Semi-weekly herald., 1909-11-22
Or. McEwen,s Address.

Or. McEwen's Address.
Mr.. President. Ladies and Gentlemen:
To citizen OF the great southwest,
ii is really amusing TO listen to the
remarks of many people who have
never visited that section OF Colorado
remarks displaying the most profound
ignorance of a most considerable part
of our great state; often made, even
by people heer In Denver One who
did not know better would suppose at
once that the advance agent of civil
zation, the broadbrimmed sombrero
bear skin SNAPS. and lean Thanked
broncho, with its cowboy rider. were
sky from every hilltop. Not so, Why
bless you, the cowboys eternal vigi-
lance conquered the savage Ute. and
his cows tanned the treacherous Nava-
jo thirty years ago. Today he is an
orchardist, living off the fat of the
land. or retired capitalist, as is evi-
on deposit in one Durango bank. over
million and a half dollars. Our
.. morning and evening dailies tell us
what is going on, and we knew just
after dinner that Count Ito had been
assassinated that morning in far-away
Hardin.
More than a quarter of century
ago that great trail blazer, the Den.
YER & Rio Grande Railroad company
heard of this island empire and set
their engineers to survey road into
the country. True, the engineers got
lost, but the construction crew fol
lowing up found them, and soon that
greatest ciyilizer the world has ever
known. the iron horse, came scream
ing from the mountain crags into the
vailey, and we have train from
Denver. and the east every day in
Durango, east. west, north or south
on a branch of this great railroad to
any part of the outside. Kansas City
or Omaha. might with equal consist
ency say that Denver is so far away
from any place. because /. takes a
day to make the trip; and SO New
York with Chicago. The facts are that
no place in the United States is far
away now. Earth is but one grand
whispering gallery. and the world is
, our neighbor
While the fame of the great San
Juan fruit belt is well known to the
apple buyers of Chicago and these big
red apples have taken first premium
wherever exhibited, it Is not generally
known that one OF the four counties
constituting this vast agricultural and
fruit country is four times as large as
the state OF Delaware.
J In the Durango land district, open
to entry under the public land laws,
are l.099 900. besides ,475.000 acres In
San Juan county, New Mexico. part
| OF this great basin.
This remaining land is mostly high
mefaf onethird Of It susceptible of
! which capitalists. knowing the posi-
bilites of an irrigated, and especially
! g fuit country. are ever ready
, to do as soon as a sufficient number
of settlers indicate their willingness
i to occupy the land. But there is now
under ditch, but not in cultivation
hundreds of acres OF diversified farms
often 800 acres, and more. while the
/ facts are that five or ten acres In
fruit and Lerries and truck garden is
competency for family. The ALI.
son neighborhood In La Plata county
could supply hundred extra families
in this way, by dividing farms into
s0-acre tracts. Why? Oats grow as
high as a mans head and weigh forty
four pounds to the bushel, wheat
weighs sixty-two to sixty-four pounds
pumpkins over 100 pounds. sugar beets
twenty-eight pounds. potatoes. regula
ton Colorado size. quality and quan
tity. cabbages SO large you can hardly
lift them, and turnips are on display
now thirty-eight inches In circumfer
ence, and weighing fifteen pounds Ap
pies sell for from four to nine hundred
dollars per acre. Fred Bunker sold
his Ben Davis for $500 per acre ir
the orchard this year. and his neigh.