"How much does it cost to cultivate apples?"

"About $25 an acre."

"What are the best apples for this country?"

"Well, it is hard to say. There are so many. I should say generally speaking, Spitzenberger, Grimes' Golden, Ball's Choice and Rome Beauty stand very high for size, color and flavor. They will bring $2.50 to $3.00 for a forty pound box.

"Cherries are also very profitable. A tree 10 years old will bear seven to nine crates, and a crate sells always from $1.00 to $2.50, and we frequently get $3.00 and even $5.00. The expense of raising cherries is not heavy except the picking."

"How about insect pests?"

"There are very few and do not bother those who use the proper precaution such as spraying and mulching."

"How about plums?"

"Plums do well here. The Blue Damson plums bring eight cents per pound and it is a very profitable variety to raise. We think currants and gooseberries both do well. We

sold 72 crates off of an acre, bringing $1.75 to $2.50 per crate."

It is interesting to note that this highly scientific fruit farming consists not only of mathematical planting and tree pruning, spraying and cultivating the ground, but also sowing rye in the Fall between the trees to hold the soil and fertilize the ground, the idea being to plow the rye into the soil in the spring. In that climate winter kills rye and it does not come up all summer.

On the Kountze Farm they employ about fifteen people the year around, having from fifty to one hundred outsiders to help at picking time.

They have some horses and mules they are very proud of, especially the latter, a pair of which weighed 3,600 pounds.

Regarding mules for farm work, Mr. Luck (his name is W. J. Luck and he duly signed my interiew) said, "mules do not spoil in changing drivers as horses do, and therefore bring good average results for farm work."

"Do they kick," I asked, as I tried to make myself as small as possible as I edged by the business end of those two big 1,800 pounders.

Over beyond Golden we came across a gentleman in an orchard. He was clad in appropriate gardening garments and armed with pruning shears. He was also clothed in an atmosphere of intellect and executive ability as becomes one who is president of the Colorado State Horticultural Society, Mr. Chas. H. Easley, and who gave one of the most clear-cut interviews of the trip.

"I have about 212 acres of cherries," he said. "I have about 100 trees to an acre and the yield per tree is about 12 crates, 24 quarts to the crate, or 288 quarts to the tree, paying an average of close to $500 an acre.

"I get out of small fruits an average profit of about $300 an acre from strawberries, $250 per acre from raspberries, and $250 per acre from grapes. Strawberries are the easiest to grow and the quickest. My place is irrigated by the Church and Ralston Ditches, both of which draw their water from Clear Creek. The Ralston has been acquired by the Denver Reservoir Irrigation Company, owners of the Standley reservoir, which owns the Church ditch, and will tap everything from Golden to Boulder."

HE day after my auto trip through the irrigation district to the West of Denver I made an interviewing expedition through the Northern part of the DenverGreeley District.

They sell you a ticket in Denver, charging you for this round trip. about the same price that they charge for one way and you can go up on the Colorado Southern through these interesting points and return on the Union Pacific or vice versa.

The trip was a continuous series of most interesting interviews covering each particular place and each particular branch of my inquiries. Summarizing my trip I am safe in saying no similar area of the world's surface possesses so many different things which illustrate the prosperity and the progress of the human race.

Irrigation the Basis of

the Prosperous Progress

Of course the prosperity is all primarily due to the soil, the climate and the irrigation. The first two without the last one would be of no particular interest from the prosperity point of view, for this land without water is as valueless as the desert sands of Sahara. It is not quite as bad as that of course, for there is some vegetation even where there is no water, but the vegetation is not sufficient to add much to the comfort nor the maintenance of mankind.

There is considerable scenery which does not owe its origination to irrigation-distant in the tops where the white snow glistens in the sunlight, foot hills with some evidence of trees apparent to the naked eye and along the streams some vegetation of a semiluxurious character, but it is the irrigated areas that stretch their inviting acres mile

Wealth-Producing Crops, Civic,
Educational and Moral
Advancement of

Longmont, Ft. Collins, Greeley,
Lupton, Brighton

Showing What Organized Water and

Organized Humanity Can

Accomplish

after mile through this section and the crops they raise are so plentiful and profitable that all these places I have mentioned have a support which enables them to be as up-to-date in every detail as if they were situated in the richest portions of Massachusetts or Pennsylvania.

Colorado's Capitol.

It takes a good deal more than a house to make a home. It takes a good deal more than money to make happiness, it takes a

good deal more than people to make the right sort of a community. Now in this region they know what makes things worth while, so they start with citizenship. The citizenship is universal, it is intelligent, it is morally militant.

For instance they don't think booze is a good thing out there, so they abolished the saloons. Only one place from Denver to Greeley that liquor is sold legally, and that is a little suburb of Longmont organized for the special purpose of fostering the liquor traffic and now the citizens of Longmont are colonizing it with prohibitionists who will vote liquor out of existence and thus prohibition will be a glorious and exultant fact all the way from Denver around the "Horn."

