Gunnison news-champion. [volume] (Gunnison, Colo.) 1905-1932, 1923-10-05
Ranch and Rance 6: :;
FARM INDUSTRY ALMOST NEARS
TIMBERI4INE IN ROCKIES
Steady Invasion of the Higher Attitudes by the
Pow and the Gardencr Astonishes Old Timers

han as or Indiana
All this sketch refers euphatiraIl,
.a the real rouutains-not the fg9t.
Ills or the valleys; they were taken
-T many years ago. All the way
s.pnE the outer fringe Of the Rockies,
rom Montana 20 lowest New Meueo,
continual succession Of little out
20 guiches; each discharging 4 rivulet
~ creek or Al least occasional food
Lter. In the mouth Of each such
gllch home vas built forty wears
ago. the settler supposing that he had
cured control not only Of his inmedi-
ate home claim but Of the whole gulch
nd valley running up and back for
miles So he did, till the last decade,
but now new Heighbors appear away
up there, and their cattle mix with
hose Of the first conner.
Akin to the Arctics
II Is a long cold winter up thee and
ne farming season Is so short the
farm operators must work lively when
June comes. Snow may fall in any
month Of the year. Frost begins nv
The middle Of August The H., II
possible agricultural products Is short
and any discovery that makes an adj.
luton 70 II Is hailed with satisfaction
and Is made the most of. Irrigation is
necessary IN most seasons. even Tor tho
potatoes, though this year il could
have been dispensed with almost
everywhere.
Uncle Sam takes hand in the hu-
man and bovine activities in all that
high country, not merely in the con-
duct of the usual federal land offices.
the boundaries of quarter section
claims and titles, but he has gobbed
up the mountain lands by millions Of
acre IN the form of national forests.
These are withdrawn from ordinary
settlement except that tourists or
d other may get longtime leases or
p small tracts for summertime camps.
Permits are issued for grazing of cat
tie. horses and sheep, ut very small
rates OF payment, yet so large is the
O. number Of animals on range that the
money turned in by the grazing funu
I Is considerable sum each year
mus il has come about that even the
once solitary, utterly silent. uninhaD-
tied leagues above timbe rhine. waste
land up IN the sky. is now the sum
mer home Of flOcks Of sheep and herds
b.. OF cattle browsing on its miles Of
sweet tender grasses. In Nov ember
the cowboys and herders are after
them with n sharp stick. Clean sweep
Z must be made, for any animals left
behind are sure 20 perish in the deer
~nows and intense cold of winter.
Il was 4 backwoods drama that
would have furnished the camera man
, with novel material, when in the mid
die of last winter locomotive men on
mountain railroad in the west part
Of the state left word nj 4 way station
that they had seen cattle in a certain
guIch. The stockmen of the neiyhbor-
, hood made their toilsome way thru
b snow five feet deep, found the cattle
and had dramatic time getting then.
down the mountain and back to civiliz-
alton. II required all the muscle of
several men and horses TO pull and
tug each separate animal through the
snow banks for ten miles, and their
herculean labors were much more than
> equal TO twice the value of the cattle
rescued.
There Is strange timidity in
large section of human nature in pre-
scnce of mountains. 1t is not any
fear of the supernatural, but some
how people shun them as something
uncanny. Tourists and landscape
painters seek the picturesque heights
IN the daytime but at night they want
to be somewhere else
But after one has had due exper-
ience, and has overcome this Unborn
nameiess fear. he loves the mountains.
Instead of turning away from vast
mlle-mass Of rocky bulk as some
thing haunted by mysterious perils,
ne develops an affection for it as a
great sheltering bulwark, a fortress
In fnt, L
comes an inyeterate mountaineor and
has no use for the exposed fiat plains.
He is ready to ''fee to the mountains, -
Moreover where there are mountains
there is pretty sure to be water, wood,
shade, rocks for building and even for
fencing purposes, also possible game.
good grass and various other advan-
tages depending on altitude and lat
ltude. There may be a thousand
great mountains and no two of them
alike.
1t would be supposed that most of
the mountain people would come out
for the winter and dwell at lower
points, and some of them do, but not a
majority. They cling to their thick
walled log dwellings, rock fre-places
and pine wood fuel. They keep snow
shoes and rifles handy, and they build
their poultry huts strong and tight
against coyotes and skunks. Their
farm crops are mostly limited to
wheat, oats, barley, millet, potatoes,
lettuce and head lettuce, peas and cow
peas, and few hardy vegetables and
flowers. They pretend to raise small
patches of sweet corn but it does not
. amount to much. The head lettuce
has been discovery of the last three
years and is making good. Alfalfa
makes two crops up to 1000 feet, and
with Gull potatoes and barley and
little alfalfa hogs can be raised sue
cessfully up to fairly high levels.
Onions and turnips have been grown
up to higher and higher attitudes In
way that has surprised all beholders.
Yellow Transparent and Wealthy ap-
pies bear fruit up to 5000 feet.