A Fruit Survey oe Mesa County 
5i 
tained for fruit eight or ten years ago. Wildcat speculation was 
prevalent for a time. The business is now in the process of re¬ 
adjustment from the speculative basis. Many orchards and many 
growers belonging to the speculative class are being eliminated in 
the re-adjustment. Land is getting back to sensible prices and a 
few years will no doubt see the business flourishing again. 
There are nearly 16,000 acres of orchard in the Valley. Of 
this, over 10,000 are apples, 3,000 peaches, 2,400 pears, and less 
than 200 acres plums, apricots and cherries. 
Probably more than 2,500 acres of orchard have been pulled out 
in the last five years, most of this being removed from the western 
portion of the Valley. 
Most of the best orchards lie east of Grand Junction. The 
older ones are mostly in the Fruita District and many are being 
pulled out to make the land available for general farming. 
Less than one-third of the fruit trees of Grand Valley are over 
twelve years old. 
The orchards are, as a rule, too small. The average size for 
the Valley is slightly below nine acres. 
Too many farmers grow fruit exclusively, and a year of poor 
prices or crop failure is disastrous to them. 
More land must be devoted to general farming, stock raising 
and dairying and the average fruit grower must grow something 
besides fruit in order to be most successful. 
Marketing is the worst problem the growers have to solve. 
The pack of fruit must be standardized and poor fruit utilized 
in by-products. , 
Clean cultivation has been practiced too much, but is now giv¬ 
ing way to the more sensible system of cover cropping. 
Due to over irrigation, the water table has risen in some places 
to within 5 feet, or less, of the surface. Many orchards have been 
ruined by seepage and a drainage system is probably to be in¬ 
stalled throughout the entire Valley to give relief from this 
trouble. 
The codling moth is very bad. Most growers spray four to 
six times with arsenate of lead, using 4 or 5 pounds of paste to 100 
gallons of water. The average cost of spraying apples per acre 
per season is $20.00. 
Peaches are generally sprayed for twig borer with lime-sul¬ 
phur just before the buds begin to open. Some orchardists spray 
with arsenate of lead shortly after the leaves come out. 
The ravages of pear blight have some years been great. Many 
acres of good pear orchard have been ruined by this disease. The 
industry, however, continues to yield good profits. 
