HORTICULTURE BY IRRIGATION. 



39 



inde pendent of managers, directors and money sharks, 

 who made their lives miserable while they were 

 merely employes of others. Men and women of Salt 

 Lake City, Ogden and cities of the East and the West, 

 can do the same and be assured of attaining similar re- 

 sults. Where is the land?. Within the shades of the 

 smoke of Salt Lake City, Ogden and Prove; in sight 

 of the railway between the Weber and the Grand 

 rivers, and within the hearing of the fast express 

 trains, ready to carry the products to market. Where 

 is the water? In the snow crowned mountains, with 

 their perpetual reservoirs, overshadowing every val- 

 ley; in the numerous rivers rushing by, and whisper- 

 ing gently to the enterprising fruit grower. Here am 

 I use me; and in the vast underflow whose hidden 

 fountains are an unknown but evident unlimited 

 quantity. The water resources cannot be exhausted 

 even though the entire desert area comprising hun- 

 dreds of thousands of acres, be reclaimed and brought 

 under cultivation. 



MATERIALS OP THE INDUSTRY. 



Native trees and vines can be purchased at the home 

 nurseries of Salt Lake City and Ogden at reasonable 

 rates. Implements for preparing the soil for planting 

 are sold in the same cities. Materials for fences, 

 farm buildings and dwelling houses are within the 

 limits of the Territory. The railways have been con- 

 structed for the purpose of transporting such articles. 

 The work of clearing the land, plowing, leveling and 

 making ready for planting can be performed every day 

 in the year, with practically no inconvenience from 

 heat or cold. Canals, mains and laterals for conduct- 

 ing the water to the land and properly distributing it, 

 can be constructed by machinery manufactured and 

 sold in Salt Lake City. Planting of trees and vines 

 can be done in the fall or spring with an assurance of 

 success. 



RAPID GROWTH. 



Within three years after planting the grape v\nes 

 will be in bearing, and the fruit will pay good divi- 

 dends upon the investment. Two to four years later 

 the trees will yield fruits, and where then is there a 

 savings bank, bond investment, endowment life policy 

 or mercantile institution that will return the interest 

 and dividends that can be obtained from these vines 

 and trees? In the meantime while the fruit is com- 

 ing into bearing the cultivation of the land between 

 the rows of trees will yield ample corn, potatoes, sweet 

 potatoes, peanuts, melons and vegetables to enable the 

 owners to live independent of wage earning. A Kan- 

 sas farmer recently sold the fruit of a forty-acre apple 

 orchard for $4,500 equal to ten per cent, on a value 

 of $450 per acre and never so much as entered the 

 orchard while the purchaser was picking the fruit. 

 This can be dona in Utah. 



The market for green and dried fruit, raisins and 

 wine is without limit. When a few hundred acres of 



orange trees were planted only a few years ago in 

 what is now Riverside County, Cal., croakers began to 

 cry overproduction, and some were anxious to sell 

 their farms at any price to leave the country, where 

 every person wanted to grow oranges. The total acreage 

 in that small county now approaches 13,000, and more 

 trees are being planted. The shipments from River- 

 side alone in 1880 were fifteen carloads, and some peo- 

 ple thought that the market would be overloaded. 

 The shipments of oranges from that place in 1893 are 

 estimated at 2,000 carloads, or 572,000 boxes, and still 

 the market cannot be supplied. 



Utah soil, Utah climate, Utah water resources and 

 Utah shipping facilities cannot be surpassed in the en- 

 tire inter-mountain region. The fruits already pro- 

 duced are superior to anything of similar varieties 

 placed upon the market. Are there any reasons why 

 Utah should not become one of the most famous fruit 

 growing States of the West? None, exceptthe lack of 

 enterprise, industry, co-operation and capital. 



FRUIT GROWERS SHOULD STAND TOGETHER. 



The effort now making to unite the producers of 

 California fruit, both of the citrus and deciduous 

 varieties, in an effective organization for the sale and 

 distribution of their products, deserves the co-operation 

 of every grower. The success of the organization is 

 the indispensable condition of prosperity. The facts 

 in the case are very simple. 



Fruit growing has been, and should continue to be, 

 a profitable industry under irrigation. During the 

 past year there has been a shrinkage in prices paid 

 the producer entirely unwarranted by the situation. 

 The cry of overproduction has been analyzed and fails 

 to account for the reduction in prices. THE IRRIGA- 

 TION AGE has been at some pains and expense to inves- 

 tigate the matter, and finds that consumers are paying 

 very high prices for all deciduous fruits in the East. 

 Inquiry made by a representative of THE AGE in Cin- 

 cinnati, Washington and Baltimore, in New York, 

 Philadelphia, Detroit and other important points, 

 demonstrates the fact that all the dried fruits are sell- 

 ing at from 25 to 30 cents per pound three times the 

 average price paid the grower during the last sea- 

 son. The cost of transportation from the point of 

 production to the place of consumption is less than 2 

 cents per pound. 



Thus the shrinkage in prices is due neither to over- 

 production nor to railroad extortion. It is due to a 

 system of organized robbery devised and carried out 

 by middlemen. They rob the producer at one end and 

 the consumer at the other. The result is that the mar- 

 ket demand for these products is curtailed, and that 

 the purchasing public is compelled to get along with 

 much less of this palatable and nutritious food than it 

 would naturally require. In a future number THE 



