332 



THE IERIGATION AGE. 



and other great industrial plants that have made the city 

 famous, Pueblo has an agricultural region of unparalleled 

 fertility. Irrigation is the magician's wand that has changed 

 and is changing a desert to a garden. The productiveness of 

 land under irrigation in this dry climate with 75 per cent of 

 possible sunshine almost surpasses belief. Lands that a few 

 years ago were worth from $2 to $10 per acre now with good 

 water rights, sell for from $75 to $250 per acre. In the 

 valley of the Arkansas, cantaloupes and melons have brought 

 as high as $260 per acre net. Sugar beets have given returns 

 of $40 to $200 per acre, the average being $75 per acre. 

 Similar returns on alfalfa, fruits and other crops are frequent 

 in conformity with their market value. The great industrial 



A tremendous impulse in farming is under way all over 

 southern Colorado. Thousands of settlers from the East are 

 pouring in and lands a few years ago considered dry and 

 barren are being brought under cultivation by irrigation from 

 reservoirs, by the Campbell system of dry farming, or by 

 pumping the underflow. The year 1906 saw the great major- 

 ity of government land in the valley taken by settlers, although 

 there is some yet open. Dry lands ha've practically doubled 

 in value the past year. 



In the valley of the Arkansas is the homo of the sugar 

 beet and the famous Rocky Ford cantaloupe. Seven sugar 

 factories are already in operation. The estimate of money 

 paid the farmers of the valley for sugar beets in 1906 was 



Centra! High School, Pueblo. 



population of Pueblo and the adjacent great mining camps 

 furnish a constant market for the product of the valley, the 

 demand, in many instances, being greater than the supply. 

 Large tracts near Rocky Ford have recently been devoted to 

 raising garden seeds for the Eastern seed men with most 

 gratifying results. Aside from the Arkansas valley, to the 

 west and directly tributary to Pueblo are the famous Grand 

 Valley and the Valley of Gunnison. The Grand Valley is the 

 famous fruit producer in the West and the product is unex- 

 celled. A fair output of peaches is $300 per acre. A peach 

 farm begins producing at the end of the third year of growth. 

 The Gunnison Valley is also famous and produces fruit and 

 live stock, while the adjacent mountains are rich in coal 

 and precious metals. To the southwest is thr famous San 

 Juan, with its rich mines, and farther east is the famous San 

 Luis, with its great wheat farms, its fruit, and live stock, nil 

 of which find in Pueblo the nearest and best market. 



$3,000,000, for cantaloupes $300,000. According to the report 

 of the State Bureau of Mines for 1905 the total output of the 

 precious metals in Colorado was as follows : 



Gold $25,577,946.81 



Silver 7,743,718.51 



Lead 5,438,506.67 



Copper 1,636,266.04 



Zinc 4,774,497.91 



Total $45,070,935.94 



Returns from Agriculture. 



Hay $16,000,000 



Sugar beets 7,500,000 



Dairy 10,000,000 



Fruit 10,000,000 



Potatoes 4,000,000 



Wheat 4,500,000 



Vegetables 3,000,000 



Oats 1,000,000 



Corn 1,000,000 



Peas 1,500,000 



Barley 300,000 



Rye 30,000 



Union Depot, Pueblo. 



Total $58,830,000 



Colorado's fame extends universally by reason of its 

 wonderful stores of precious metals, yet the value of the 

 state's agricultural products annually exceeds the mineral 

 output. Between 1890 and 1900 Colorado advanced to the 

 front olace of irrigated states, and the farmers with water at 

 hand for irrigating purposes made rapid progress, failure of 

 crops under existing conditions being unknown, quality and 

 quantity per acre surpassing all records elsewhere. The areas 

 capable of being watered becoming limited through occu- 

 pancy, attention recently has been devoted to the so-called dry 

 lands, and the dry system of farming has been experimented 

 scientifically on a large scale, with most satisfying results. 

 Probably no state in the Union yields a greater return, in 

 proportion to time and labor expended. The net acreage being 

 greater and more valuable than elsewhere. Colorado apple 

 orchards annually net a profit from $200 to $300 (per acre) 

 in same period. Lands of this character rated five years ago 



