THE UNOCCUPIED LANDS OF COLORADO. 



117 



Antonito, La Jara and Mosca are progressive towns 

 with enterprising citizens, good schools, churches, 

 large business establishments and handsome residen- 

 ces. All of the towns of the valley show a healthy 

 growth with no evidences of the pernicious effects of 

 real estate booms. 



BIG AND LITTLE FARMS. 



Although large farms are as a rule unprofitable the 

 experiment has been tried with success in the San 

 Luis valley upon the lands of the Colorado Valley 

 Land Co., near Monte Vista. On the north farm of 

 the company 7,640 acres are in profitable cultivation. 

 One thousand hogs and 1,000 steers are being fattened 

 on the farm this summer on alfalfa and peas. The 

 La Garita farm has 2,000 acres in cultivation, 250 

 acres in alfalfa, 1,000 acres in grain, the rest in hay. 

 The Meadow farm has 6,000 acres all devoted to hay 

 and stock raising. The Central farm, 2,560 acres, is 

 devoted to grain raising. Although these farms are 

 successful the most profitable farming is found to be 

 on the small tracts of from 40 to 80 acres. 



Forty acres is enough land for the farmer of 

 ordinary means and help. Besides the certainty of 

 return, the yield, under proper irrigation, will average 

 far more than the 160 acre farms in the Mississippi 

 and Missouri valleys and the outlay for machinery, 

 farming stock, purchase money, etc., is proportion- 

 ately less. Many tracts of this size have been fenced 

 by the canal and land companies, have artesian wells 

 on them, houses and barns erected and are ready for 

 the purchaser to begin farming. 



PRICES AND TERMS. 



Prices of lands in the San Luis valley are exceed- 

 ingly moderate and terms of payment are exception- 

 ally easy. Improved lands with fences, ditches, 

 buildings and other improvements are offered by the 

 various land and canal companies at prices varying 

 from 810 to $20 per acre including perpetual water 

 right. Terms are usually 20 per cent, cash, the re- 

 mainder in long time annual payments with 6 per 

 cent, interest. 



INSURANCE AGAINST DROUTH. 



Agriculture in the San Luis valley has long since 

 passed the experimental stage. Where there have 

 been failures they have been due to lack of industry 

 and intelligence on the part of 

 those who have failed. Hun- 

 dreds of well improved farms 

 and prosperous farmers attest 

 the fact that success is within 

 reach of those who will work 

 with hands and brain. 



The soil is unrivalled in fer- 

 tility, the water supply is ample 

 and crop failures are unknown. 

 There is a perpetual insurance 



against drouth and good, industrious farmers can 

 raise abundant crops every year, and grow rich. Poor 

 shiftless farmers fail here as they do everywhere. 



111. THE SUNNY WESTERN SLOPE 

 COUNTY. 



Montrose is one of the four counties formed from 

 the old Ute reservation in 1881, the present county 

 organization having been made in 1883. The Indian, 

 an unerring guide in directing the advancement of 

 civilization to the most bountiful regions of nature's 

 domain, clung with tenacity to the valley of the Un- 

 compahgre, and knowing he was being removed 

 from the "garden spot of Colorado," gave up the 

 land with reluctance. 



The county has an area of 2,388 square miles. 

 Under the present means of irrigation 200,000 acres 

 may be classed as arable land, the remaining area 

 being grazing and timber lands. 



WATER SUPPLY. 



Montrose county is watered by the Gunnison river, 

 which flows through the northeastern portion of the 

 county; by the Uncompahgre, which flows across the 

 county from south to north ; by the San Miguel and 

 Dolores, which flow through the western part of the 

 county, and by numerous creeks tributary to these 

 streams. 



Several large ditch systems supply water to the 

 Uncompahgre valley farmers, but a number of farms 

 are watered by ditches owned by the farmers them- 

 selves. All the irrigating systems are supplied by 

 gravity ditches. 



Like Delta county, the irrigated area can be greatly 

 increased by either national, state or individual 

 enterprise, as the Gunnison river, with its immense 

 and never-failing water supply, affords an oppor- 

 tunity for placing large areas of mesa and high lands, 

 now above ditch, under cultivation. 



CHARACTER OF SOIL. 



Along the river bottoms the soil is rich in silica 

 the potashes and alkaline salts, especially adapted 



SHADED PORTIONS SHOW IRRIGATED DISTRICTS. 



