body on the subject 

 of irrigation from Pueblo five years from now, may ignore throat 

 irrigation altogether. 



The altitude at Canon City- is between 5000 and 6000 feet above 

 sea level, too high for successful peach culture. Mr. Felton 

 grows his on a similar plan to that of Mr. Gideon. Mr. Felton's 

 figures would look as though he pinned his faith mostly on winter 

 apples; but his pear trees are beauties, though not so abundant. 

 His grounds are nearly level, or just right for easy and successful 

 irrigation. 



Grapes are a success in this place, but Mr. F. says that prices are 

 so low that there is no money in them. 



Jesse Frazier, of Florence, Colorado, eight miles east of Canon 

 City, is one of the oldest and most extensive fruit growers in Colo- 

 rado. He settled there about the same time that I settled at Roches- 

 ter, Minn. We both brought our first trees in wagons across the 

 plains, ahead of railroads in either state. Mr. Frazier has thirtj'-five 

 acres in orchard, and told me he had produced 35,000 bushels in a 

 single season. He proved that a man who understood thorough ir- 

 rigation could coin money out of apples and pears. 



After producing 103 distinct varieties of the apple species in 1882 in 

 my five acre orchard, the tornado struck it and ruined the labor of 

 many years, and proved that, while a man might contend against the 

 elements— to the tune of 50 degrees below zero, and produce many 

 apples in spite of it — yet when in connection with this extreme cold 

 he must meet with such a tornado as struck us August 21st, 1883, at 

 Rochester, Minn., then he has some excuse for being found on the 

 wrong side of the ledger or cash book. Mr. Frazier can show both 

 apple and pear trees over two feet in diameter ; while it might 



