42 HORTICULTURE BY IRRIGATION. 



has its off years, with more or less success. Jefferson, Boulder and Fre- 

 mont have been testing fruit culture, both as to small and tree fruits, for 

 over twenty years, yet one has had its barren years from climatic causes 

 as often as the other. For instance, one orchard of aged trees for the year 

 1886, at Canon City, failed, while in the Longmont neighborhood they 

 were pre-eminently a success, yet for the current year of 1887 the fruitful- 

 ness was reversed. Frazer's orchard in 1886 produced 10,000 bushels, yet in 

 1887 had not more than fifty bushels. With the conditions precedent to 

 successful fruit growing, such as water, at command, the right kind of 

 soil, proper care and culture, I know no reason why fruit growing in 

 Northern Colorado cannot be as successfully done as in the Southern 

 counties, except some of the stone fruits, such as peaches, apricots, nec~ 

 tarines, and some of the tender varieties of cherries, and possibly plums. 

 The better varieties of plums and cherries in Northern Colorado are at 

 present on probation. Pears, in many sections of the State, at proper age, 

 are a success, and I know no reason why they should not rank with apples 

 as a success. The home of the stone fruits, as above named, in Colorado, 

 will be in the extreme South and in valleys West of the Rocky Mountain 

 range on the tributaries of the Gunnison and Grand Rivers. 



It is possible that peach trains in the near future will run from 

 Western Colorado as well as Salt Lake. The altitude (4,500 feet) and 

 conditions of peach growing are about the same. 



The successful fruit culturist of any country must study and practice 

 the conditions precedent to success in his own locality. At all points 

 where water is at command and soil appropriate small fruits succeed, and 

 as a rule tree fruits are equally a success where proper selections as to 

 kinds are made. The greatest bar to success in Colorado is our May 

 frosts. Early bloomers as a rule should be avoided. The crab family of 

 apples are more uncertain than standards, on account of precocious 

 blooming. In my observations in fruit culture in Colorado, I have been 

 most interested in apple and pear culture. 



I have noted about two hundred varieties of apples and thirty-one of' 

 pears. I here make a note. As a rule I know of no country that will grow 

 and mature good wheat and a Hubbard squash that will not make a good 

 apple country. If this notation be true, as apply^d to Colorado, then has 

 the possibility of apple culture from the extreme northern to the southern 

 line been established beyond any doubt. 



The apple is the king of fruits and numbers more kinds than any 

 other known fruit probably 3,000. 



