The Grit-advocate., 1907-11-01
BIG IRRIGATION PROJECT IN AR
KANSAS VALLEY WILL BE
GOOD FOR STATE.
TO WATER ARID LANDS
COLORADO REDEEMs ANOTHER
TRACT OF LAND THAT ONLY
NEEDED WATER.

ABOVE tne thriving towns OF Florence
and Canon City. an irrigation project
is being pushed to completion that will
add fifty thousand people to the popu-
lation OF Colorado. and swell total,
already matter OF pride, OF fruit and
vegetable production by figures large
In themselves" says H. r. Lutes OF
Florence. Colorado.
Water will be poured upon 10000
acres of mesa land that is already pro-
ducinS. in the neighborhood mentioned,
the finest quality of fruit raised in the
United States.
although the project is backed by
some of the strongest and most enter
prising men in this state, SO quietly
has the work gone on that compare
lively few people have heard anything
about the plans, and such progress has
already been made that 1000 acres are
now ready for settlers
THE first step was the diversion OF
the waters of Beaver creek, and their
elevation, though some of the clever
est engineering, to the plateau above
Florence. where innumerable little ca
nails are designed to spread the melted
SHOWS of Pixies peak over a tract of
land whose fertility has been undimin-
ishcd even for centuries even by weeds
or sage brush.
Some sixteen years ago the discov.
cry was made that this mesa land
would raise the finest favored fruit and
vegetables that can be produced any
where, but as the waters of the Ar
kansas river flowed through the valley
far below. the problem Of getting the
water up on the tableland was one re-
quiring SO much capital and engineer.
ing skill that for many years only small
tracts could be reclaimed, and these
mainly through the diversion of little
streams that flowed into the Arkansas
near these points and by bitches that
took a small measure OF water from the
river
Erect Great Dam.
'The enterprise now referred to,
which operates as the Beaver Land &
Irrigation Company, takes first the
waters of Beaver creek, the smallest
part of the great irrigation project.
Further steps, already worked out in
detail by the cleverest hydrogra piers
in the country, involve the erection OF
great dam which will retain the food
waters OF Four Mile and Eight Mile
creeks. creating an inland lake over
twelve miles in circumference, and Of
great depth.
This flood water, which has been
wasted for centuries. will be stored.
economical, and poured as needed up
on thousands of little fruit and truck
farms that will cover the 10000 acres
OF fertile mesa land below the dam.
-Four thousand acres will have wa
Ter by March next. Great forces of
men are now at work completing the
bitches. dams, flames and other re-
quisites for putting this mountain
water at the service of the husband
man. Quietly but busily the workmen
have wrought until the plans of able
engineers are no longer matter of
lpes on paper, but are almost accom-
pished realities, and sooh where
grasshopper had but slL, picking
the landscape.
THE market value of this Colorado
land Is a source of astonishment to
the farmers of the Central and Middle
West, where 500 per acre is cOnsid-
cred good price for the best land.
Probably it would sound much like
fiction to some of our worthy Eastern
farmers to tell them that land in this
valley in the ueighborhood of Canon
City and Florence commanded from
$3.50 to $3.50 per acre as raw land. and
is now worth from $1,000 to 81 500 per
acre, and that j, pays such big rev.
enue on these prices that little of it
is for sale at all.
Important as it Is to be able to
raise fruit and vegetables with abso
lutte certainty and in abundance, most
important of all is the profitable sale
Of the farm products. Here again
Colorado shines brighter than her sis
ter states In the first place there is
a great home consumption. and in the
second place the superior quality of
fruits. melons, berries and vegetables
makes these products command high
prices from coast 10 coast.
ITO illustrate the foregoing rather
broad statement. the following are in.
stances Of what some farmers in the
Arkansas valley have done, though
these are by no means record pro
ductions, but instances taken at ran
dom--many OF these persons making
farm with their left hands. SO to speak
while mainly occupied with other in
dustries in the cities.
What an Acre Produces.
"One man sold $500 worth Of straw.
berries from an acre of ground: an
other disposed of 900 bushels of ap,
pies from an orchard that was on one
acre: an acre and a half produced ST.
SIS worth of celery; $500 per acre for
asparagus is not uncommon. etc.
space forbidding the enumeration of
similar instances.
ITO bring 10000 acres of such land
under water and throw it open TO
farmers is not only gigantic under
taking in the matter Of engineering
and capital required. but it is mat
ter OF Importance and of interest to
the residents of the state. as news OF
the fulffllment OF ColoradOs destiny;
and 1t is matter of interest to citi-
zens generally who among us it is
that take hold Of such endeavors and
bring them to successful Issue"