4 
The Colorado Experiment Station. 
or another and only a few have proved profitable. The districts 
differ somewhat in the varieties grown owing partly to the market 
demands and partly to the difference in soils, elevation and length 
of seasons of the different places. 
THE POTATO INDUSTRY 
The GrEEEEy District. Potatoes have been grown in this 
district since the foundation of the Union Colony in 1870 . At first 
the bottoms of the Big Thompson produced the most, then the 
“blight,” probably Rhizoctonia. became so bad there that practi¬ 
cally none have been grown for several years. After the Big 
Thompson bottoms began to fail as a potato producing section, 
they were grown in and near the town to the south of Greeley. 
Then the blight became so bad that few«could be raised 
in and around town which is mostly on the Laurel* sand loam 
of the river bottom. As the country north and east of town 
became broken up, the industry was given a new impetus. 
As the cultivated area grew the production of potatoes 
increased but was limited both as to area of land devoted to potato 
growing, and yield, till alfalfa was brought in as a part of the re¬ 
gular rotation about 1886 . Previous to that time alfalfa had been 
grown to some extent but it was not thought possible to break it 
up successfully. From 1886 on, the yield of potatoes increased and 
potato growing as an industry became one of the leading occupa¬ 
tions of the farmers north and east of the town. Mr. Boyd in his 
“History of Greeley” written in 1890 says: “the shipments for the 
past five years from the Greeley District have been from 1,000 to 
1,800 cars a year.” Now the shipments are from 8,000 to 14,000 
cars. 
The blight (Rhizoctonia) has given trouble more or less from 
the beginning. The Colorado potato beetle has caused some loss 
at times. Mr. Boyd says in his history of Greeley: “In 1889 , 
fourteen thousand pounds of Paris Green were sold at Greeley and 
Eaton for spraying potato vines for the striped potato beetle.” 
Locusts have occasionally caused some damage. On the whole, 
adverse conditions have been fewer than in most potato growing 
sections of the United States and the growth of the industry has 
been normal and constant. 
The history of the other potato districts of Colorado is simi¬ 
lar to that of Greeley. 
The Carbondale District. Potatoes have been grown in the 
Carbondale District to some extent since its early settlement. 
Growing potatoes as a commercial industry, however, did not begin 
till within the last eight or ten years. At present the production 
*U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils, 1904. 
