The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-12-15
EASTERN COLORADO AS
A FARMING COUNTRY.
the Opinion Of Prof. Thomas Shaw Of
the Minnesota State Agricui-
turaI COLLEGE,


devoted heretofore to the grazing of live
took, and only in order to investigate
With reference to their adaptability for
he production of crops under proper
system of tillage.
With this object in view L visited
Eastern Colorado only few days ago.
The investigations were more particu
arly confined to Cheyenne county, which
les just west of the Kansas boundary
inc. 1t is traversed by the branch of
he Union Pacific which runs from Kan.
'as City to Denver.
Two days were spent in driving over
he county, with Cheyenne Wells, the
county seat of Cheyenne county, as a
central starting point. Cheyenne Wells
not far from the old trail which for
merly led from Council Bluffs to Ari-
ona; the old trail marks are yet visi-
lie in some parts of the prairie.
Cheyenne county is sixty miles long,
md thirty miles broad. The surface of
,early the entire county is one of the
most beautiful undulating prairies that
AN be found in any part of the West.
is covered with q rich carpet of buff
alo grass, at the present time begin
ling to cure for winter grazing.
Only a few farms have been opened
ip within the county, and those have
,een opened within the past two or
hree years.
Those who were interested in ranch
ng discouraged settlement, and some of
hem were legislators. They persist
emily gave out that the country was too
Try to farm.
Much of the land, in fact, every 9th
.r section for twenty miles on both
sides of the railroad, was held by the
Union Pacific. This, until recently, was
leased by the ranchmen, hence there was
10 chance for settlers to obtain title to
such lands.
The success in growing winter wheat
Turing recent years in Kansas right UP
20 the Colorado border, has evidently
impressed the railroad authorities with
he view that what has been done in
Kansas may be done in Colorado. They
AVE, therefore, disposed of much of
5heir land quite recently with a view of
having it opened up for settlement
As every other section is government
and, and is open for homesteaders, the
person who takes homestead, and then
Buys an adjoining quarter section, may
Begin with half section of land right
IN the start. His outlay for the land
will be about $500 per acre, one-fifth
Of which is paid down. The person who
coates thus, may, in few years, have
$40 acres of rich farming land and paid
'or, Is he manages according to his OPP
oortunity. This pre-supposes that he
IAN grow crops upon his land, but can
he do this with unfailing certainty?
1 will try to answer this question.
1t is my conviction, based largely upon
what l saw on the few farms that are
opened up, that sorghum, that is, sugar
cane, as the Colorado farmers call it,
can be grown any season, howsoever dry
ind that the same is true of kaffir corn.
These are his hay crops in the mean
| sime They are also his fodder crops
for his stock, if he wants to feed them
in the winter. When grown like hay
hey will furnish several tons of cured
food per acre. These crops will also
furnish very suitable food for swine.
either in the green or dry form, and the
seed makes excellent food for fowls.
With few exceptions, he can grow large
yielding crops of winter wheat, macar-
oni wheat and barley. He can grow
good crops of oats and millet, and also
of corn, almost any season. Broom corn
and broom corn millet, grow particular
ly well, and flax may usually be count
ed on to produce a fair crop, as also po-
tatoes. "Hi 5'.if
The grain in normal season fills
particularly well, owing to the GOODNESS
of the nights. When one takes hold of
a bound sheaf of grain by the band.
the heads at once 60 down, thus indicat
ing plump and well-filled grain. Some
varieties of corn were taller than the
head, in strange contrast to the dimin-
utive corn that was growing under irri
CATION in the famous Platte River Val
ley in Colorado between Denver and
Omaha. And yet it is true that Eastern
Colorado will never be corn country
in the sense in which Nebraska and
Iowa are corn countries; and yet under
proper cultivation it is going to grow
good crops of wheat, and fair crops of
corn almost every season.
But why not say every season? For
the reason that this is dry country.
There has come a season now and then,
when the weather was so dry in West
ern Kansas, and the winds so warm,
that grain crops have failed Corn has