I say exultant, because all the citizens down there want it and glory in it, and there is no fight at all because they are all a unit for the things that make life worth living.

Intelligence is Universal

and is Practically Applied

Well what else is there of this wonderful region from Denver to Greeley? There is intelligence universal. The ignorant element which lands at Ellis Island and percolates a few hundred miles Westward is too feeble to reach this paradise of Colorado and the vicious element which has its eye upon speculative opportunities, fights shy of such lands as this and seek the gold fields. Consequently the people who come into this section are the kind of people who are qualified to make the most of their opportunity, in life, their homes, their schools, their churches, their cities, their towns, their farms-that is the best thing. It is irrigation-it permits people to cultivate the soil and yet live near enough together to enjoy all the advantages of a City, and what are

the advantages of a City. Perhaps primarily, education-education is more than the narrow limits of schools and colleges.

The education over this area is that brand of gray matter which enables the man, and the woman, and the child to know what is best to think, and do, and then switch it on to the ground of desire and do it. They go out and cultivate the land on the most upto-date plan and they come back to the home and there read the best books and newspapers and they get together and make the best laws, establish the best sort of social life, and there is no education in the world so good as this spontaneous right living; which is common to the whole community, which takes recognition of practical facts of that which is beautiful in nature and character, and that which makes health and happiness and prosperity, and which enables the progressive element in the community to amalgamate the forces of the community into good government, good schools, good churches, good libraries, and they don't know what it is not to have absolutely representative government. The doctors, the lawyers, the grocers, the college professors, the farmers are all of one mind and that mind says-vote-whatever is best we will have, and anything that is not best we will wipe out.

Things Frequently Regarded

Impossible Attained Here

So you see all those things we wish, read about and hope for, but probably, if we live in an ordinary Eastern City, regard as impossible, brought into actual existence in this section. But why should I tell all these things when they are so much better told by the men I interviewed upon my trip.

The trip itself was a continuous interview beginning with W. F. Ogden, a Union Pacific conductor now on the Harriman pension list, who had been railroading out there for 30 years and had seen Denver grow from 20,000 to 200,000 and who now says, "There are 100 houses going up on Detroit street within five blocks of me, and they are all worth from $4,000 to $7,000 apiece."

Out of the window he pointed to the Presbyterian College which is near Denver and I asked him why there were no trees around the College and he said, "it is hard work to make them grow up there. It is above the water line," which illustrates the fact that the water line in Colorado is drawn in the elevation above which irrigation cannot supply moisture.

Before we got to Boulder its story was told by N. F. Clark of Spring Valley, Wyo., who being prosperous in the oil business established a residence in Boulder in order to educate his family.

The Story of Boulder

And Its Educational Eminence

"We have just completed in Boulder a $100,000 hotel, which furnished will cost at least $200,000. Last night we finished raising $30,000 as the final payment on our $60,000 Y. M. C. A. Building. Mayor and aldermen are all working for the best interests of Boulder. We have a large flouring mill, three reduction plants, two sanitariums, the best in the country, a State hospital with the best staff of physicians in the State and have just completed a Congregational and a Catholic church, each costing $60,000. Property around Boulder is rapidly advancing in value. We have just completed and are operating an 800 barrel a day oil refinery. We have a smaller refinery of about 100 barrels capacity. These two just about

take care of our output of petroleum, which is the best in the United States, comparing favorably with Tyrone Oil, which is Pennsylvania's best."

"Are these Standard Oil concerns?" "Standard Oil controls them. Crude oil here brings $1.50 per pound, and the refineries take all they can get. The Western part of our country is highly mineralized with tungstun, with which steel plates are tempered, and gold bearing ore. We have four banks in Boulder, the soundest in the West, and the Wellington Co-Operative Association, which has the features of a savings bank conducted on the State of Maine plan. The Texas and Colorado Chautauqua is held right near Boulder at the foot of the mountains, and street cars run back and forth. We are just completing the InterMountain line of cars from Denver to Boulder owned by the Colorado & Southern Road and wisely built to serve local traffic. We have near Boulder, Boulder Falls and Eldora Springs, places within an easy day's reach where one can go up for a picnic party and back the same night."

And then he pointed out the beautiful Chautauqua buildings and the places where the tents are set up in the summer, it being as pleasant to live in a tent out there as to live in a house or cottage, and then called my attention to the fact that Boulder has a state library which cost $40,000 and also a beautiful Carnegie library and that the hospital attends to patients free of charge, and I do not now how many other splendid things he would have told me about Boulder if the train had not arrived at that interesting point, where he disembarked. I made a flying trip to the ticket office long enough to find out that the ticket agent, the hackman, the expressmen were all enthused with the same advanced ideas, for they started to tell me that the population was 10,000, that they owned their waterworks and that they had electric lights and street railways and that they had just completed the Y. M. C. A. building, when the conductor hollered "All Aboard."

