A Fruit Survey oe Mesa County 
9 
vale, Grand Junction, Pruita and Loma on the D. & R. G. railroad, 
and Hollandville and Hunter stations on the electric railroad be¬ 
tween Grand Junction and Fruita. 
As this indicates, most of the farms are very close to loading- 
points, doing away with the necessity of long hauls. 
SIZE OF ORCHARDS 
The survey reveals the fact that the average size of orchards 
in the Grand Valley is 8.8 acres; the average for Palisade is 7.0 
acres, for Clifton 10.8 acres, Grand Junction 8.5 acres, Fruita 7.5 
acres. The average size of orchards in the Loma district could not 
be obtained, due to the fact that most of the owners of orchards in 
this district are non-residents and their property is being attended 
by tenants who have often 100 acres in their care. It is estimated 
at 10 acres. 
A majority of orchards are of 10 acres or less. Especially in 
the east end of the Valley are the orchards cut up into small tracts, 
some of less than 5 acres. It is hardly possible, except in the best 
of fruit years, to make a reasonable profit from 5 acres of land, 
when it is all planted to fruit trees, and a bad year is almost dis¬ 
astrous. The necessity.of re-adjusting the land to increase the size 
of farms seems imperative. With the return of reasonable land 
values, this re-adjustment is practicable. 
IRRIGATION 
The problem of irrigation has been a big one. Water has, as a 
rule, been plentiful and the growers have used entirely too much. 
The tendency with many has been to let irrigation take the place 
of cultivation. This has resulted in leaching out of the soluble 
plant food and puddling the soil so that it bakes and is hard to 
work. Then, too, it has raised the water-table in many places so 
close to the surface of the soil that it is impossible for trees to 
live. 
As a general thing, the farmers have irrigated lightly and very 
frequently, instead of giving thorough irrigations at less frequent 
intervals. The latter plan results in soaking the ground to a good 
depth and when followed by cultivaton holds the moisture for a 
long time. It does not puddle the soil, causing it to bake, but ac¬ 
complishes the desired purpose of supplying plenty of water for 
the trees better than lighter irrigations. 
The statistics gathered show five or six irrigations to be the 
average number applied for fruit crops. The growers in the Palis¬ 
ade District irrigate somewhat oftener than those in the western 
part of the Valley. There is also more land under clean cultiva¬ 
tion in this district than in cover crops. There are several seepage 
