Z be flationai IRurseryman* 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK 
National Nurseryman Publishing Co., Incorporated. 
Vol. XVIII. ROCHESTER, N. Y., OCTOBER, 1910 No. 10 
EDITORIAL WANDERINGS 
Midland Colorado and the Famous Grand Valley Fruit Section 
Perhaps no more striking example of the absolute 
dependence of fruit growing, on the western slope of the 
Rockies, and the inter-mountain region upon water condi¬ 
tions can be 
seen anywhere 
in that region 
to greater ad¬ 
vantage than in 
the Valley of the 
Grand River, 
Colorado. At 
the time of my 
last visit to this 
region, in 1889, 
mining and cat¬ 
tle ranching 
were the only 
industries devel¬ 
oping the coun¬ 
try. After a 
lapse of a little 
more than twen¬ 
ty years the 
t r ave1e r may 
rest his eyes upon miles of luxuriant orchards adjacent 
to the railroads; he may see well appointed packing 
houses where fruit is graded, packed and shipped 
under association brand;- and he may see the reason 
for all this remarkable transformation of desertlike areas 
of sand and sage brush into green stretches of alfalfa 
or productive orchards of apples, peaches, pears and 
plums. He would see the explanation of it all in 
the great conduits tapping the river and carrying the 
life-giving water across gulch and canon to the mesas 
where the tiny streams distribute energy and health to 
the crops of the farm and orchard. 
The elevation of the fruit growing area of Grand Valley 
is somewhat lower than the city of Denver, varying tiom 
approximately 5000 feet at the east end to 4400 Au at 
the western extremity. Fruit growing is indulged in 
for a stretch of thirty miles or more, though twenty miles 
in length will cover the more concentrated portion. I he 
width of the Valley is absolutely fixed at one or two points 
by the rocky walls of the canon approaching the water’s 
edge, but in other places, as at Grand Junction, the bound¬ 
aries recede till the valley or water plane presents a width 
of five or six 
miles-—-though 
not by any 
means even ap- 
proximat ely 
level. 
PHASES OF 
THE 
INDUSTRY 
Nearly all the 
hardy decidu¬ 
ous fruits are 
grown, but the 
peach and the 
apple dominate. 
The former finds 
its greatest de¬ 
velopment in 
the vicinity of 
Palisade where 
the Colorado Midland Railroad runs continuously through 
peach orchards for several miles. The Grand Junction 
country is the home of the apple and pear industry. Inci¬ 
dentally it is also the home of John F. Spencer, the ex¬ 
ploiter of the so-called Spencer seedless apple one of the 
most worthless apple introductions of recent times. It is 
probable that lack of wide experience with qualities and 
varieties of fruits prevented Mr. Spencer from acquiring 
a true estimate of the quality and value of the variety. 
Then again, it is undoubtedly true that the commercial 
interests which exploited it were more concerned in making 
money than in giving to the public a \ aluable fruit. I 
could not learn that it had any local standing or was 
regarded in any other light than that of a curiosity in the 
Grand Valley country. 
VARIETIES 
Of peaches, Elberta is the standard, the most popular 
and the most profitable. The season is opened with 
An Electric Frost Alarm used by Fruit Growers in the Grand Valley of Colorado 
