Semi-weekly herald., 1909-11-22


for $1,000 per acre. This is an aver.
age of the country this season. Du.
range has shipped to eastern and
southern markets. In carload lots, 800
acres OF apples this fall.
Fruit is never failure. some years
1t is a short crop. This year the trees
are bending to the earth with their
burden. and this without smudging.
That this should be true is not
strange This great basin is scooped
out on the southwestern slope of the
Rocky mountains. famed by the warm
breezes from Arizona. but tempered
by an altitude of from five to seven
thousand feet; always warm or hot In
the sun. and cool or cold In the shade
according to the season. but never so
cold it does not thaw on the sunny
side. II you know the weather today
you know what 1t was yesterday and
what it will be tomorrow. for one day
with summer or winter. Again, vege
table growth is dependent on heat
and water. When the former is of
the right temperature, and the latter
in proper quantities. and supplied at
the right time. crop development is
phenomenal. Drought Is unknown
here. we turn the water on when the
ground is thirsty. veritably making 1t
rain while the sun shines. This is why
| apple trees grow three to four feet in
one season, and begin to bear the third
and are profitable crop after Ave
years,
But will the apple business not be
oyerdone. you ask. No; II we plant
| every acre of fruit land In the San
Juan fruit belt in apples we can not
| supply the increasing demand with
the rapidly decreasing supply. Dur
ing the past summer visited every
important apple section of the country
| from Grand Junction to New York
and western Pennsylvania, and from
Michigan and Toronto, Canada, to
Kentucky on the south. and l find
the orchards east In bad shape, with
small understandable fruit, and from
a commercial point OF view, very few
young orchards coming on.
But l must acknowledge that as
rode down the Republican river on one
of the Burlington's splendid trains
| oh oh nI
ed on either side at those vast fields
OF golden grain, and alfalfa meadows
| with corn as far as the eye could
/ each. fine farms. well stocked; good
houses and barns, the query forced
itself upon me, We'll. after all, even
| thou ugh the SHOWS are long and deep,
ard billiards sweep across the plains
| with fury, and the cyclone devas
ates, these people have good homes
| and the finest prospect for big crop
of corn, corn cnouPh to feed all the
hogs in the world. even though they
can find more congenial climate. and
a pleasant place to live, would IL be
wise for them to sell out and go to
even better place? So It was through
| Kansas, Missouri, and to less extent
| Illinois, Indiana and to central Ohio,
which takes in the great corn belt
an Unparalleled prospect for bounte'
| GUS crop. But the query was fully
answered upon my return few weeks
ra:.r. No rain had fallen since the
wet weather in June. From Ohio to
die west line of Missouri the crops
wore wilted and blighted with the long
| drcuth; in Kansas. Nebraska Okla
homa and Texas the hot winds had
come with the drought. and those
splendid fields of corn and hay would
burn like tinder.
How different when I reached the
i"rigf ted fields of olorado. and espe
cially after passing over the range into
and through Archuleta. Montezuma and
La Plata counties, Colorado. and San
Juan county in New Mexico. where the
| fields were like an oasis after having
left desert OF devastation. The tran
sition was SO sudden as to be et once
a revelation and an inspiration. In
stead of the little. knotty. shrunken,
scabby and wormy apples and peaches
found east, on every hand and every
where were great big red apples. and
luscious peaches of a size and quality
that even l, who live there. after see
ing the inferior, unriarketable product
OF the country visited. was wholely
unprepared to realize as possible.
Bu, what we need most is farmers
both purchasers and first-class ten
ants But we must show them. OF
tins fact l am fully convin ced, and in
o"6er 10 show tnem we must offer in
| ducemt nts to them to come and see
know this to be fact from personal
expe ence. From Illinois east | trav-
eled every conceivable direction. sim.
ply because the railroads were more
liberal than the hotels. l could travel
cheaper than / could stay. everybody
was on the go. After talking to old
friends in eastern Kansas and south.