The Delta independent., 1895-10-09

phan, King and Kellogg have recently
purchased tract OF 4S0 acres to be
planted in orchards of which 100 acres
will be set this fall. 1t is estimated
that Delta county has growing 100000
| trees.
There has, come to be no measure or
| limit to an orchard. Some of he'old
orchards are FIVE, ten and twenty acres
but these in many cases have been added
young five to twenty acre orchard is
hardly noticed On California mesa there
is tract of AS acres practically one Or
chard the owners have set the most OF it
in such way that it can be cut up into
10 acre tracts, if desired, each tract hav-
ing well balanced assortment Of all the
leading varieties of apples, peaches.
| plums, pears. cherries, apricots, &c.
Everybody who knows about Delta
knows of Geo. B. McGranahan's orchard,
miles from town. 1t is so complete, 60
perfect in all it's details, so clean, go
loaded with fruit year after year that it
has name far and wide. For several
years this has been the leading and typ
ical orchard adjacent to Delta. But
there are many others coming as large
and some very much larger. W. 0.
| Stephens has 20 acres near town. The
Leadville Fruit Co. has 200 acres for
fruit; so are planted containing 5000
young trees. A. Cushman has an Or
chard of 6,o00 trees from 10 years old
down to g. The Delta Orchard Co. have
planted $4,000; and Haley & Stephan
have young orchard of $4,000. Such
orchards are simply stupendous and are
numerous in this county; and when
they all come into bearing something
| will be revolutionized.
Delta county dent rustic as much as
che might, but the persimmons drop in
her lap. In 1898 at the Worlds Fair, of
six special awards to Colorado, Delta
got four, and for the best individual ex-
hibit in the state she carried off 1.-The
cup" In 1894 at the State Horticul-
| tural fair Delta county bore away 81
awards. And since it began to aspire
has probably captured more cash in
prizes than any other county She is
formidable rival and increasing in
strength.
Nowhere is fruit more perfect or freer
from insect pests than in Delta county.
| 1 saw no codlin moth, no curculio, no
insect enemies of any kind to mar the
perfection of any fruit. The color is
| high and the bloom perfect and beauti-
full. Till one can go through few of
the leading orchards on the Western
slope land there are many of them) he
can never know the perfection of an or
chard loaded with ripening fruit. Then
too, it never fails. In Delta county they
have never had an "otf'' year in any kind
Of fruit. Year after year it is the same.
A perfect climate for this work.
Fruit will be plenty; it will be abund-
| ant. -,or every pound a year ago, in ten
years hence there will be hundred. Va
rieties will be reconsidered; many elimi-
mated. Indiscriminate planting aban-
doned. Only the best of anything con-
sidered and fewer selected. Instead Of
a hundred varieties, ten; these, only the
best. Instead of everybody planting
everything in the catalogue each man
will have his line. Some will grow ap-
Piles; some, pears; others, peaches; and
so on. The orchards of Delta will some
day be remodeled, replanted. The pres
ent tendency is a rush for trees and or
chards, without thorough discrimina
| ton OF what will be the best ten years
hence. Then, too. everybody is plant
| ing whether he understands orcharding
| or not.
Delta ere long will need canning estab-
! lishments, vinegar factories, cooper
shops, evaporating works, box factories
and large population in order to dis
pose of the enormous fruit crops that
are rapidly coming. 1t is destined to be
a bustling little town full Of busy peo-
| Pile. Then too another railroad, up
North Fork and over tho mountains di-
rect to Denver will soon be necessity
and will add to the Importance of the
place.
Here is Pomona's throne. Her realm
will be large. Already on the Western
slope she sways her scepter over Delta,
Mesa, Montrose, Ouray. Garfield. San
Miguel. Dolores and Montezuma coun-
ties while on the Eastern slope no less