GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 217 



This entire district affords broad and extensive grazing fields for cattle 

 and sheep, and quite a number of herders and stock-raisers are begin- 

 ning already to spread out their flocks and herds over these broad areas 

 of rich and nutritious grasses. One of the finest meadows, of moderate 

 extent, that I saw in the Territory, was on the divide near the head of 

 Monument Creek, and near by was a large pond of cool, clear water. 



The temperature of this section is somewhat similar to that of Northern 

 Missouri, and all the products grown there can be raised here, some with 

 a heavier yield and of a finer quality, as wheat, oats, &c, while others, 

 as corn, yield less and are inferior in quality. 



An experiment made by Mr. John T. Smith, a short distance south of 

 Canon City, proves conclusively that such fruits as apples, peaches, 

 pears, and cherries will grow here without difficulty, and produce 

 abundant crops of excellent quality. I saw here peach trees in fruit 

 the fourth year from the seed. 



SOUTH PLATTE DISTRICT. 



As my report of 1869 covered this district, I will only add such addi- 

 tional facts in regard to its agricultural prospects and development as I 

 gathered the present year. The impetus given to the settlement and 

 cultivation of this district by the completion of the Kansas Pacific and 

 Denver Pacific Railroads is already manifest. At the mouth of the 

 Cache a la Poudre, where last year only a ranch or two were to be seen, 

 is now a fine village. Farms are marked off in the valley and on the 

 plains, and extensive preparations made to test on a broad scale, next 

 season, the productive powers of this soil. A canal some fourteen or 

 fifteen miles long has been commenced and will shortly be completed. 

 This will bring water from the Cache a la Poudre and afford means of 

 irrigating some fifty or sixty thousand acres of the plains that lie north 

 of the Platte. And, if I am not wholly mistaken, that which has by 

 some been ridiculed as a barren cactus plain will produce crops of cereals 

 that will rival the heaviest yield of the richest lands of the States. 1 

 may be mistaken, but will cling to the opinion, until contradicted by 

 fair experiments, that the uplands or ridges of this section, when prop- 

 erly irrigated and cultivated, will produce better wheat than the creek 

 bottoms. 



The Kansas Pacific Railroad Company contemplate running a canal 

 from the mouth of Platte Canon to some point near the head-waters of 

 the Republican Pork, a distance of one hundred and forty or one hun- 

 dred and fifty miles. The rise between Bijou and Denver Junction may 

 present some difficulty, but this can doubtless be overcome by bending 

 round to the north, where the elevation is less. And the fall between 

 the mouth of the canon and Denver, which is probably two hundred 

 feet or more, may considerably lessen the flexure. If this great work is 

 completed we may see ere long the irrigated lands brought close to the 

 rain-moistened region; a belt of farms stretching from the Missouri 

 River to the Rocky Mountains. Such a consummation is certainly de- 

 sirable. The "Great American Desert" belted with fields of golden 

 grain and pleasant homes would be a result not anticipated ten years 

 ago, and the very mention of which is ridiculed by many now, but which 

 those who carefully study the country do not concede as impossible. 



NORTH PLATTE DISTRICT. 



The boundaries of this district are more difficult to describe than 

 those of either of the other districts of the eastern division. Not be- 



