San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-12-04
FREE FEAsTS.
A Number of Them Given in Col.
orado Every Year.
Days Set Apart for the Gorging %
watermeIons. Corn and Peaches
Everybody IL We'll
come.


farming and fruit-growing parts OF
Colorado have been duly observed, and
now the country people are preparing
to come to Denver during the first week
Of October to join in the frolics of the
festival of mountain and plain, which
formally closes the harvest holidays of
the state. Rocky Ford has had its wa
termelon day, Loveiand its corn roast,
Grand Junction its peach day. Canon
City its fruit day, and Monument its
potato bake. These several feasts take
the place of the county fairs which were
once so popular in farming regions.
The Colorado festivals have been in
vogue for several years, and their popu-
larity seems to be on the increase. The
Denver carnival this year promises to
eclipse the record made during the two
previous entertainments.
Eight years ago Rocky Ford started
the fall festival by inviting the people of
the Arkansas valley to free feast of
watermelons For years the experiment
of raising watermelons had proved sue
cessfui. With a view to securing i'm
migration to the lands under irrigating
canals, it was thought that free ex-
hibition of the results of the farmers
toll might arouse an interest in the
farming country adjacent to Rocky
Ford.
The success of watermelon day was
most pronounced. This year five long ex-
cursion trains carried into Rocky Ford
over 1000 people, while farmers drove
into the town by the hundreds. some
coming 40 miles. The farmers of the
neighborhood contributed melons for
the feast, and in spite of the great
crowds there were melons enough for
every one and a few thousands left over
| for the excursionists TO carry home. In
grove of cottonwood trees the water
melons were heaped in a pile 100 feet
long and 20 feet wide. resembling q
pyramid of green projectiles in fort.
1t was estimated that there were in that
one pile five carloads. of melons. In
smaller heaps about the big pile of wa
termelons were canta.oupes by the hun
| bred. Men in canvas aprons armed with
| long bladed knives stood behind the
long tables that inclosed the melons and
carved by the hour for the throngs that
swarmed about.
In pavilion made of bales of alfalfa
hay fine horticultural exhibit was dis.
| played, while in numerous booths were
the usual inducements offered at coun.
ty fairs for the visitors to part with
their spare change. There were parades
of fancy stock before the grand stand
races for both horses and bicyclists, and
the days programme closed with an ex.
citing cowboy race of five miles, each
contestant changing horses at the end
Of every mile.
These annual feasts of melons have
| attracted the attention of many mmi
grants; the population of Otero county
has doubled during the last l2 months
and the demand for Rocky Ford melons
has increasedmarvelously. This season.
commission merchants in New York
city and Boston telegraphed to the
0tero County Fruit Growers associa
ton for melons, which could not be sup.
| piled because of contracts made with St
Louis and Chicago merchants earlier in
| the year. The association numbers over
300 members, and over 1000 car loads
of melons were shipped from Rocky
Ford station this year. The farmers
net $50 an acre on their crop as an aver,
age, though there are some instances
where the profits run as high as $3.50
One farmer paid for his fve-acre tract
which cost him 500 an acre, out of the
| profits of this one season.
The next festival to become popular IN
Colorado after Watermelon day had
| been proved success was Peach day at
Grand Junction. The feast of peaches
In September follows closely the line set
by the Rocky Ford melon growers
There is great pavilion with center
piece of peaches, lanked by baskets OF
pears, plunls, grapes, apples and other
palatable fruits, and the visitors are
permitted to help themselves all day
| long. and what remains at the close OF
the day Is carried away to be enjoyed
later. Like Watermelon day, it is free
feast and nobody is barred out.
Loveland, about so miles north OF
Denver, enjoys an annual harvest fes-
tival known as corn roast. All the
farmers for miles about grow patches
of sweet corn, solely to furnish the main
dish for the annual feast. On the day
of the festival wagon loads of sweet
corn In the husk are brought to the
scene of the feast and dumped into a
great pit. where bed of Goals has been
prepared. Over the corn is packed
alfalfa hay and the entire mass is left to
steam and cook. By the time the excur-
sion trains from Denver and surround
ing towns have arrived the corn is ready
to be served. Long tables are snread and