Dr. White Tells the Story

of Longmont's Success

In a few moments I was interviewing a gentleman with a Prince Albert coat, a rich black tie and a soft black hat, which somewhat unusual attire

expresses the refinement and the freedom of the Westerners. The gentleman in question was Dr. W. J. White of Longmont, the next stop, who said, "I went to Longmont eight years ago from Galesburg,

A Water Way to Wealth.

Ill. They were then raising wheat and small grain and peas. Empsen's canning factory at Longmont was then running two and onehalf months in the year, canning about 25,000 to 50,000 cans a day. That same factory

is now turning out 150,000 to 250,000 cans of peas a day all the year around. Right after they get through with the pea campaign, they take tomatoes, which grow plentifully between Longmont and Fort Lupton. After tomatoes come pumpkins, which takes us almost to Thanksgiving. Then until the pea season opens they can baked beans."

"Are they just as good as Van Camps?" "Undoubtedly," and the Doctor smiled. and went on to state that the pea season opens the first of June and ends the last of September.

The Beet-Sugar Factory Paid

Farmers $1,500,000 Last Year

"Then five or six years ago the beet industry was started, that has gradually grown. They have enlarged the sugar factory twice until it is one of the largest in the country. They are raising twenty tons of beets to the acre on an average and get $5.00 a ton. The last year the sugar factory paid the farmers something like $1,500,000. The sugar campaign opens the 15th of October and lasts until the middle of January. They grind out an average of 1,600 tons a day of twenty-four hours and of that at least 15% is sugar. You can figure the profit.

Besides peas and beets and small grains, Longmont is quite a fruit and vegetable center-and potatoes. Our potatoes grow under the name of Greeley potatoes, and bear the reputation of Greeley potatoes. Strawberries, apples, black and red raspberries and all sorts of vegetables grow profitably in our section. The Empsen Canning Company also cans 'Krout." "

"What is that?"

""Sauer kraut.' The cabbages are raised there, also onions, turnips and squash. The only small fruits that don't grow there are blackberries, they are winter killed. I don't know why."

"I went to Longmont in 1900. It had 2,200 population according to the United States census, now it has about 6,500. Farms were worth then $50 to $60 an acre. They are worth now from $100 to $175-under water."

"Are you making more money out here?" "Yes. At the same price for services, that is, $1.00 for office consultation, $1.50 to $2.00 per call, and in the country at $1.00 per mile, I am making considerably more money than I was making in Illinois."

"Do you cover a large area?"

"I should say so. Why don't you ask me something easy. I go to Louisville 16, miles, Erie 10 miles, Lyons 12 miles." "Are the people prosperous?"

All, Including Working

Men, Are Easily Prosperous "Well, common workingmen, if willing to work, and there is no necessity of being idle a week in a year, get from $2.00 to $2.25 a day for a common day's labor. Carpenters get from 40 to 50c an hour for eight hours' work and other prices are in proportion," and then he went on to say that Longmont is quite a town and a dry town and that the city government is aggressive in the right

up. We are now moving prohibitionists in there. That is a simple matter. We'll vote the liquor traffic out of existence in North Longmont, and perhaps this spring, too."

"By the way, Doctor, how much money did you have when you came to Colorado?" "I came here with about $40.00 in my pocket. I started in and have done very

In Harvest Time.

well. Among other things I have been lecturing at the State University. I now have no more cash in my pocket, but I have accumulated property. I paid $6,000 for my place two years ago, and I can sell it now for $8,000."

Then he told me about the fine Commercial Association they have in Longmont with

Moffat Road shown skirting footh

J. N. McLellan, President, and Thos. Mahoney (pronounced "Mayony"), as Secretary.

He pointed out pea fields and said that they average $30 to $40 an acre and that land is worth $60 an acre or more, confirming the general idea that the further you get from Denver the less valuable land be

comes.

He said that two miles east of Longmont were the two richest asparagus beds in the world, 200 acres altogether.

Leaning over a seat behind the Doctor was a rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed little girl and another little girl asleep in the seat beside her, and the Doctor said, "Those are the kind of girls that weed our beets," which recalled what he had previously said about raising sugar beets, namely, that the number of acres depends on the number of children you have, or the number of laborers you can hire, for weeding is a large part of the process of raising them.

Then just as the train swung into Longmont he said, "Don't forget, bees are also an important item with us. We shipped four carloads of honey last fall,"

Mr. S. S. Morris, Superintendent of the North Division of the Colorado & Southern Railroad accompanied me on my trip to Fort Collins. He is a graduate of the Harriman System, having received his railroad education on the Union Pacific and he is putting in Union Pacific improvements on the C. & S.; reducing the grades and improving the roadbed, etc. At Fort Collins, Greeley, Boulder, Longmont, Berthol and Loveland are handsome depot gardens which