The Fremont County record., 1883-01-27
FRUIT GROWING.
A Few Facts Regarding the Business
in Fremont County.

Colorado Farmer.
| In the matter of fruit .raising FREE
mont county stands pre-eminent among
the counties of the state, and in a few
years will be known as the orchard county
The pioneer fruit men are Jessie Frazier,
Willis Helm, Anson Rudd and w. c. Catlin.
While the three latter were operating and
experimenting in smaller way in their
yards adjoining their residences in or near
Canon City the former on his ranch near
Florence, went into the business upon such
an extensive scale twelve or fifteen years
ago that his neighbors called him fool,
crazy, and all sorts of like endearing epi-
thets. He persevered, however, under all
sorts of difficulties. During the first few
years, his trees had to be shipped from the
Missouri river in wagons, and of course
reached him nearly dead and many of those
that he succeeded in starting We're killed
by grasshoppers during the year that this
plague was upon us. But he stuck to it,
and success has crowned his efforts. He
has about twenty acres in orchard, about
half of which is in bearing condition; and
during the past four years his sales of fruit
have averaged $1,000 per year. Mr.. Frazier
has paid but little attention to small fruit
He has few grapes, strawberries. plums,
cherries and pears, but the great bulk of
his fruit is apples, which are of many va.
rieties, summer, fall and winter. and all of
which grow TO perfection. Messrs. Helm,
Rudd and Catlin, owing to their limited
possessions of ground, have less quantity
but more variety. Mr.. Helm, in particular
has tried nearly everything, and to see
what will grow here one has but to visit
his place. On it we find apples, pears,
plum, apricots, cherries, grapes of all
kinds, including tender foreign varieties
like the Black Hamburg, Muscatal, Tokay
and other similar varieties Currants,
gooseberries, ,raspberTies, ,gooseberries, straw
berries, black walnuts, hickory and hazel
nuts, catalpa, Russian mulberry and many
other kinds OF fruits and trees, and all
doing as well as they ever do in any other
country.
The great success of these pioneers in
fruit raising has induced many more to en-
gage in the business during the last two or
three years, and many more viii commence
the coming spring. In the immediate vi
cinity of Cafion City there are orchards as
follows:
On the south side of the river Judge
FELTON,, has ten acres; W. c. Catlin, eight
acres John Lock, six scres; Mr.. Mckay,
four acres, and several Others have smaller
patches The coming spring about forty
acres more viii be set out to fruit by
Messrs. Settle Baldwin, Gray, Prentiss, Ma
con, Rockafellow and Others.
Near Florence, Messrs. Frazier, McCand-
lass and Lobach are the principal growers.
| On oil creek considerable fruit has been
started with good results, and that locality
is thought to be the best peach growing
section of the county. On Beaver creek
several fine orchards have been started On
Hardscrabble creek they have apples, pears
and other fruit, showing that this section
equals the Others for growing fruit. About
four miles below Canon City is n lake owned
by Messrs. Gray, Wade and Rockafcllow,
which they intending TO stock with
fish. They have started quite = large vine
yard upon the banks of the lake. The
young orchards set out during the past two
years have done remarkably well, making
as good or better growth than orchards OF
the same age iii any country None of the
fruit grown in Fremont csuntss<ssas to be
laid down or otherwise protected in winter,
except the foreign grapes. The Russian
mulberry, which is fast coming into uni
versal favor with tree growers, docs well
here. For persons desiring to engage in
fruit growing Fremont county presents the
best field for operations that We know of
Colorado will never raise fruit enough to
supply its own needs, because only limited
sections are adapted to its successful growth
consequently the price of fruit raised here
must always be much higher than in other
fruit growing states Take for instance
the comparative price of grapes in Colorado
and in California; there they are worth one
cent per pound, here they are worth from
| eight to ten cents per pound As grapes
do nearly, if not quite as web here rs there,
it will be readily seen that for profit in
grape culture Fremont county is far pref
cradle to California. The same comparison
could hold good as to other fruits Peaches
and red raspberries, without protection in
winter are not sure crop here, but all the
other kinds of fruits, large and small, do as
well and are as sure here rs in any other
portion of the United States