THE IKEIGATION AGE. 



435 



THE KINGDOM'S PRINCIPALITIES. 



Colorado, Like Rome, Has Three Great Parts and One 

 Other in Addition. 



FAMOUS as it is, and being the principality of which 

 Pueblo is the capitol, the Arkansas valley is not the 

 only section of the state of Colorado entitled to notice. 



Besides this valley, there are three other districts well 

 and favorably known in the West today. These are: 



The San Luis valley section. 



The Western Slope. , 



The North Colorado district. 



The San Luis valley is a wonderful country lying to 

 the southwest of Pueblo and tributary to it. It com- 

 prises about 3 million acres of irrigable territory, and 

 close to a million acres already under water. It includes 

 the four great Colorado counties of Costilla, Conejos, Rio 

 Grande, and Saguache. Through its heart flows the great 

 Rio Grande river, with the famous Rio Grande canal, one 

 of the stupendous irrigation ditches of the West. 



This great canal, with headgates near Del Norte, was 

 built in 1884 at a cost of $250,000. It is the property of 

 the Rio Grande Land & Canal Company. It has 120,000 



them, it is predicted. The Slope country is well adapted to 

 raising beets. 



Intensive cultivation naturally results in a fruit coun- 

 try, and the Western Slope is familiar with the value. 

 Agricultural lands, especially in the fruit sections, sell for 

 very high prices. There have been sales which ran as 

 high as $4,000 to the acre. 



There are a half dozen very rich counties on the 

 Western Slope, and development work is going on apace. 



While the Western Slope has no centralized com- 

 mercial organization, it has the Western Slope Develop- 

 ment congress, which meets annually, and lends cohesive 

 force to this great district of the state. 



The famous Gunnison tunnel, so-called popularly, 

 the official name of which is the Uncompahgre project of 

 the government, is on the Slope. It is the most stupen- 

 dous of all the government reclamation projects, from 

 the engineering standpoint. 



Grand Junction, Delta, Montrose, Paonia, Hotchkiss, 

 and Gunnison are some of the leading fine towns of the 

 Western Slope. 



The North Colorado district is the cradle of irriga- 

 tion in this part of the West. The Greeley district, 

 founded by Horace Greely more than 40 years ago, is the 

 birthplace of the irrigation efforts in Colorado. 



70-acre Cherry Orchard on the Fountain VaHey Land & Irrigation Company's Project. 



acres under it, is 60 feet wide, and can carry six feet of 

 water. When the National Irrigation congress officials 

 visited its headgates early in June, it was carrying 1,400 

 second-feet of water, and was running four feet deep. 



The San Luis valley is as level as a floor. The 

 character of its soil is splendid. The principal products 

 are wheat and peas. These latter are fed to the famous 

 San Luis valley hog, which tops the market and adds 

 wealth to this section of Colorado. 



A beet sugar mill will be built at Monte Vista before 

 the year is over, and enterprising men are already figuring 

 on the beet possibilities of the valley. The work on the 

 Monte Vista mill is in charge of W. D. Hoover and Ward 

 Darly. 



There has recently been organized in the San Luis 

 valley the San Luis Valley Commercial association, very 

 closely patterned after the model merger in the Arkansas 

 valley, and preparing to take an active part in the forth- 

 coming Eighteenth National Irrigation congress and 

 National Irrigation exposition. 



The Western Slope is a famous district, too. Its 

 principal forte is apples. The state of Colorado in the 

 year 1909 raised more than 7 million dollars' worth of 

 apples, and most of these came from the Western Slope. 



There are also sugar mills on the Western Slope, and 

 within the next year or so there will be several more of 



The South Platte river waters most of the North 

 Colorado district, and irrigation has reached such a per- 

 fect type of development as to permit of the utmost econ- 

 omy in the use of water something not all the districts 

 have yet learned. 



There are a half dozen sugar mills in the North 

 Colorado district, and the first essay at beets was in this 1 

 district. 



The Colorado state agricultural college, doing mag- 

 nificent work, is at Fort Collins, in this district. 



D. A. Camfield, the Titan of irrigation in the West, 

 lives and has his field of effort at Greeley. That is also 

 the famous potato district. 



Hence Colorado has four great principalities that 

 make up the kingdom. 



WANTED Position to take charge of advertising 

 for an established colonization concern who is marketing 

 irrigated lands. I have had extensive experience in hand- 

 ling work of this character for a concern that sold $1,000,- 

 000 worth of land during the past two years. Am capable 

 of writing articles for newspapers or preparing matter for 

 display advertising. Can furnish excellent references. 

 Address, A. D. M., care Irrigation Age, 112 Dearborn 

 Street, Chicago, 111. 



