The Grit-advocate., 1902-07-04
STORM IN COLORADO
BIG BENEFIT AND SOME DAMAGE

stoFmS DO Considerable Damage
Strawberry Crop Injured Neal
Denver.
Denver, June 29-The drought
which threatened to be the most severe
that Colorado has known for years
mas been broken by II rain as general
IN extent as it was copious in quaint,
~. Though the storm was in places
accompanied by hail which did much
damage, this loss is but IL drop in the
bucket in comparison with the value
OF the crops that have been saved by
the rain.
FOR some unknown meteorological
reason the usual spring and winter
storms III the mountains failed to APP
pear this year and the streams which
should have had surplus of water dur
ing May and June shrunk to less than
their usual summer proportions. Hun
dreds of thousands of acres of cult
waited land. usually well watered. has
been palrhing in an unusually rainless
spring
IhIs storm extends from the Arkan-
sas-Platte divide north into Wyoming
ana from the continental divide east
lhto Kansas. The rain is also working
southward, and will probably water
the ARKANSAS valley also. Forest fires
winch were daily destroying thousands
OF dollars worth of lumber in the
mountains, have been eXtnguished,
ana the ranges on which millions of
mead Of live stock subsist have been
gwen new start in growth.
Locally the storm was marked by a
hall furry of unusual violence which
was much worse south and west of
Denver than in the city. In places the
tfees We're stripped of leaves as COM
pletely rs in winter. III d growing crops
We're into the ground In northern
Colorado many hundred head of sheep
were killed by the hail storm which
swept across the country Friday night.
Inc streams are once more running
AT their normal level, and water is be-
ing turned into the storage reservoirs
Tor use later in the season. Cherry
creek, whose bed has been a desert
waste for months. was carrying a good
HOW of water last night and trains of
cars were run out on bridges across its
lower course. in fear of flood to keep
them from being washed away.
one OF the severeSt and most wide
spread hail storms that has visited
Denver and vicinity in many years
swept over the western end of Arapa-
hoe and the eastern part of jefferson
country yesterday at noon doing dam
age estimated all the way from S1O.ON
to Soo,ooD. most of it to gardens and
truck farms on the outskirts of this
city. Usually a severe hail storm
moves in comparatively narrow limits.
but this swept all the country in path
ten miles wide and extending from the
foothills twenty miles ont on the
plains.
The storm was more severe between
Denver and Golden in the Lakewood
region. This vicinity is very largely
filled with vegetable gardens and
farms. IlailStones. conglomerates of
many smaller ones. fell as large rs
baseballS and the battering of the icy
missiles fairly hammered all small
vegetation into the ground. The loss
to the strawberry growers is especially
severe. Tie crop was just at its prime.
above $1,000 in value above the cost of
gathering. and in many fields there
Will he no berries worth picking for
the rest of the season.
, The storm will work havoc with a
large number of men and women who
were making goou wages berry pick
ing. Other small fruits suffered also.
The crop of currantS and raspberricS
will be much reduced. and even apples
and pears We're stripped from the
trees. The dam: &c to alfalfa and 9th