Delta chief., 1883-05-09
WHAT WILL GROW HrRE9

WHAT WILL GROW HERE?
To this question there is but one answer to
make: Almost anything in the agricultural
line and in the way Of fruits, possibility
that all kinds can be successfully grown.
The first assertion has been practically
demonstrated On one ranch WAS raised
corn, alfalfa, potatoes, ;urnips, beets, carrots,
pa<snips, cabbage, onions. tomatoes, beans,
squash, peas, cucumbers, lettuce, musk and
waternelons, and radishes. The domestic
grasses all grow by irrigatun-tiTcthy, blue
top, clover, Hungarian, millct, etc. Potatoes
weighing six and half pounds were raised
on the North Fork, and green corn aud mel
uns were furnished To the Gunnison market.
Last year Odessa wheat yielded over 30 bush
els to the acre, oats from 30 to 20 bushels, and
potatoas from 200 10 400 bushels. 1t can be
safely asserted that all the cereals and vege-
tables suited to temperate zone may be
raised. II may he 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-six inches during the
season.
STOCK.
The plateaus, or grand mesas, as they are
commonly called, drained by the tributries
of the Gunnison and uncompahgrc rivers, is
a fine cattle country. There are great mesas
slopinc down from the foot of the ranges,
containing hundreds of thousands of acres OF
fine, rich, alluyial soil, which in summer, as
far ms SIe eve can reach, is one great waving
sea of grass resembling hlue;joint, but in
reality gramma grass. Here are vast ranges
yet to be occupied, and to become the stock
growing paradise. In winter stock can be
run in the valley country below these high
mesls, where bunch-graSs abounds and but
little snow is met with, save in exceptional
winters Last year a profit of 80 to 100 per
cent. was made on stock. Mich cows are
from $50 to S75; stock cows, $50; work oxen,
500 to Sl25 per yoke; beef, to 10 cents per
pound; sheep, $50 to So; horses, S75 to
500; mules, Sioo to Sl5os ponies, $50 to $50.
Game can be found here in great abund-
ance 1t is estimated that last winter fully
5000 deer were killed within few miles of
Delta. Rabbits, ducks, geese, plovcrs, cur
lcws, grouse and prairie chickens, beside the
larger game, such as elk, deer aud several
varieties of bear, are found in every direction.
Mountain sheep can be found on the higher
mountain ranges. The streams are full of
specklcd trout and salmon, atforiing 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
mctalurgisis in the East, the bituminons coal
contains 20 per cent of carbon and but
small percentage of ash and moisture; the
anthracite coal contains from SIS to 9S per
cent. carbon. For 500 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
market for the produce raised in the valleys
and mesa lands adjoining the town. Coal
ontcrops all the way down the valleys.
THE MARKETS..
All the mining camps ives. of the Divide