342 



THE iRKIGATION AGE. 



miles, is Loveland, and if your visitor, constantly grow- 

 ing less doubtful of the possibilities of the region, cares 

 to stop for a few hours, the citizens and farmers will 

 amaze him with some stupendous figures as to the sugar 

 beet crops of this and former years. He will be as- 

 tounded when he is shown five sugar beets that weigh 

 forty-five pounds ready for the Loveland factory, which 

 factory, by the way, was the first one erected in north- 

 ern Colorado. And right here it may not be out of 

 place to give the acreage and results of the sugar beet 

 industry at five of the stations along the Colorado & 

 Southern. 



Acres Tons 



planted. harvested. 



Greeley 8,000 110,000 



Windsor 5,900 85,000 



Fort Collins 11.000 158,000 



Loveland 11,700 201,000 



Longmont 11,300 175,000 



47,600 729,000 



From Loveland the route leads still north to Fort 

 Collins, the site of the state agricultural college. This 

 is a city of between 8,000 and 9,000 and is situated in 

 the fertile valley of the Cache-la-Poudre. Residents 

 of the valley maintain that it is the most productive in 

 the trans-Missouri country, and they certainly show 

 results which justify their claim. On his farm five 

 miles southwest of Fort Collins Mr. Sam Webster's 

 yield of Defiance wheat ran fifty-eight bushels to the 

 acre, weighing sixty-two pounds to the bushel. Last 

 year he had sugar beets on this same groand and got a 

 little better than twenty tons to the acre. The year 

 before that from the same ground he got twenty-nine 

 tons of sugar beets per acre, while the year previous to 

 that the same soil produced 160 sacks of potatoes to the 

 acre, and of a high grade. 



From Fort Collins the train turns southeast toward 

 Greeley in Weld County, passing through a region 

 where potatoes and beets are the principal crops. The 

 returns on these two products for the season of 1906 

 was enormous, $1.700,000 being paid to the farmers 

 for the yield from 22,000 acres of sugar beets. The 

 price ranges from $4.50 to $5.00 a ton. Nine thousand 

 carloads of potatoes were shipped from Greeley. Sugar 

 beets are practically a new crop to Colorado as they 



The Arapahoe Canal in Gorge Near Castlewood Lake. 



are to other sections of the United States, this being 

 only the ninth season they have been raised here to any 

 great extent. The pulp from the sugar beet is a great 

 food for sheep and that industry is receiving an im- 

 mense impetus from the erection of factories throughout 

 irrigated sections. 



Should the visitor still be unconvinced let him 

 take a trip across the mountains to the valley of the 

 Grand, fondly called "The Little Empire of the West- 

 ern Slope'' by its enthusiasts. The valley is forty miles 

 in length, averages six miles in width, and contains 

 150,000 acres of irrigable land. Fruit is the chief prod- 

 uct of the valley and it is becoming as famous as Mich- 

 igan for its peaches. It is estimated that the 1906 



Castlewood Lake, from which Denver Suburban Homes and Water Com- 

 pany Gets Its Supply of Water. 



fruit crop of 2,200 cars brought the growers $1,250,000, 

 while the 1905 harvest of 1,599 cars netted $954,507. 

 Within the past three years nearly 2,000,000 fruit trees 

 have been set out in the valley and the above figures 

 are from about thirty per cent of the 17,000 acres 

 planted to fruit, the trees on the other seventy per cent 

 not having as yet matured sufficiently to bear. Here 

 are the results obtained from ten acres planted to 

 peaches in 1900, net returns above all expenses, 1902, 

 $129.98; 1903, $1,036.24; 1904, $2,490.10; 1905, 

 $1,448.10; 1906, $4,992.45 ;total receipts, $10,096.87. 

 Or let the skeptical visitor go to the San Luis val- 

 ley on the southern boundary of Colorado, which lies 

 about the center of the state from east to west. It is be- 

 tween 7,500 and 8,000 feet above sea level and is sur- 

 rounded on every side except the south by rugged moun- 

 tains. The valley is about a hundred miles in length 

 and at its widest place is forty miles across. In this 

 valley the field pea is revolutionizing agricultural pur- 

 suits. This pea is drilled into the ground and kept 

 moist by irrigation until it is of good growth. Then 

 lambs and hogs are turned into the fields when it is 

 grown and allowed to graze on the products. Hogs do 

 particularly well, being fattened and ready for market 

 in a remarkably short time. There is said to be some 

 element in the feed which makes the flesh of the animal 

 far more desirable for market purposes. At any rate, 

 these pea-fed hogs of the San Luis valley bring thirty 

 cents more per cwt. to the farmers than do the hogs 

 on the Chicago market. It has been demonstrated that 

 a quarter section of good field pea land will raise, fatten 

 and turn off 300 fat hogs a year and carry over the 

 brood sows, leaving the owner a gross return of about 

 $4,000 a year, with less -than $1,000 expense. Other 

 products, such as are raised elsewhere in the state by 

 irrigation, also bring large results. Potato culture is 

 especially profitable and the greatest yield of that 

 vegetable ever recorded, 794 bushels to the acre, is cred- 

 ited to a San Luis valley farm. The average yield of 

 potatoes is 200 bushels to the acre. Great things are 

 promised for this valley, as the hog industry is but three 

 years old and has doubled each year since its inaugura- 

 tion. 



