SURVEY OF COLORADO AND NEW MEXICO. 143 

 CEREALS. 



Of tlie cereals, wheat, oats, barley, and corn, grow readily and i)ro- 

 diice very good crops, when properly cultivated and irrigated. 



Wheat grows well throughout the length of the Territory, north and 

 south, and even as far south as Bernalillo, in ISTew Mexico. So far as I 

 have seen, and can ascertain, the following portions of these territories 

 are the best wheat-producing sections, viz : the creek valleys north of 

 South Platte ; the South Platte and Arkansas valleys in Colorado ; and 

 in New Mexico, the Moro and Taos valleys, and the south end of San 

 Luis Park. Besides these, there are, as a matter of course, valleys which 

 will produce as fine wheat as those named, but these are the most ex- 

 tensive. The Platte Yalley alone can supply, if made to yield all it is 

 capable of yielding, the whole of Colorado with all the wheat necessary 

 for her present i)opulation. And I am informed by Colonel Charles 

 McClure, of Santa Pe, that the Taos Valley can be made to produce 

 sufficient wheat to supply the entire demand of ISTew Mexico. Until a 

 better method of cultivation is introduced than the rude i^lan of the 

 Mexican population, the capacity of the latter Territory will not be 

 known. But, as I design considering the agriculture of the other sec- 

 tions of Colorado and New Mexico separately, I will confine myself to 

 those portions of the former Territory now under consideration. 



With the exception of two or three fields, spring wheat is the only 

 kind raised. But this is not so much because winter wheat fails as it 

 is owing- to the difficulty of preparing the ground in the fall for sowing- 

 winter wheat, the ground being so dry and hard that it cannot be 

 plowed. And if an attemj)t is made to soften it by irrigation, the ex- 

 perimenter soon learns that while one portion of his ground is scarcely 

 moistened below the surface, the other portion is a mass of soft mud. 

 But at any point from Clear Creek south, where sufficient rain happens 

 to fall at the right season to moisten the ground, winter wheat sown 

 produces a fine yield, and, as a matter of course, ripens much earlier 

 than the spring wheat. 



The usual time of sowing is March and April, though sometimes farm- 

 ers, even as far north as the Platte Yalley, succeed in getting their wheat 

 in during- the month of Februarj^, yet the greater portion is sown in 

 April. Singular as it may appear, Avhen we notice the dilference in lati- 

 tude between Cache a la Poudre and Santa Fe, yet it is a fact that the 

 harvest season comes on later in the vicinity of Los Vegas, Sante Fe, 

 Taos, and San Luis Park, than it does in the northern section of Colo- 

 rado. During the present season, I see from my notes taken as we 

 passed through the country, that wheat was cut in the vicinity of Den- 

 ver between the 2oth of July and 10th of August, and at Cache a la 

 Poudre a few days later, while at Los Vegas harvest came on the 

 latter part of August, and in the Taos Valley it was as late as the 18th 

 of September, and in San Luis Park some wheat is yet standing, (Sep- 

 tember 23,) although the frosts set in as early as the 12th of this month. 

 I am unable, at present, fully to account for this, but suppose it is chiefly 

 attributable to the cold winds from the surrounding mountains and the 

 cold nights. The average harvest time, in the sections of Colorado under 

 consideration, may be set down about the 10th of August. 



The amount grown per acre often reaches forty and fifty bushels, and 

 there are some well-attested instances where the yield has been as much 

 as seventy bushels. Mr. W. R. Thomas, associate editor of the Kocky 

 Mountain News, who made, during the harvest of 1868, an extended 

 examination of the crops in most of the valleys of eastern Colorado,, es-- 



