A FRUIT SURVEY OF MESA COUNTY 
BY 
E. P. SANDSTEN, T. F. LIMBOCKER and R. A. McGINTY 
Ten years ago, fruit growing in Grand Valley was very profit¬ 
able. Peaches often netted the growers $1.25 per box, while apples 
and pears cleared $2.50 per box. It was like picking money off of 
the trees. The growers were getting rich and real estate men were 
in their glory. It was an easy matter to get easterners to buy fruit 
land at $1,000 or more per acre, for, as the real estate men pointed 
out, one year’s crop might pay for the land. Hundreds of men 
from all w'alks of life invested their money in fruit land, specula¬ 
tion was rife, many companies were formed for planting orchards, 
and thousands of fruit trees were set out on land wholly unsuited 
for fruit growing. Bearing orchards were divided into five and 
ten-acre tracts and sold to persons, most of whom were inexpe¬ 
rienced in fruit growing. Many of these new orchardists sat back 
in their easy chairs to watch the dollars grow. Others, uninitiated 
into the art of fruit growing, did not care for their crops as they 
should have done. As a result, the fruit became poorer in quality,and 
not being carefully graded, the demand for Colorado'fruit became 
less. Prices continued to drop until, in the season of 1914, with an 
enormous crop all over the country as well as at home, most grow¬ 
ers lost money on their fruit. Many carloads of fruit were shipped 
which did not pay for the freight. Thousands of bushels were al¬ 
lowed to drop and rot on the ground. The season of 1915 was a 
very hard one; with the exception of the immediate Palisade dis¬ 
trict, practically all of the Valley was frozen out. To make mat¬ 
ters w r orse, prices were poor and very many growers had to give 
up their orchards. It was rightfully an exceedingly discouraged lot 
of orchardists which were visited by the writers in the summer and 
fall of 1915. Most of them were sick of the fruit business and 
wanted to quit. Some few, however, who had used good methods 
in growfing and marketing their fruit were still making money. 
It was with the idea of studying in the field the conditions pre¬ 
vailing there that this fruit survey of Mesa County was made. 
EXTENT OF SURVEY 
That part of Mesa County in w r hich the fruit survey was made 
is the portion of Grand Valley which was irrigated previous to the 
opening of the Government ditch in 1915. It is about 32 miles in 
