Delta chief., 1883-04-11
WHAT WILL GROW HERE2


To this question there is but one answer to
make: Almost anything in the agricultural
line aud in the way of fruits, possibility
that all kinds can be successfully grown.
The first assertion has been practically
demonstrated. On ranch was raised
corn, alfalfa, potatoes, turnips, beets, carrots,
parsnips, cabbage. onions. tomatoes, beans,
squash, peas, cucumbcrs, lettuce, musk and
watermelons, and radishcs. The domestic
grasses all grow by irrigaiion-timothy, blue
top, clover, Hungarian, rniliet, etc. Potatoes
weighing six and a half pounds were raised
on the North Fork, and green corn and mel
ons were furnished to the Gunnison market
Last year Odessa wheat yielded over 80 bush
els to the acre, oats from 20 to 20 bushels, and
potatoes from 200 TO 400 bushels. II can be
safely asserted tina, all the cereals and vege-
tables suited to a temperate zone may be
raised. !; may be that here, as in the valleys
on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains,
that the intense winter warmth followed by
sudden extremes of cold, may be fatal to fruit
culture: but soil and climate matching that
soil and climate where the peach and apricot
flourish to perfection are thought to be here.
Young apple trees set out last spring grew
from fifteen to thirty inches during the
season.
The plateaus or grand mesas, as they are
commonly called, drained by the tribu,ries
Of the Guunison and Uncompahgre rivers, is
fine cattle country. There are great mesas
sloping down from the foo, of the ranges,
containing hundreds of thousands of acres OF
fine, rich, alluvial soil, which in summer, a.
far rs the eye can reach, is one great waving
sea of grass resembling blue,joint, but in
reality gramma grass. Here are vast ranges
yet to be occupied, and 10 become the stock
growing paradise. In winter stock can be
run in the valley country below these high
mesas, where bunch.grass abounds and but
little snow is met WITH save in exceptional
winters Last year profit of so to 100 per
cent. was made on stock. Mich cows are
from $50 to SO; stock cows, SS5; work oxen
500 To $la5 per yoke; beef, S to 10 cents per
pound; sheep, $3.50 to So; horses, S75 tic
500; mules, 500 to $50; ponies $50 to $50.
GAME.
Game can I've found here in great abund-
ancc. L, is estimated that last winter fully
5000 deer were killed within few miles of
Delta. Rabbits, ducks, geese, plovers, cur
lcws, grouse and prairie chickens, beside the
larger game, such as elk, deer, and several
varieties of bear, are found in every direction,
Mountain sheep can be found the higher
mountain ranges. The streams are full, of
speclSlcd trout and salmon, atiording fine
sport for the manipulation of the line and fly.
COAL.
Delta is in the ncighborhood of twenty
miles from Smiths Fork, North FORK, and
Surface creek, where coal deposits are extern
sivc, and the quality equal to that of Penn
sylvania. BY analyses make by experienced
mctalurgists in the East, the bituminous coal
contains IS per cent. of carbon and but
small percentage of ash and moisture; the
anthracite coal contains from. IS to 90 per
cent. carbon. For 800 miles east and 200
west this coal Is not found. As has been well
said, "All the country west of the Missouri
must depend upon these deposits. A country
larger than all the States east of the Missouri
river, the future millions must look to this
area for their supply of anthracite" Some
day the Pittsburg of the West will be found
within easy distance of Delta, furnishing u
market for the produce raised In the valleys
and mesa lands adjoining the town. Goa,
outcrops all the way down the valleys.
THE MARKETS.
Al. the mining camps west of the Divide