The Ordway new era., 1910-12-30

1t Is Interesting to brood over the
meth,'ds OF advance" from our com.
mission firms. although be 1t said to
their credit they haye done all they
agreed to do for us. and some more.
Barnett Bros. came royalty to the
front and paid we'll for the pony
crates, alLho nothing had been said
In the contract. Such actions tend
to create confidence "n the part Of the
farmer aud much m"re friendly
spirit between the parties IL assured.
When the whole truth and nothing
but the truth Is the language between
the parties We shall feel that our nusi-
uess IL both safe and pleasant. In
that case II loss comes to us through
DO failure Of the mmission man, we
shall take 1t cheerfully and Try again,
but have been wondering why this
advance" should be about the same
on the western slope Us ours. when II
10 known that their freight rate II
nearly double.
On inquiring l fnd the danger is
grest Of their selling just for advance
plus commission and freight, etc
not trying to get more. They like to
have the reputation Of selling cheap
TO the retail man. A car Of fine
apples was fearfully sacrificed on the
Denver market last week. To pre-.
vent this some OF our large producers
Of fruit are "hulding the strings" and
no sale can be made without their
consent, but in this case storage L.
charged up. which is rather high IN
most cases.
The First American Apple Congress
passed III very pleasantly last week
and many interesting subjects were
discussed. Governor Prince OF New
Mexico was among the growers, hav-
log one Of the largest orchards In the
west, and producing not only car loads
but whole train loads OF the finest
fruit. One could not help seeing the
wonderful distribution of the good
apple land. At one time we thought
that only certain sections were adapt
ed to apple growing, but the fool
experimenter" has shown that any
we'll drained rich soil whether In Vir-
Rinia or Washington, or any point be.
tween, can be made profitable in this
line. II hot, moist country, the
BeilnOwer predominates; II moist
and cold. the SpitzenburR or New
town Pippin; II dry with cool nights.
the Jonathan and Rome Beauty are
at home, aud 80 on. All we have to
do before embarking in the business
IL to study soil and climate little.
But for commercial fruit raising. In
which the producer looks forward l."
the dollar only. there is another ele-
ment enters into the scheme. He
must not isolate himself from other
growers. The buyer of apples goes
to the place where he can buy SO to
100 car loads OF one variety II neces.
sary, and the single man with two or
three car loads to sell must depend
Cd commission man. So the buyer
Of straw berries goes to Arkansas or
Texas, not because their berries are
better than ours at Ordway but be-
cause they specialize in this one
thing and can ship at an hours notice
q car Of fruit. So with alfalfa, wheat,
oats and other productions.
We have been SO divided In our In
terests At Ordway, each man pursm-
ing his "own sweet will," that We
have not made the success we should
have made. We plowed up our profit
able alfalfa field about ten years ago
and went into sugar beet business.
nearly bankrupting those who con.
tinued raising alfalfa. While one
man with his highly fertilized ten
acre patch and by close attention and
an eighty acre water right to use,
made his twenty tons to the acre. the
whole average Of the fields was some
thing about seven or eight tons, and
as IT, took ten tuDs per acre to pay ex-
pense and land rent, it took only few
minutes Of "1xurinR" to solve the
mystery. Had we keptnur alfalfa and
cows ana secured a creamery, or had
we put out one-tenth OF our uplands
To Wragg cherries and secured a can
ming factory, or gone into any one Of
the many profitable specialties our
land would now demand double its
present values.
Iu looking about for a pleasant spot
Of eafEh for garden and orchard, l
flud that prices have scared beyond
my comprehension. T he western
slope is Offering the raw sage brush