The Delta independent., 1908-02-14
Fruit Growing in the Uncompahgre
Valley.

In a recent folder advertising the
Uncompahgre Valley, the Denver &
Rio Grande railway company gives the
following:
''The most productive form of farm
ing in the Uncompahgre Valley is fruit
growing. Like other valleys of the
Western Slope, the climate and soil of
the Uncompahgre possess just those
qualities which give fruits of all kinds
superb color, the richest flavor and
juciness, and produce enormous Yields,
year after year.
There are two factors in the great
productive value per acre of Uncom-
pahgre Valley orchards. The first is
the very high quality of the fruit.
Western Slope apples are absolutely
the top of the market from Chicago to
Los Angeles. They have a color, a
firmness, flavor and keeping quality
which ranks them always as Strictly
fancy" and always brings for them the
highest market price.
For the last five years, there has
never been year when every apple
produced in the Western Slope orchards
could not be sold before the trees
bloomed in the spring. The supply has
never approached the demand. Though
a few Colorado apples have gone into
the territory east of Chicago, enough
to show that in that part of the United
States. too, they can have. their own
way in the markets. the supply has SO
far proven inadequate to reach that
part of the country. There is no ques-
tion in the minds of the great fruit
handling firms of the country that Col
orado apples will eventually cross the
continent from side to side and be ex-
ported by shiploads to Europe to meet
the demand for absolutely perfect
fruit
The Colorado peach ranks in the
markets with the apples. So heavy is
the Chicago demand for peaches from
Colorado that it is sometimes hard TO
get supply in Denver.
The owners of bearing orchards in
the Uncompahgre Valley enjoy almost
princely incomes.
For example. John Ashenfelter has
l40 acres of bearing orchards two miles
out of Montrose, in the Uncompahgre
Valley, and l40 acres which is not yet
bearing. From the l40 acres of trees
his estimate of receipts for the season
of l9O6 is s45, 900. Estimating the cost
of maintenance at 10000, the net re-
turn will be s35, 900, or nearly $500 per
acre net.
The returns from the smaller or
chards are often proportionately
greater. For example, in 1904 Mr..
Ashenfelter's Elberta peaches paid him
at the rate of S755 an acre. Mr..
Switzer, who has an orchard in the
Uncompahgre Valley, near Delta,
showed net returns from his Elbertas
of sl 800 an acre. The valley has had
only one failure Of the peach crop in
twenty years.
Most Of the successful orchardists
have adopted the clean cultivation
method of caring for their trees. For
the first year or SO after the trees are
planted, hoed crops, such as potatoes,
sugar beets. or small fruits, may be
raised between the rows, but after this
time the ground between and under
the trees is kept perfectly bare. not
even weed being allowed to grow.
By thus having the ground clean. and
by repeated spraying, the Goblin moth
has met its match, and whole train
loads of apples are sent out of the I'm
compahgre Valley with the growers
guarantee of not n single worm to a
carload of fruit.
The dry climate of the region helps
the grower in this regard. Once
sprayed, the trees carry the coating of
bug poison for some time, as there are
few showers and no drizzling rains to
wash the coating off.
The marketing of fruit is the least of
the troubles of the Uncompahgre Val
ley fruit grower. From spring until
fall, the valley is overrun with fruit
buyers, representatives of large houses
both in Chicago, st. Louis and on the
Pacific Coast. There is demand and
brisk competition for the crops even
before they mature.
The broad gauge service Of the Den
yer & Rio Grande road gives the valley
an immediate outlet to the markets of
the world.