The Newtown bee., 1907-09-06

provement. One can here see all the
 buffalo to the gopher. There are a
 number of pleasure resorts, Manhattan Beach being one of the foremost. The city is we'll covered with trolley lines. The cars look strange to an Fastener, the doors, or rather openings, being in the sides instead d of the ends. It makes warmer in winter time. The city claims population of 160, GOO, though a good per cent are fioaters. The alti-
 tude is nearly mile. and for the first few days. the heart of the ''coast-
 liner" works a little ahead of schedule
 time. But it soon gets back to normal Colorado Springs was visited by the writer soon after we reached Denver. The "City of Lungers" took his fancy at once. Got off at clean station walked up the well-made road, be- tween nicely laid out flower beds and lawns, and reached the business sec tion; still the same cleanliness. The residential section is extra clean and
 
 lawns. From the city one gets a close view of the famous Pike's Peak, only six miles away. It looks to be but mile at the most. On the way down to the city you have close view of the much talked about Garden of the Gods. Many queer formations of the red sandstone are here, from the bal anced rock as large as house, to needle-like spears. It is well worth a trip to see this garden, the playgrounds of the gods of old. Friends here also
 killed the fatted calf. Nothing gives so much real pleasure as meeting a friend or acquaintance in a strange land.
 After being in Denver for couple of weeks my headquarters were | changed to Erie, Colo., 26 miles north. This is in the center of the northern Colorado coal fields. There are two
 mines just outside of town, that are
 now working. A number of years ago | there were five or six in active oper- ation. The coal mine here is a grade beween the Eastern anthracite and bi- | luminous. At Lafayette, a town four
 miles south of here, there are six or eight mines now in operation, one of them having been worked for 15 years. East of here, in the new towns of Frederick and Dacono, which were laid out but few months ago, are five more now mining coal sinking shaft to the veins. To the north of Erie, for 40 miles or more, is the coun l try of the farmer. There are the inn
 mense fields of wheat, oats, sugar beets, alfalfa. Farms in Colorado and
 in fact all over the West. are reckoned
 by the mile. This is an irrigation
 country and monster crops are taken from the land. Wheat averages 50 on "dry'' or non-irrigated land. This
 dry land is something new in farming. The best success in this farming is made under what is known as the l"Campbell. system :" deep blowing in the fall to catch and hold the fall rains and springs snow waters. It is getting very popular, for there are some lands that would raise a good crop but they are above the level of the irrigating reservoirs and-ditches, and heretofore have been used only for grazing Good
 irrigated land is worth about $100 an
 acre dry land, few years ago worth
 $2 or $3 an acre, is now worth $15 to S20- !. About Erie are wheat fields from 100
 to 400 acres in extent. It is a grand sight to see field of 100 or more acres of ripe wheat, the rich golden grain , rippling in the breeze. and singing its , song of plenty. Sugar beets is another } of the money crops of Colorado. This
 | q .,f
 $5 a.tan-na -nattiass-eea-ia iafnle4 from S6G to $8O an acre. Alfalfa, or tam
 another good paying crop. Thi
 three times a season, and yieldlI1 ? 10 tons a year per acre. This sells at S 5 ton This is ''the great agricultural : state 'The Fastener hears about Col orado, the Centennial state. and thinks 9 there is nothing out nere~|bul mines 8 That gold. silver and~tne other min - o,aI, are si,~ chief product of the s state. That is great mistake Ih' = farm products are of far more value ? than the minerals produced. Every yea the farming acerage is increasing. Th' |. eastern portion of the state, the prair ], ies, is being turned into wheat fields n the western slopes of the mountains in e to fruit farms, where the best apples ' peaches, etc, are grown, which bring : the highest market prices in the East e The northern part of the state is tn y potato section, where immense quan e titles of the tubers are raised, bot }. for food and the starch factories. Pc $ tato fields are here half a mile or nor l. square. Irrigation is the agent that is r, literally, making the desert to blosson y like the rose. There are now abou e IA, GOO miles of ditches, canals and tun IS nels and hundreds of reservoirs fo s impounding the flood waters of tn m rivers, to be used to water the desert n- The federal government is spendin lg some millions of dollars in other irr n gation projects in different parts of tf