The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-02-22
Was Formerly Director of the
National Congress.
DEVELOPMENT OF WEST
How Irrigation Has Made the
Deserts Bloom.
Here to Arouse Interest in Ep-
worth League Convention.


church where a free. illustrated lee
ture, panoramic Colorado was pre-
sented by Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Nc
Clurg Of Colorado Springs for the
benefit of the Epworth League. He
gives the lecture at the First M. 2.
church tonight. Mr.. McClurg semi
officially represents his state where for
years he has occupied positions of
public trust and his lecture is en-
dorsed by the governor For three
years Mr.. McCIurg was director of the
National Irrigation congress and he
illustrated and forcibly described new
results as to agriculture under irriga-
ton.
Colorado is generally looked upon
as a mining state and some years ago
wrested right to the title of Golden
State from California. Colorado's
production from mines last year was
valued at fifty million dollars. But
from field and farm in 1904 Colorado's
yield greatly exceeded that from her
mines and amounted to seventy mil
lions of dollars"
AN apple without seeds has been
proven a practical success at Grand
Junction. 1t is seedless and coreless-
thereby saving a fifth of the apple
from waste"
"A Wolf river apple was grown in
Montana county last fall which weigh
ed 80 a ounces and measured IL "A
inches in circumference-the worlds
champion for big apples"
From Delta. Colo, I rode last year
on freight train of % carloads of
apples, five of which were billed
through to New York city five to
New Orleans and five to Los Angeles.
In those markets. because of the glori-
Gus red tintings by Colorado sunshine,
her apples command the highes
prices In Fremont county and in
cost the first pioneers but a. few dol
lars per acre, is now selling from 500
to $500 per acre, and improved or
chards at Canon City and Delta have
sold as high as $1,000 per acre. There
apple orchards have yielded two hum
dred dollars net per acre annually for
the last five years. This shows what
irrigation does for apples in our noun
tain valleys and this transformation
has been effected in what was once
known as the heart of the Great
American Desert
In ten or eleven years, I believe
that Colorado will receive annually
more from her fruit production than
is now yielded by the states gold and
silver mines. Pra ctical- agricuIturists
and horticulturtsts affirm this pro-
phecy-as have Senator Teller and
ex-Congressman Bell, both successful
farmers"
mo. 1 am not farmer" said Mr..
McClurg. Il know about as much
OF farming as the young lady knew of
banking when she received a hand
some check from her father as a
Christmas gift Upon presenting the
check to the bank for payment she
was told, by the paying teller that
he would honor it if she would en-
dorse the check. He handed her a
pen Whereupon. the delightful young
woman wrote across the back of the
check: Lulu from Papa! With
Lovel Christmas 19O4!'
but I do know" he continued,
that the agriculturist in the semi
arid region of Colorado. under irriga-
ton, more nearly renders agriculture
an exact science. BY the timed,
cumulative application of water from
the mountains carrying with it. in
the silt. necessary salts which act as
fertilizers) to growing things. as the
laws of chemistry demand, the farmer
can more exactly determine the
potatoes; Of fats in his Conejos coun-
ty oats; and of sugar in his Larimer
county sugar beets."
Some one once asked Brigham
Young what was his religion, and he
replied: Plough deep and sow AL
falfal' Alfalfa is the staple crop of
the Colorado ranchman, but sugar
beets, Wheat, potatoes, melons and
fruits and the fattening of cattle and
sheep are the making of our farm
ers."
Temperature and sunshine during
the growing months are the dominant
factors in producing best sugar beets, |
and that Colorado is especially fav-
cred in these regards is announced as
the result of five years of experiments
by the chemistry division of the de-
partment of agriculture. This fact
points out to capital in what section
in the United States beet sugar in
dustrles should be instituted. In Col
oradO we now have ten beet sugar
factories, costing in the neighborhood
of one million dollars each, located at
Fort Collins. Grand Junction, Windsor.
IL - -
sugar percentage is higher in Colo
RADIO than elsewhere. Farmers raise !
from 20 to 80 tons per acre at above
points and are paid by the factories
IS per ton for the beets. Crops are
rotated and beets are planted every
four years, succeeded by alfalfa and
cereals"
when I travelled through Ohio and
scarcely credit my assurances that
sage brush, alkaline. cactus covered
land in the semi-arid region of Colo
RADIO, had been reclaimed by fertiliz-
ing water from. the mountains-(the
Midas touch to turn the deserts |
sands to gold)-so that Colorado'E !
worth from $50 to $500 or more an
acre
AT the st. Louis exposition, Colo
RADIO was awarded the grand prize for
wheat, rye and oats, and hundreds OF
gold medals for its agricultural and /
horticultural displays. can point
you to a 500 acre farm in the state of
which every acre yielded so bushels of
wheat of the highest grade
Farmers in eastern and western states
may profit by a lesson from the west.
The government at its experimental sta
ton in Wisconsin,. for instance. has
proven that increased crops can be raised
there BY scientific irrigation"
Lieut. Pike did not forsee when he dis
covered Pixies Peak in 1906 that Colorado
would rejoice and blossom like the rose.
Daniel Webster was adverse in the senate
to spending one cent to bringing the Pa
eific slope one inch nearer Boston than
it then was when discussing a mail route
plan But today President Roosevelt COM
prehends that irrigation Is the greatest
f,%a w