COST OF PRODUCING APPLES IN WESTERN COLORADO. 5 



HISTORY OF APPLE INDUSTRY. 



In Mesa County the Indians occupied the Grand Valley until 1880, 

 when they were moved into Utah. The history of fruit growing 

 in western Colorado begins about this time. In the spring of 1883 

 several thousand root grafts were put out in the Grand Valley on 

 some leased land by a Denver nurseryman, but only a fraction of 

 the original root grafts were saved when later a more favorable 

 location was selected for the nursery. 



The first trees were set on Oldham bottoms and the lower lands 

 of the valley. The first fruit on Fruit Ridge was set in 1885 and 1886. 

 The plantings gradually extended from here down the valley to 

 Fruita, but it was not until the early nineties that fruit began to be 

 set at all extensively. By about 1900 the industry became ex- 

 tremely popular and land began to rise very rapidly in price. In 

 1900 the price of land in Grand Valley under good water rights ranged 

 from $200 to $300 per acre. In 1907 and 1908, when prices reached 

 their maximum, land sold from $600 to $700 per acre, while good 

 apple orchards often sold for $1,000 or more per acre. During the 

 period of 1900 to 1910 settlers from the Middle West and East came 

 to the Grand Valley in great numbers. In more recent years, how- 

 ever, the influx has not been so great. 



The history of the apple industry of Delta County is more or less 

 correlated with that of Mesa. The first fruit of Delta County was set 

 out about 1882, when a grower at Paonia procured 26 trees of mixed 

 varieties from Rochester, N. Y., at $1 each. Of these 3 survived 

 shipment. A few other pioneers began to plant trees about this time 

 or shortly after. The industry developed rapidly in this county 

 but on a somewhat less speculative basis than in the Grand Valley. 



In Montrose County, where farming is of a comparatively general 

 type, the fruit industry dates from about 1882. Many orchards 

 were set in the early nineties on Spring Creek Mesa and the plantings 

 continued until about 1909 or 1910. This region developed on a 

 basis different from that of the apple regions of the other two counties 

 in that fruit did not occupy so large an area of each farm and hence 

 in years of low fruit prices did not suffer from lack of diversification 

 in farm business. 



TOPOGRAPHY. 



The part of Mesa County considered in this survey, or the region 

 known as the Grand Valley, has been carved out of a high plateau 

 region of sedimentary rocks. The surface of the valley varies, but in 

 the valley proper it is fairly level, requiring comparatively little 

 labor for irrigation. (See PI. I.) 



The fruit of Delta County is located on many mesas and small 

 districts which differ greatly in their facilities for irrigation. Most 



