Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-05-07


dew or moisture, warm days, and
weeks at time of clear unclouded
skies. The winds were quite preva-
lent; at least, I judged SO from my
own experience. In the heat of the
sun, however, which often bats down
with intolerable severity, they were
quite acceptable, unless blowing with
unusual velocity. A suttry atmosphere
is not known. Seek the shade in one
Of the st days, and if there is a
quite cool and com Portable. Two
things are quite noticeable to an east
ener visiting Colorado for the first
time: First, the height he seems to
be up in the heavens compared with
his own state; secondly, the closeness
with which all objects seem to be to
him, although situated miles away.
OF course this is all accounted for in
the dry and transparent condition of
the atmosphere; but to those unused
to the country the calculation Of dis
lance is very deceptive. This is why
the Yankee started to walk out to the
mountains before breakfast and found
the distance ten miles instead Of one
as he had first imagined it. didn't
do that, exactly; but did shoot at
bird apparently right under my nose
and missed it, and found to my as
tonishment after pacing the ground
10 no hn 1icto
over one hundred yards. When next
shot at bird [ followed Colonel Pres
colts advice, awaited until could see
the whites os their eyes,"
At one time Colorado and most of
the country beyond it was what was
termed the Great American Desert
To- day that term is obsolete. There
is no such thing as an American Des-
ert. 1t has been conclusively proven
that there is no better, richer soil on
this continent than that same Ameri-
can Desert when it has been put un
der cultivatation. Itwants irrigating.
Once irrigated and seeded dOwn-the
desert disappears. I saw large fields
Of alfalfa; green as our fields in June,
the soil Of which, before it was med
died with, was as dry and barren as
the middle of our sandy roads in July.
Large fields of grain and potatoes are
raised upon this same sandy soil and
the potatoes are excellent = large,
white and mealy, and without spot or
blemish. Potato-rot is not known,
and I think for the matter Of that, po-
tato bugs either. The potatoes are
left in the soil for weeks at time
afterlthey are ripe; in fact, they are
very seldom dug until soldAe 10 Gert@~
If they are dug, they are left stand
ing in sacks of busbel each, and are
taken away as occasion demands it.
A field of potatoes one or two miles
square, all dug and standing in sacks
of bushel each, is novel sight. AL
falfa yields from three to five crops
year, is cut and stacked up in the
field, and is fenced in to keep out the
cattle. Grain is thrashed in the fields
with machinery run by steam power.
l.
board themselves, principally, and go
from ranch to ranch. There are count
less acres of wild land in Colorado, as
yet uncultivated, which, if not clear
sand or covered with sage brush, is
covered with wild prairie grass grow
ing in small tufts, and is very nutri-
tious The excellent condition Of the
hundreds of head of cattle saw feed
ing in some of those tracts while hunt
ing there was proof of that fact; but
it did look as if starvation would stare
everything in the face that attempted
to live where men had left the soil un-
touched. The more eastern prairie
lands are not so barren in appearance.
There the wild grass grows in album
dance; but as you approach the noun
tains it almost wholly disappears with
the exception Of now and then an
oasis or in some we'll watered tract.
''Irrigating ditches' is a word as
commonly used in the extreme west
as the word "maple sugar" is used
among us. You see them everywhere.
They branch out from large rivers,
then counter branch and run serpent
like in every direction. They trail
down out of the mountains, slab the
foothills, and extend back miles upon
miles into the prairies. Millions have
been expended in their construction
and millions more are needed before
the work is complete. Wherever you
find them, there you find habitation
and vegetation. There grass grows,
and cereals, trees and all kinds of