CHAPTER II. 



ESTIMATED DISTEIBUTIOIS" OF ARABLE AND OTHER LANDS 



IN COLORADO. 



From estimates based on the amount of land suitably situated for 

 irrigation, the amount of water available for this purpose, and the 

 character of the soil, it is estimated that in all Colorado there are 7,323 

 square miles, or 4,686,720 acres of tillable land. There is water enough 

 to irrigate this area without the employment of reservoirs. This is 

 7 per cent, of the whole area. 



Besides this, 55,000 square miles, or 52.6 per cent., is valuable as pa sture 

 land. This, however, is of very variable quality in different localities, 

 grading into sage-brush (artemesia) and other brush barrens in such a 

 manner that only an arbitrary line can be drawn between pasture and 

 worthless lands. 



The area covered by spruce and pine timber is 19.1 per cent, or 

 20,000 square miles 5 that covered by quaking 'dsiiens {Fopulus iremu- 

 loides), piiion pine, and the low, scrubby cedar so characteristic of the 

 arid plateaus, is 13,500 square miles or 13.0 per cent., while 0.3 per cent, 

 or 6,565 square miles may be classed as barren ; — worthless, unless im- 

 mense works be undertaken to reclaim it. 



These areas are distributed as follows in the three districts of the 

 State : The plains, with the exception of the arable areas along the 

 streams and the Pinery on the Arkansas divide, are grazing land. 

 There is no timber, except that mentioned above and scattering cotton- 

 woods, in the bottom-lands. The grasses are mainly the nutritious buf- 

 falo and grama grasses. Cacti and sage flourish to some extent, and 

 the Spanish bayonet is not unfrequently met. 



The mountain region is pre-eminently the timbered region. Areas of 

 arable land are, with few exceptions, of limited extent, being found 

 only in small patches. Grazing land, though of greater extent, is also 

 scattered about in small areas, while everywhere the principal growth 

 is timber, and that mainly of the heavy spruce and pine. The inferior 

 limit of this growth ranges about 8,000 feet, giving place below this ele- 

 vation to piiion pine, or, in moister localities, to the quaking aspen. Its 

 superior limit is the " timber-line," which, in Colorado, ranges between 

 11,000 and 12,000 feet above sealevel, depending mainly on the lati- 

 tude. 



The plateau region consists principally of flat or sloping mesas, cov- 

 ered with, according to their elevation, spruce and pine, quaking aspens, 

 piiion pine, cedar, sage, sand, or bare rock. As their elevation decreases 

 westv^-ard, so their aridity iifcreases and the value of their natural pro- 

 ductions becomes less. This region contains several large valleys, sus- 

 ceptible of irrigation in whole or in part. In this part of the State 

 there is very little grazing land, except on those high plateaus where it 

 would not be possible to winter stock. 

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