Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-09-11
Ye|istellaneuns &eading.
THE PEOPLE WHO WENT WEST.
THE COLONY WHICH HORACE GREELEY
SENT OUT INTO THE DESERT

THE PEOPLE WHO WENT WEST.
THE COLONY WHICH HORACE GREELEl
SENT OUT INTO THE DESERT.
Fourteen years ago Horace Greeley wa
chiefly instrumental in sending colony Q
100 families to Colorado to make an expert
ment in farming that almost ralnless deser
by means Of irrigation. They went fortf
from the eastern States under the guidance
of Mr. Meeker-the same man who was at
forwards massacred by the Indians. Ihf
colony located on the Cache la POndre creek
which is fed by the melting SHOWS of Longs
Peak. The town of Greeley was laid out ir
1870 not far from where the creek emptie:
into the South Platte river, and is tifty-fivt
miles moth of Denver and about the same
distance south of Cheyenne, and is some
twenty or thirty miles out in the plain eas
of the mountain range. Several othel
streams flow out of the Longs Peak grouI
of the Rocky mountains and emptyinto the
Platte near Greeley.
The first year was devoted to erecting
shanties and digging long canal and latter
al bitches. The second year some crop was
raised the third year every green thing
was devoured to the last blade by the grass,
hopper plague. This was in 1873. Many
of the colonists, becoming discouraged, sold
out their improvements for what they could
get, shook the dust of Greeley off their feet
and returned to their eastern homes. But
other bolder and tougher men took the
place of the despondent "tenderfeet." The
struggle for existence continued, but in a
little while more abundant crops began to
reward the efforts of the colonists. The
Greeley settlement is now the most prosper
GUS and happy community in the whole OF
Colorado, and the town is the handsOmestin in
the State.
The first canal constructed was twenty
feet wide and thirty miles long, and capable
of watering 10000 acres of land. Since then
other canals have been constructed and large
areas of country laid under water. Greeley
now contains upward of 5000 inhabitants,
living in 600 hundred nice houses, EN- bow
cred in shade trees and each with its fruit
full garden. One of the best hotels in the
State is there Chicago man has establish
ed a National bank; there are two we'll
conducted newspapers, several flour mills
and other manufactures, and last year Sc
much wheat was raised in the country that
a good many thousand bushels of surplus
were shipped east for market. The Gree.
ley colony having set successful example
numerous other colonies have followed in its
footsteps and profited by it's mistakes. II
is now surrounded by such colony towns as
Fort Collins, Evans, Longmont, Platteville
Loveland, Eaton, Windsor, Berthoud, Boul'
der, and other towns all practicing its meth
ods.
A citizen of Greeley took me for a drive
into the country to see farming by irriga
ton. We passed through scores of beauti.
full farms growing as fine crops as ever
saw in any country. There were numer
Gus wheat fields that will produce more
than thirty bushels per acre-not small
patches, but fields of twenty to 100 acres
each of magnificent wheat; other fields
were covered with oats, which will yield
forty to sixty bushels of excellent quality
There was great deal of corn looking fair
ly we'll, and which will produce thirty OF
thirty-fve bushels per acre. Corn is the
poorest crop grown, and the best one is
alfalfa, a species of clover, which grows
with wonderful luxuriance, producing three
or four crops year, and each cutting aver
aging two or two and half tons of hay tt
the acre. When I took the ride the farm
ers were moving alfalfa for the second time
this season, and they will make hay agair
toward the last of August, and some O.
them twice before winter. Everybody
testified to the excellent character of thi'
feed and it's nutritious quality for cattle
and milk COWS. 1t is fed to hogs, and fat
tens them rapidly. Several farmers assured
me that one acre of alfalfa will produce a!
much fodder as five or six acres of clover
timothy or blue grass in the Eastern States
Qllinois, Kentucky and Indiana are callec
Eastern States.)
There is perfect furor for alfalfa in Colo
RADIO, and thousands of acres were sOWr
with it's seed this spring around Denver an(
Greeley. Once fairly rooted in the grounC
it grows and produces for nearly lifetime
without renewing. One of it's peculiaritie:
is that it strikes down into the soil a taI
root in search of water to an astonishing
depth. The roots of five-year old alfalfa are
found to have penetrated ten feet, and ii
some instances even deeper. 1t is the re-
markable property of going deep down in
search of moisture that makes the plant sc
valuable in these dry regions. Alfalfa is
undoubtedly the fodder of the future or
these arid plains wherever little irrigation
to give it a start can be procured. 1t is 8
perfect success in Utah and California, and
is proving to be the same in Colorado and
New Mexico. The most extensive system
of irrigation at present in the State is in the
country around Greeley for twenty or thirty
miles. The quantity of land that can now
be wet is not far from 200, 900 acres, which
is more than all the irrigated land in Utah
at the present time. The farms in the Gree.
ley region mostly exceed eighty acres and
some several hundred. The Utah farms Of
the Saints consist of patches of a dozen acres
or a score at most; but they are very care
fully titled and Watered
BENEDICT ARNoLD's HIDING PLACE.
xl@ L.,