The Mena weekly star., 1906-09-27
ONE OF WONDERS
 "FISH' STORIES
He Writes EntertainingIy of Colorado
 and His Visit There.
Montrosc, Colo.
 Sept. IA, 1906.
Mr. A. W. St John,
 Mena, Ark.

& Knowing the interest you nave q always taken in fruit culture, l # could not help but think of you * so often the last ten days, and \ wish you could see this wonderful 4 frult country on the western slope. & I have always thought to see q perfect fruit person would have N 10 go to California, but l know X better now, and 1 assure you It IS & lmpos ,ible to even attempt to & describe the wonderful resources a of this Montrose valley as fruit d potato and alfalfa growing sec q tion. IL IS surely an eye opener # to a tenderfoot from Arkansaw. # They have valley here at the # foot of the mountain about lO0 S miles long to 60 miles wide. of K which this little city is the center & and business metropolis, and to @ look at the land that is yet in its & natural state, you would think ilck rabbit would starvc on a E hundred acres of 1t but whert # they have 1t under irrigation l N have never seen such results as to & crops.
 \ At the present time they have M only one small mountain stream $ from which to irrigate, but wher the big "Guuuison" tunnel aud & canal is completed they will havs water to much more than supply the entire valley.
 For the last few days 1 have doae little but drive through the the big orchards and alfalfa aud potato farms. Drove over par of one orchard yesterday that k their selling estimate for this year, { Eastern buyers are now & here contracting for the apple & crop) from this one orchard alone, is eighty five carloads of apples aud thirty-ive carloads of othei fruit, such as peaches, plums. apricots, Italian pruues, etc. ] N have yet 10 see the first wormy o # kuotty apple CT other fruit; every oue as perfect as though moulded out of WAX, and such favor, il & simply melts Tn persons mouth Early peaches, plums and N prunes are HOW just ripening and < being shipped, winter apples x about two.th rds grown, and N every tree loaded to the limit. & They are now giving the apple, their last spraying and thinning out and propPing so they will not break down.
 N Wish the Polk County Fruit Growers Association could tax drive through one of these or. chards, ali laid off in streets and avenues like little city, and see how fruit IS grown to such per lection. l have seen hundreds of acres Of orchards already and not a speer of grass, weeds or an 4 thing will you see in them, the ground IS ln such perfect state ol cultivation that 1t looks as though 1t had just been worked all over with garden rake. A large ditch around each 40
 acres and small streams trinkling along between each row of trees. So you see from the time the trees bud in the spring until the crop
 IS matured in the fall, there is never moment but what every
 tree has all the water 1t wants, hence l think the elegant fllvor given the fruit. And as for spuds, beat the world, can't de
 scribe them. After they plough
 them out It looks like the ground covered with boulders in Polk
 couuty. Don't understand me
 that l am going into the real
 estate business in this country, fsr
 l expect to be back to Fort Smith
 next week, but is wonderful and
 so lar beyond my expectations
 that l wanted to tell you about it.
 and II you ever get 10 Den yer and
 want to use your annual" to
 good advantage just rua over the
 mountain 10 this place and see 1t,
 and If you don't get your moneys
 worth out ot looking at and eat
 ing fruit, so plentiful that it is
 free. eyerybOdv helms the rseives