The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-10-05
COLORADO COUNTRY.
As Seen By . Repre- Sc ntstivs Of the
Citizen.

| '.'"o q UP through PoftioI VI wi
orado, over prairie, upon canyon and
mountain, and while the majesty and
grandeur of the hills were awe inspiring,
it, remained for the parties to furnish
the genuine surprises.
People in this section of the northwest
have so long been told that the east
ern prairies of Colorado were nothing
but burning desert, until they have
actually come to believe it, and appar-
emily no amount of talking could con-
vince them otherwise, and they are I'M
willing to go and see for themselves.
After ride of several days through the
country We can say without fear of con-
tradiction that the country directly east
CT Colorado Springs and Denver produces
as fine crops as we have ever seen in
our life, not excepting the world herald
ed wheat fields of Canada
As you pass along on the railroad
You may perhaps think it is too dry for
anything to grow, for the ground is of
\
a light chocolate color on the surface,
and to the eye appears dry and lifeless.
Yet the same ground is turning out
some of the finest crops in the United
States, and the crop is not confined to
any one kind of grain. but grows wheat,
oats, barley, fax, speltz, corn, sugar
cane, millet, alfalfa and vegetables of
every description. And all this without
irrigation. To be sure, some parts of the
state are entirely dependent upon irriga-
ton, but not so that country along the
| lines of the Rock Island and the south
ern line of the Union Pacific road. The
natural rainfall, as shown by the gov
i eminent station records at Cheyenne
| Wells, for the past ten years, has been
over seventeen inches, an ample amount
for country with the climate that this
has. The lay of the land in general Isl
gently rolling, there being no fiat land
and very little rough. The soil is a
brown, or chocolate clay. loan, generally
without sand or gravel, except along the
bed of a creek or river, and even this is
utilized in the manufacture of cement
blocks, an enterprise which is coming
| to the front at rapid rate. The soil
is easily worked, as is shown by the
fact that a great many farmers put
corn on breaking, sometimes that is i'm
possible in this country, and which peo-
pie here will hardly believe. The land in
| its natural state is covered with short
growth of grass, being the buffalo, gram
ma and other grasses of great nutritious
value, and the stock that one sees bears
| evidence of this. Fat and sleek, and liv-
ing only on the natural grass and nat
ural supply of water, they make the OBJ
server envious of the owner of the ami
mails.
The towns tributary to this section
| of country are Flagler, Arriba, Bovina,
Genoa, Limon. Hugo and other smaller
places, and all of them are growing.
They arc doing good business, and as
settlers come in they will prosper and
thrive One gentleman from Marshall
has disposed of his business and other
property there and erected large store
building on the apparently unsettled
prairie, yet as you drive through the
country and see the new buildings of
the new settlers springing up you real
ize that the move is wise one.
In company with gentleman from
Marshall we drove out through Lincoln
county and stopped first at the farm of
j. G.. Jansen, who went to Colorado a
few years ago, his possessions when he
arrived being one COW. Today he has a
section and half of land all fenced, a
neat home, barns for stock and sheds
for machinery, about $50 head of stock
and "a fine crop which was ready for
harvesting. Last year he had corn,
speltz, wheat, oats and barley. Wheat
went 80 bushels to the acre, oats sol
bushels and speltz 65 bushels. At $3.50
per cwt. for wheat, for everything here
is sold by the hundred weight, $3.50 per
cwt for oats and $l.25 per cwt for
speltz, you can easily see what his crop
would amount to- And off of land that
| last year could he had for $3.50 per
acre, this year So to $40 per acre, and
next vear-well. it is hard to say wheth
er or not it can be had for SIS per acre,
for people are just beginning to get
their eyes open as to what can be done
there.
Another farmer who came to the Col
orado country few years ago is Carl
Martin, Familiarity known as "Shorty.
He, too, came with a head or two OF
stock, and today he has IA sections OF
land, all fenced. with portion cross
fenced. there being 81 miles of fencing
on his farm He owns his own steam
threshing rig, has handsome little
home with lots of fruit trees and flow
ers about, barns and sheds all rooted
with steel, and over a thousand head of
cattle in his pasture. Hans Peterson
went out last year from Owatonna, and
H. has one of the finest homes in that