1901 
483 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE ROm FORD MELON DISTRICT. 
KEMARKABI,E THINGS IN A NEW COUNTRY. 
Irrigation and Alfalfa in the West 
THE M'EIjON industry has made Rocky Ford, 
Col., famous. The melons are excellent in quality, the 
acreage is large, the business has been well adver¬ 
tised. The result is that Rocky Ford is known far 
and wide as the most aggressive of melon-growing 
regions. The secrets of this success are irrigation, 
sunny climate, loose, rich soil. Twenty-five years ago 
the country was a treeless waste. Along the streams 
were sage brush and alkali, and on the upper lands 
were endless stretches of parched Gramma grass and 
Buffalo grass, over which the cowboys ranged the 
cattle. In the higher lands far away from the rivers, 
the country is still practically almost a desert, for the 
annual rainfall is only about 13 inches, and some¬ 
times it is much less. Aside from the native grasses 
only Alfalfa can persist, and even this leads a precar¬ 
ious existence, even where it can grow at all. The 
country needs only water, however, to make it a gar¬ 
den. Here and there, on the plains that stretch away to 
the horizon without a tree or a bush, one may see a 
patch of green and he knows that water and Alfalfa 
are there. A grove of cottonwoods has been planted 
and a home has been built like an oasis in a desert. 
IRRIGATION POSSIBILITIBS.--In the river val¬ 
leys, agriculture has great possibilities. Irrigating 
ditches are taken 
from the streams at 
intervals, and a water 
right is conveyed 
with every piece of 
land. One buys wa¬ 
ter quite as much as 
land. Rocky Ford Is 
in the valley of the 
Arkansas, lying well 
towards the southern 
part of the plains of 
Colorado, east of the 
Continental Divide. 
The river supplies 
water in abundance, 
and the country is 
developing rapidly. 
One may travel much 
without finding a 
community that 
shows greater evi¬ 
dences of thrift and 
prosperity than this. 
Irrigable lands are in 
brisk demand at fig¬ 
ures ranging from 
$75 to $200 per acre; 
and some of the best 
lands nearest the 
town cannot be se¬ 
cured for the latter 
figure. The soil on 
the "second bot- 
10 m s,” comprising 
lands that are some¬ 
what elevated above 
the river, is mostly a 
sandy loam of sev¬ 
eral feet in depth. 
When properly irri¬ 
gated and tilled it 
remains loose and 
friable on top, but 
with careless fiood- 
ing it is likely to bake and harden on the surface. 
DO NOT FLOOD.—Hereby arises a very important 
point in this irrigating of tilled crops, and one that 
may be applied wherever plants are watered: All the 
melon growers insist on applying the water in fur¬ 
rows close beside the plants, and not on top of the 
ground about the plants. If the water is applied 
alKuit the piant, the soil puddles and bakes, the fo¬ 
liage is likely to be injured by the mud, and there is 
little opportunity to correct the difficulty by means 
of horse tillage. The irrigating furrow is run within 
three or four inches of the row of plants, and is four 
or five inches deep. From this furrow the water per¬ 
colates into the soil beneath, and the surface of the 
land remains loose and open. As soon as the water 
has thoroughly percolated into the soil, the furrow 
is filled with a cultivator, and an ideal surface tillage 
IS maintained. The novice usually irrigates too much. 
The “old stager" irrigates a crop of melons or beets 
perhaps only two to four times, but he practices the 
best of tillage. Irrigation enforces tillage for con¬ 
servation of moisture. In the East, do we not make a 
mistake by watering newly-set plants on the surface 
of the ground? Why not make a hole near the plant 
Tvith a clip of the hoe, apply the water to the hole 
and thereby moisten only the sub-surface? 
DON’T WANT RAIN.”—It was a day in June that 
I visited a farmer at Rocky Ford. He was irrigating 
beets and orchard. It threatened rain. I asked him 
why he did not wait for the shower. 
"I don’t want the rain,” he answered. “Rain is a 
nuisance. It packs down the earth. It makes the 
place muddy. It knocks down the plants and drives 
them into the mud. It upsets all my calculations. We 
have too much rain.” 
Although this represents an extreme view, it never¬ 
theless contains much truth. We of the humid 'East 
have a species of commiseration and sympathy for the 
man who lives where there is scanty rainfall; but 
this man in the arid regions has a similar commisera¬ 
tion for the easterner who must wait for the weather. 
To a large degree, the irrigator is independent. He 
applies water when the plants need it. The thrifti¬ 
ness of the crops, as well as of the people, in this Ar¬ 
kansas Valley testify to the fact that the farmer is 
boss despite the lack of rain. 
