The principal grain crops of the county are wheat and barley. The past season there has been produced about 40,000,000 pounds of barley and about 30,000,000 pounds of wheat. The yield of wheat is from 1,200 to 1,800 pounds per acre, and of barley from 1,800 to 3,000 pounds per acre. Sorghum and sugar cane are grown to a considerable extent for the sugar they contain and for feed. Corn is not extensively raised, being confined to a few hundred acres each year. Oats are a native of the soil, and are cut in quantities evey year for hay. Timothy, Bermuda, and blue grass do well, but alfalfa is the principal grass grown. Once rooted, it requires no attention except to irrigate it three or four times during the year; grazed, an acre will support two and a half head of horses during the year, and from ten to twelve head of sheep or hogs. It can be cut from four to five times annually. and yields from 6 to 8 tons to the acre The hay is very nutritious, and as a pasture for all kinds of stock can not be surpassed. Three and four year old steers driven from the ranges upon alfalfa pastures gain, if poor, two pounds per day for the first three months, becomming at the end of that time, most excellent beef in any market.

The mesquite and cottonwood are native trees, but the ash, cork elm, pepper tree, catalpa, willow, umbrella, lombardy poplar, North Carolina poplar, mulberry, palm, magnolia, locust, and tamarack have been introduced with marked success.

Up to five years ago very little fruit of any kind was grown in the county, and that only by way of experiment. Since then the planting of orchards and vineyards has increased every year. It has been fully demonstrated that no better section exists for the growing of nearly all citrus and deciduous fruits. In the Lower Gila Valley lemons, oranges, figs, grapes, and pomegranates can be grown in great perfection, but it is not well adapted to the culture of other fruits. In other portions of the valley, and through the valley of the Salt River, peaches, pears, apricots, pomegranates, figs, French prunes, apples, oranges, almonds, quinces, dates, blackberries, and strawberries, and every variety of grapes, grow in perfection.

There are now planted through the Salt River Valley 8,000 acres in vineyard and 3,000 in orchard trees. Of oranges 200 acres are in cultivation; from experiments made the growing of this fruit will be a success. Olives have been planted in an experimental way. It is too soon to speak confidently as to the results, but as they have been successfully cultivated near Florence, in Pinal County, there seems to be no reason to doubt that good results will attend their culture in this county. Apricots, peaches, and kindred fruits bear heavily, yielding from 300 to 500 pounds per tree. Vineyards in full bearing give from 6 to 8 tons to the acre. Raisins have not yet become an export commodity with us, but will be in a short time; the muscat of Alexandria grown in this valley contains a greater quantity of saccharine matter than elsewhere, and from experiments made in raisin making we are justified in the statement that 3 pounds of this grape will make 1 pound of raisins, which is greater than in any part of this habitable globe. Another advantage which our county has in the prosecution of this industry over raisin districts of Spain or California is that the drying and curing can be done in the open air without damage from rain or dew.

Some experiments have been made in the manufacture of sherry wine, with satisfactory results. All our wines have a strong sherry flavor, and expert viticulturists who have examined into the matter claim this to be the only port and sherry district in America. On this subject the Hon. J. De Barth Shorb, commissioner at large of the State Viticulturist Society of California, writes: "I directed what should be done with one barrel of so-called white wine, from the Salt River Valley, as a matter of experiment, and upon examination a few months later, found, as anticipated, it had turned into a sherry of most excellent quality. I have no hesitation in saying that the Phoenix country is the only port and sherry country in America; so far as known, and with trained judgment in the selection of proper varieties of grapes adapted to your conditions, wines of the highest commercial value, if scientific methods be substituted for those now in vogue in the manufacturing of the wines, will be the inevitable result."

The growing of early and late vegetables will also, when railroad facilities are general, be a source of great profit to the people of this country-a country that produces fresh fruits and vegetables every month in the year; where grown in the open air peaches, figs, tomatoes, and cantaloupes can be gathered in December, and where the soil, a rich alluvial, varying in depth from 10 to 12 feet, inexhaustible in its durable fertility, will assuredly be the center of a great and prosperous community. Such are the mesa lands of this county. When reclaimed all vegetation has most rapid development.

The cottonwood and North Carolina poplar grows from 18 to 20 feet in a season, fruit trees from 12 to 15 feet, grape-vines from 25 to 40 feet.

The Indians occupying a reservation in this county have cultivated their land for two hundred years without apparent injury to the soil and without change of seed. After their crude method of farming they raise better crops of grain than are harvested in any of the wheat-growing districts in the Mississippi Valley,

LAND AREAS CULTIVATED IN COLORADO.

COLORADO AND IRRIGATION.

63

Colorado is as notable for the physical data it offers in relation to irrigation as it has already been shown to be in the legal aspects thereof. Prof. L. G. Carpenter, of the State agricultural college, reported in January, 1890, the following as the

Approximate areas "under ditch" in Colorado.

Division I (Platte Division):

Platte Valley, below the Poudre.

Platte Valley, above the Poudre, including Bear and Clear Creeks.

St. Vrain and Boulder Creeks.

Big and Little Thompson..

Cache La Poudre

Total from South Platte.

Division III (Rio Grande Division)

Division IV (San Juan Division), including Dolores, Mancos, Pine.

