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Show I f HORTICULTURE H A UTAH BOY IN COLORADO. B Wc arc in receipt of a letter from H one of our old friends, who is now in B Colorado. The letter is interesting, B giving as it docs, the view point of M one of our Utah boys. ITc says: B B "As you know the possibilities of B fruit culture, and especially the profits B of growing the Elbcrta peach, is B more fully appreciated here by far B than it is in Utah. I. regret to have B to say it too, that the farmers o B Colorado arc- much better organized, B and therefore have more up-to-date B methods than have the farmers of B Utah. While there arc many indivi- B dual farmers in Utah who arc abreast B of the times, yet the fruit growers B of Grand valley can show us many B practical results from our co-opera- B tive theories. For instance, on the B question of frost fighting, hardly a B fruit farmer in this valley can be B found that docs not have a telephone, B and when the weather bureau at B Grand Junction predicts a frost, every B phone in the valley is at once con- B ncctcd, and a general frost alatm is B given. The fruit growers at once get B busy preparing the smudge material B that by the smoke blanket thus B caused, the temperature may be kept B from falling lower, but when the thcr- H momctcr begins to approach danger- B ously near the freezing point, distress H alarms arc given, every whistle in the H whole valley shrieks its warning, and H every bell citings out its urgent call H for help. Such a din is made that no H one can sleep; bon fires arc lighted, H and everything available is made to H smoulder. Those, who like the vir- H gins of old have oil in their lamps H (orchard heaters), apply the torch H and soon a rising temperature is not- H iceablc. When the temperature goco H below 25 degrees F., only those, who H arc prepared to heat their orchards, H can hope for any crop at all. H That these mothods arc effective is H very evident to the most casual ob- H server. I could present tables and H statistics on this matter, but I am H H quite sure that it would be useless. , H Here at Palisade, situated for all H the world, like the farms at the H mouth of Provo Oanyon, the ther- H momoter did not get below 33 tlc- H greo$a during the night of the hardest val"uc of orchard lands very materially material-ly in this vicinity. For instance, three and one-half acres belonging to Mr. Wm. Price, located right in the mouth of the canyon, for which Mr. Price last year paid $4900, recently f sold for $6250. Interesting, in connection con-nection with this, however, is the fact that last year he sold $4279.36 worth of fruit and he stiU has 537 boxes of apples in cold storage. I had the privilege of examining his accounts with the Fruit Growers Association As-sociation in proof of the above statement. state-ment. It rccms very strange that in Utah fluids that arc just as good as these, can be bought for the tithing of their value. In conclusion I want to say that the more I travel, the more I study, the more openings I see for young men along agricultural lines. The life of productive activity is to be desired above all others." o . |