ALFALFA REIGNS.—'The foundation crop of all 
this country is Alfalfa. Gradually the great open pas¬ 
ture ranges are giving way to inclosures, and stock is 
being fed and housed. In much of Colorado the gen¬ 
eral pasture range will persist for years, perhaps for¬ 
ever, but the tendency here, as elsewhere, is to cen¬ 
tralize and intensify. Fifteen years ago this valley 
was the home of the cowboy and the pioneer. To¬ 
day it is the home of the farmer, with staid and 
steady purposes, and the country is one of pleasant 
and substantial homes. With the increase of the Al¬ 
falfa acreage scientific stock raising is bound to de¬ 
velop. However, the second crop in importance in this 
Rocky Ford region is melons, particularly musk- 
melons, or cantaloupes as they are called here. It is 
aliout 20 years ago that the melon was first raised 
here, although the commercial melon industry has de¬ 
veloped mostly within the last 10 years. Netted Gem 
is the variety mostly grown. It is planted directly in 
the field, not being started under glass, as the cus¬ 
tom is in the East. The lands are level and easy of 
irrigation, and the raising of the crop has presented no 
special difficulties until within the last year or two, 
when the blight (Macrosporium, or fungus) has be¬ 
gun to be troublesome. The melon harvest begins 
early in August. According to Mr. Griffin, who has 
charge of tne Arkansas Valley Experiment Station, 
the acreage of melons in 1900 was about 2,500, and 
780 cars were shipped. This area is not confined to 
Rocky Ford itself, although all the output is popu¬ 
larly known as Rocky Ford melons. The area extends 
from near Pueiblo practically to the Kansas line, a dis¬ 
tance of more than 100 miles. 
SUGAR BEETS.—This year the sugar beet is at¬ 
tracting more attention than any other crop. A beet 
factory was erected last year at Rocky Ford, and in 
order to secure its location a certain acreage had to 
be piedged. This naturally reduces the area available 
for melons on many farms. It is a common report at 
Rocky Ford that the acreage of melons is much de¬ 
creased this year, sugar beets promising much surer 
and more direct returns. Possibly this is true at 
Rocky Ford itself, but recent estimates of the entire 
region place this year’s melon acreage at 3,000 acres. 
The agriculture of the Arkansas Valley in Colorado 
is not confined to the crops mentioned above. Fruits 
and vegetables are grown in abundance. It is not a 
corn country, as the nights are too cool, and corn can 
be procured cheaply from Kansas. There are good 
orchards of apples (chiefly Ben Davis and Winesap), 
native plums and to less extent of German and Italian 
prunes, sour cherries, and large plantations of goose¬ 
berries and other small fruits. The Winters are too 
cold for certain results with peaches, aithough I saw 
many trees well laden with fruit, but most of them 
had been laid down for protection. Pears are prac¬ 
tically prohibited because of the blight. For a new 
country, the agricultural industries at Rocky Ford 
are remarkably varied. This means much for its fu¬ 
ture development. [Prof.] e. h. bailey. 
ASPARAGUS NOTES FROM A. DONALD. 
I see in The R. N.-Y. much said about Asparagus 
rust. That is something we have not yet been trou¬ 
bled with here in Chemung County; but for the last 
two seasons there has been a small striped bug, and 
some that are quite 
• red, that have de¬ 
stroyed some beds. 
One man set one acre 
of plants one year 
ago, and it was eaten 
badly last year, and 
this season the in¬ 
sects have taken ali 
that was left. They 
eat the bark from the 
tender shoots, to 
which the egg is 
stuck fast. They 
hatch out in a few 
days, and trim up the 
plant in a short time. 
I have a small plant¬ 
ing in my garden 
put out last season; 
it was eaten quite 
badly this year. I 
have caught the bugs 
and killed them, and 
destroyed the slug, 
but I find this is slow 
work and all the 
grass is worth. I 
have a neighbor who 
put out one acre a 
year ago; when the 
insects commenced 
to work he used a 
fine sprayer with 
kerosene oil, and i. 
■ appears to be effect¬ 
ive, as I looked over 
the field yesterday, 
and did not see much 
if any that had been 
.[ hurt either by the 
j oil or beetle. Have 
any of the growers of 
New Jersey or Long 
Island had this trou¬ 
ble, and if so, what remedy do they use? 
This neighbor who set the acre last Spring, 1900, 
had been asking me about the effects of salt on as¬ 
paragus. I told him I believed it a good thing. I had 
used five tons to the acre with good results, so he has 
had some good, coarse salt, such as they use in salt¬ 
ing green hides. He sent a boy to put it on. He 
spread 350 pounds on a strip 36 feet long by seven 
feet wide, making less than one square rod, and this 
was put on after the young asparagus had come up, 
and was growing. I went yesterday and looked over, 
and found the ground all white, crusted with salt, 
but no harm was done to the plants. You may figure 
for yourself how much salt there was to the acre. 
The soil is a sandy loam. If the Jersey growers would 
use five to 10 tons of salt and 100 to 150 bushels lime 
every three or four years might it not help to control 
the blight or rust? If it has not been used in such 
quantity try it. a. donald. 
Elmira, N, Y. 
R. N. Y.—^The Insect referred to is the well-known 
Asparagus beetle, long a pest in the Jersey and Long 
Island fields. It can be fought in a small way by 
dusting or spraying with helle'bore or Paris-green 
after the cutting season is over. Large growers do 
not pay much attention to it, as, like the Cabbage 
worm, it is less destructive in large areas. Applica¬ 
tions may be made whenever beetles or slugs appear. 
Salt is not regarded as beneficial here near the coast, 
but is advised farther inland. Asparagus roots very 
deeply, and can bear strong applications of salt. 
EFFECT OP HYBRIDIZING ROSA FERRUQINEA. Fig. 206. See Ruralisms, Page 486. 