Florida, La Plate Rivers.

Division V (Grand River Division)

Division VI (Bear and White River Division)

Total.

By this table the total amount of land under ditch in Colorado at present is not far from 4,500 square miles, or 3,000,000 acres. The amount of land actually irrigated can not be so reliably estimated at present. It is much less than that under ditch.

Professor Carpenter estimates the total irrigated as not over onethird. This is apparently below the actual results. State Engineer Maxwell had presented in September, 1889, the following figures as a careful statement of the area east of the Rocky Mountains:

In the three eastern divisions there are also one hundred and sixty-two reservoirs, with a record capacity of 5,319,939,788 cubic feet, capable of furnishing one acre-foot of water to each of 122,199 acres. The total num. ber of ditches, large and small, in the State is estimated at 2,000, and their mileage at 5,000. The duty of water is placed at 1.45 cubic feet per second for 80 acres. In some sections it is over 100 acres, however. The State engineer, Mr. Maxwell, has reported the following:

For the distribution, under the irrigation laws of this State, of the water from the natural streams to the irrigating canals, ditches, and reservoirs, the State is divided into six irrigation divisions and sixty-eight water districts.

In a general way, the first division comprises that portion of the State which is drained by the North and South Platte Rivers, the second division of that portion drained by the Arkansas River, and the third division of that portion drained by the Rio Grande.

These three divisions compose the "Eastern Slope," or all that part of the State which drains into the Gulf of Mexico,

EASTERN SLOPE.

Tabulated statement showing the number of miles of irrigating canals and ditches, the number of acres of land under such canals and ditches, and the number of acres of land actually irrigated by such canals and ditches.

THE EXISTING RESERVOIRS IN COLORADO.

65

Colorado (eastern slope).-Tabulated summary of reservoirs so far as the same are of record in the office of the State engineer.

NOTE.-The above number of cubic feet of water would furnish 1 foot in depth for 72,746 acres.

NOTE. The above amount would furnish 1 foot in depth of water for 47,495 acres.

115,937, 752

20, 613, 408 1, 011, 596, 143

98, 329, 398 823, 524, 005

2,069, 000, 706

NOTE.-The above amount would furnish 1 foot in depth for 1,885 acres.

GENERAL RECAPITULATION.

Division.

NOTE. This total amount of water would furnish 1 foot in depth of water for 122,129 acres.

ITS AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVENESS.

Colorado is especially adapted to the production of the grains, grasses, and roots of the temperate zone. The eastern foot-hills are found valuable for the fruits thereof, while in the valleys of the western slopes the finer fruits, such as grapes, apricots, etc., can be profit. ably raised. In the San Juan, to the southwest, the semi-tropical

138 A L-AP VOL IV-5

fruits and crops will be cultivated successfully on the mesa and valley lands.

Of the area of Colorado, 98.2 per cent. is not in farms. Of tillable land the area is 23.8 per cent.; grass land, 29; woodland, 3.8; and the unproductive is rated at 43.4 per cent. Colorado stands as to productivity as follows:

From 1884 to 1889, the public domain lying within the borders of Colorado has been occupied to the total of 9,155,561 acres. This is within less than 1,000,000 acres of the total amount of arable land which, in 1880, the public lands commission declared was the whole arable area left for settlement. It is evident that the specialists do not know all the facts or are able to accurately forecast the future.

ONE OF ITS LARGE IRRIGATED AREAS.

In the San Luis Valley there is 468 miles of ditch. One canal, known as the Rio Grande Canal, is the largest in operation at present in the West. There is 312 miles of ditch system. The canal at the head is 80 feet wide on the bottom, and will finally supply water to about 240,000 acres of land. The conditions and character of the soil of the San Luis Valley, on the Rio Grande River, in the southern part of the State, are different from other sections of Colorado. That valley has an area of 5,000 square miles, and probably 3,000,000 acres could be redeemed if the water is there to do it with. Altogether, in the San Luis Valley, there are above it 1,150 or 1,200 miles of canal, supplying about 1,500,000 acres of land. The water supply is not sufficient to irrigate those lands at all times.

The Rio Grande River carries a large amount of flood water during the summer months. There are probably six weeks during the average year when there will be sufficient water to irrigate the entire valley if it could be relied upon. There are fine sites within the mountains adjacent to the valley for building reservoirs.

In order to redeem that entire area it is necessary to conserve the water. With that area 150,000 or 200,000 people can be supported, but with the present irrigating facilities and water supply not more than 50,000 people. The soil is good. The altitude is about 7,500 feet, but the latitude is such that it gives a good locality for irrigation. The San Luis Valley, the largest valley in the Rocky Mountain region, has a soil somewhat peculiar and different from the soil on the eastern slope of the mountains. It is underlaid by a heavy stratum of drift.

Artesian water is found in the San Luis Valley at a depth of 800 feet, a very full flow of water that will cut a figure sometime in the progress of irrigation; but even with such artesian and all the surface water, the valley will not be reclaimed without storage.

Most of San Luis Valley is still public land, but the State has some 200,000 or 250,000 acres therein. In order to induce capital to vinest, the State has passed a law providing for the sale of the State land in alternate quarter sections at $1.25 per acre to any company