Cañon City record., 1902-04-17
AS OTHERS SEE
OUR TOWN

I Being the second article written by
Miss Emma Richardson for the Stuart,
Iowa, News. These articles show up
our town as seen by passing tourist.
with population of $500, Canon
City has twelve churches besides the
Salvation Army, so is fittingly called
''City of Churches" and anyone who
has thoughtlessly imbibed the idea
that we are considering wild and
woody western town, may as well
abandon the notion at once, and be
assured that it is the home of Cul-
ture with a capital C) and of cul-
tured people, who have the necessary
go" to make their culture force in
the world.
1.-The women of Canon are taking
an active part in the real and best
life of the town. A Library Ass cia
tion composed of women have had a
public library for some fifteen or
twenty years, a success in every way,
and are now about to build in new
location, enlarge their borders and
install $4,000 library, which will be
benefit to the town and credit to
themselves.
Il very much enjoyed an afternoon
spent with a woman's literary club,
the Friends in Council" who are
this year taking the Bay View course,
studying especially England, Scotland
and Ireland; and they are real stu
dents, not merely skimming the sur
face. This is pioneer club which
has been existence since 1888.
''The public schools are of the best
and the Catholic Sisters also have an
academy and boarding school
''The business streets are broad and
well kept; the business blocks are
numerous and handsome, and the gen
eral air of the streets is that of pros
perity. An electric power company
has large generating plant here, and
not only furnishes light to Canon City,
and power for a number of manufac-
ing concerns, but also does general
power business in the Arkansas Val
ley and the Cripple Creek mining
district
But over and above all else at
Canon is the fine fertility of the soil,
which is adobe, wsshed from tie
mountains, has accumulated for hun
dreds of years, is rich in fertilizing
elements, and requires only water to
yield in abundance. Eight irrigating
canals are in successful operation,
and ten thousand acres of land under
ditch. This is most in small fruit
farms of ten and five acre pieces.
''The largest orchard is that Of
Capt. Rockafellow, who has seventy
two acres, with l2.000 trees and 49,
900 vines, His apple crop last year
was 10000 barrels, with cherries,
pears, grapes and other fruits by
thousands of quarts. A favorite way
with these orchaidists is to set the
apple trees far enough apart for
them to have ample space when
fully grown, and then between them
put cherries, plums, currants and
smaller fruits generally, which comes
into bearing soon and will have paid
for themselves before the apples are
giving much return, and may be re-
moved when the apple trees need the
whole space. A square acre Of Wine
sap apples gave one year 45o barrels
of high grade fruit beside cider
apples. Strawberries arr profitable
and popular crop here and with such
market as Cripple Creek, only
thirty miles distant, and all the
mountain towns with which the Rio
Grande railroad connects; all popu-
lous places, but too high for borti-
culture.
Zone of the local papers is au-
thority for the statement that one
man marketed 1900 boxes of straw
barr;aa from an aiohth of an acre of