THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



CROPS RAISED. 



All kinds of small grains, potatoes, field peas 

 and all garden vegetables and small fruits grow 

 to perfection. The soil and climate seem especially 

 adapted to wheat, oats and barley. Wheat yields 

 from 25 to 45 bushels per acre, oats from 40 to 90 

 bushels and barley from 30 to 75 bushels. The aver- 

 age yield of the valley this year will be 25 bushels of 

 wheat per acre, 40 bushels of oats and 35 of barley. 

 Potatoes yield heavily. One hundred and fifty bushels 

 to the acre is a small yield, and 200 to 400 bushels 

 are generally raised. An acre grown in competition 

 for the prize of $500 offered by the American Agri- 

 culturist produced 50,582 pounds, or 847 bushels. 

 Alfalfa has proven a great success. It is the staple 

 crop on farms where hog, sheep and cattle raising is 

 combined with farming. Field peas take the place 

 of corn, which is raised to but a limited extent. The 

 yield is from 20 to 35 bushels per acre. For fattening 



mountains surrounding the valley are covered with 

 large forests of pine, cedar and other woods, furnish- 

 ing fuel, fence posts, logs for building, etc., free for 

 the taking. 



MARKETS. 



The San Luis valley is surrounded by a mining 

 and manufacturing region and has a market for its 

 products at its doors. The valley has excellent rail- 

 way facilities, being traversed from north to south by 

 the main line of the Denver & Rio Grande railway 

 from Denver to Durango, with branches diverging 

 southward to Santa Fe, N. M., eastward to Pueblo 

 and westward to Creede. There are five flouring 

 mills in the valley, that at Alamosa being of 300 barrel 

 capacity per day. The valley is within short shipping 

 distance of all th principal mining towns of the state 

 and finds in them a constant market for its products. 

 The liberality of the Denver & Rio Grande railway 

 provides an export freight from the valley to Denver 



A HAY FARM ON 



purposes they are superior to corn, 3% bushels of 

 peas being considered equal to 5 bushels of corn. 

 The pea is a valuable rotation crop, as large crops of 

 grain are grown after peas as if the land had lain 

 fallow for the season. With alfalfa and peas hogs 

 are raised as successfully and cheaply in the San 

 Luis valley as anywhere, and with better markets and 

 perfect immunity from cholera. 



FREE RANGE, FREE TIMBER. 



In the foothills, parks, canyons and valleys of the 

 mountains surrounding the valley is free range for 

 vast numbers of cattle and sheep. Farmers club to- 

 gether and employ a herder for their united herds 

 during the grazing season, wintering their stock on 

 straw and farm pastures, the grass of which, allowed 

 to cure on the ground, makes fine winter feed. The 



and Pueblo which enables the San Luis producer to 

 defy competition from the states to the east. 



CLIMATE. 



The climate, in common with that of the Rocky 

 Mountain region, is salubrious. In summer, warm 

 days and cool nights and in winter clear, cool weather, 

 tempered by the great mountains which overlook and 

 surround the valley and protect it from the blizzards 

 and tornadoes which are the dreaded features of the 

 plains country. 



SOCIAL CONDITIONS. 



Hospitality and good feeling will be found to be the 

 characteristics of the farmers who have already 

 settled in the San Luis valley. Although essentially 

 a farming region it has a number of pretty towns 

 within its borders. Alamosa, the leading town, is the 

 railroad center of the valley. Monte Vista, Del Norte, 



