12 BULLETIN 500, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



the current rate. Labor conditions are as good as can be expected. 

 There is seldom a great scarcity of help. 



Horse labor is charged at a nominal rate of 15 cents per hour. 

 On many of these ranches two horses are kept in comparative idleness 

 throughout the year, except during harvesting, spraying, hauling 

 brush, and spring cultivating. Although hay is cheap and little grain 

 is fed, it costs fully 15 cents per hour for productive horse labor. 



The labor on apples is unevenly distributed. It reaches its highest 

 point at harvesting time and during thinning in the latterpart of June, 

 when there is also a certain amount of cultivating and spraying to 

 be done. It is high in March, as much of the pruning and removing 

 of brush from the orchard is done during that month. «If the labor 

 curve for the few men who smudge were shown it would be high in 

 April and May, but considering the general practice the curve is low 

 in April. The accompanying labor chart (fig. 3) shows the approxi- 

 mate aimual distribution of labor on an acre of bearing orchard 

 (125 records). 



THE ORCHARDS. 



LOCATION. 



The fruit district known as the Grand Valley is situated in Mesa 

 County, of which Grand Junction is the county seat. Locally the 

 Grand Valley district is divided into four different districts, known 

 as the Palisade district, the Clifton district, the Grand Junction 

 district, and the Fruita district. These districts all merge into each 

 other, but have more or less distinctive features. The principal 

 fruiting section of the Grand Valley is about 30 miles in length. The 

 oldest, largest, and most famous district is that about Grand Junction. 

 Here nearly all peach orchards have been or are being eradicated. 

 In the Clifton district are found about as many pears as apples, and 

 there is no doubt that the soils about Clifton are well suited to the 

 growing of pears. The Palisade district is primarily devoted to 

 peaches. In the Fruita district, which has now lost much of its 

 , commercial importance, apples come first, with a few pears and prac- 

 tically no peaches. 



In the Grand Valley the fruit is not located on mesa lands, except 

 on Orchard Mesa, across the river from Grand Junction. Most of 

 the fruit is in the main river valley, but lies back some distance from 

 the river, owing to the lands first settled next to the river having gone 

 to seep. 



In Delta County the fruit occupies a much more scattered area. 

 The fruit in this comity is located from Delta to Paonia in the valley 

 of the Gumiison and the North Fork of the Gunnison. The bearing 

 apple orchards are found principally about the towns of Austin, 

 Cedaredge, Hotchkiss, and Paonia. With few exceptions these 

 orchards are located on mesa lands. 



