The Elbert County tribune., 1907-02-14
RICH COLORADO
GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THE
STATES GROWING WEALTH.
ITS ENORMOUS RESOURCES

Per Capita froouction-Ndhuo VI
Pastoral, Agricultural and Hortieul-
tural Production Exceeds Output
of the Mines.
| An article by Thomas Tonge, the
we'll known Colorado writer and cor
respondent, tells of the states great
opportunities in way that gives the
reader a realization Of Its rapid pro
gress 1t appeared last month In the
United States Investor, one OF the
great financial journals Of the country,
and is in part as follows;
| 1.-THE decentralization OF silver IN
1898. disastrous as its results were LOT
time for Colorado people and east,
ern investors in Colorado, has proved
n blessing in disguise. 1t caused in
creased attention to be given to many
other natural resources OF the state,
of greater actual Importance than Sill
yer mining, which had previously been
practically overlooked OF neglected
To-day while the total population OF
Colorado compares indifferently with
the individual populations OF most OF
| the Middle and Eastern states, Colo
redo is probably producing more new
wealth per capita, per annum, thah
any ether state in the Union, and from
| a WlQeT TduR6 Ol ItSOulNto. -'AOiNC'N -
| Colorado, still in its infancy, is fully
capable OF supporting a population OF
millions. and they will come. The
stream OF homeseekers, more particu-
Iarly from the Middle states, is in
creaslng month by month. Every ex-
| cursion train brings scores OF farmers
| to Colorado. Agricultural land Is sell
| ing Mt a comparatively rapid rate, ana
new settlers. with their families, are
focking in. Much of the same is true
as to the new arrivals in the cities and
| towns.
To-day. also, the value of the annual
output from the pastoral, agricultural
and horticultural industries of Colo
RADIO considerably exceeds the value of
the annual output from the mining
| (both metalliferous and coaD Industry.
| In addition. there is the increasing
wide range of manufacturing, while
| the tourist business alone leaves mil
lions of dollars yearly in the state and
is annually growing in Importance.
To-day Colorado is in better finan-
| cial condition than ever before, that is,
| there is a greater amount of local cap
| ital available and being invested in
| developing the many and varied re-
sources OF the state, and less per-
centage of collective indebtedness to
| t0e CtulCio VI tiN oieASi "'''
more populous Eastern and Middle
states.
"The evolution of the pastoral, agri.
| cultural and horticultural industries
| of the state since 1893 has been most
marked. Largely owing to the valu-
able work of the United States De
| partment of Agriculture the Colorado
State Agricultural College and outly'
ing experiment stations, great pro
| gress has been made, first, in the
breeding and feeding of live stock;
second, in the better utilization of irri-
CATION water, with corresponding in
crease of irrigable area; third, in more
intensive farming, with resulting in
crease in quantity per acre and quail
| ity of the crops grown.
Perhaps the most striking instance
| of the above is the development in
Colorado of the sugar beet industry,
| which has risen from an annual pro-
duct of 100000 in 1899 to an annual
product of $12,412,000 in 1906, with
more sugar beet factories being built.
Beet sugar has passed silver as state
asset; as for 1906 the Colorado beet
sugar output exceeded the Colorado
silver output by at least s3,500,000.
Simultaneously with the above evo
| luton have been first, annual increase
/ III II iSdlipll ny lilt tOioti uS-
| tion of now canals, storage reservoirs,
I ETC.; second, the requirement, in
number of districts, under the Colo
RADIO state irrigation district law (see
my letter in the Investor OF August
rs, 1906), by the farmers of the irri,
CATION canals. reservoirs, etc.
Space does not admit of any de-
tailed mention of the evolution of the
live stock industry. Suffice it to say
that Colorado is now practically self
supplied with beef mutton, pork, etc,
and is increasingly shipping to the
| Chicago and other Eastern ma: kets.
1T is the same with fruit and vege-
tables. For instance, on account of
superior quality, the shipments of Col
orado apples to the Atlantic and Pa
| cific coasts are annually increasing.
| Colorado potatoes in big quantities go
to Galveston, New Orleans and Seattle,
| and within the past two weeks
trainload of Colorado onions was sent
to New York City.
| within the past few years what is
known as dry farming that is, farm
ing without artificial irrigation, de-
| pending instead on natural precipita-
/ tion and intensive cultivation, has re-
ceived increasing attention. Prior to
1903, in that part of Colorado lying
east of Denver, beyond the reach of ir-
rlgaton, there We're probably not to
exceed $4,000 acres being cultivated
without irrigation. To-day there are
said TO be nearly 100000 acres in culti-
walton on the plains in eastern Colo
rado, and about fifty steam blowing
outfits in use. Considering that the
j Colorado plains east of the Rocky
mountains contain possibly 20 100000
acres OF arabic land, now of merely
nominal value for pasturagc, the sue
| cess OF dry farming means much for
the state