ALL
ABOUT
All About
forColorado
Home-Seekers,
Tourists,
Investors,
Health-Seekers
Written and Compiled by
THOMAS
TONG'EFrom Latest Official Reports
"A good land; a land of sunshine; a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and alfalfa, and sugar beets, and fruit; a land of herds and flocks; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose bowels are coal and oil; and out of whose hills thou mayest dig monev.t'<-Deuteronomv VIII, 7-9. (Adapted.)
Copyright, 1913, Thomas Tonge
Published by
Thomas Tonge, +08 Boston Building, Denver
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T&G
PREFACE
The object of this book is to furnish reliable and authentic information for:
(1) Home-seekers (farmers, etc.) now residing in other States and countries, that they may, with great future satis-faction to themselves, Blake their homes in Colorado.
(2) Tourists from other States and countries, that they may, to their own great enjoyment, spend their vacations among the exceptional scenic attractions of Colorado.
(3) Investors, resident in other States and countries, that they may realize and take advantage of the many opportunities in Colorado for the intelligent, conservative and profitable invest-rnent of capital.
(4) Health-seekers from other States and countries, that they may benefit by the famous health-giving climate of Colorado. It has been the aim of the writer to avoid exaggeration. The plain, simple facts as to Colorado, as demonstrated by official statistics and the testimony of eminent and conservative authori-ties, are the greatest and most effective advertisement that Colo-rado can have, whereas statements which have to be mentally discounted by the intelligent and conservative reader have H
tendency to cast doubt on the actual pre-eminence of Colorado in many lines.
Colorado for Home-Seekers
Colorado Needs and Presents Ample Opportunitiesfor More People-if of the Right Kind; that
is, A ssets-Not Liabilities
(~OLORADO AND 8WITZERL.A.ND COMPARED
..
~REA-Colorado has 103,658 square miles; Switzerland has 15,981 square miles ; that is, less than one-seventh the area of Colorado.
IlOPULATION-Colorado (IT. S. Census 1910) has a population of 799,024" or 7.7 persons per square mile.
Switzerland has a population of 3,741,971, or about 234 per-sons per square mile.
Colorado has more varied and greater natural resources than Switzerland, on which to amply maintain a population of 234
persons per square mile.
If Colorado had 234 persons per square mile, the population of Colorado would be over 24,000,000.
I--JOCATION OF
POPULATION-In Colorado, nearly one-third of the population is in Denver, fully one-third live in smaller cities and towns, leaving only about one-third in the rural districts. The mountainous districts outside the mining towns are very sparsely populate-d.
In Switzerland, the population is mainly rural, only six cities having a· population exceeding 50,000. The ..Alpine region is sparsely populated and the valley districts correspondingly densely populated.
PRODUCTIVENESS-Colorado (103,658 square miles) is practically wholly "pro-ductive;" i. e., in the valleys and on the plains-agriculture. horticulture and pasture, coal, oil, clay, etc.: in the mountains-> metalliferous mining, quarrying, forests and pasture.
In the mountain valleys of Colorado there is
at
least twice as much tillable land as the entire area of S\vitzerland.Between the altitudes of 3,500 and 6,000 feet Colorado has valley and plain land equal to about three times the entire area of Switzerland, and with a better climate for farming, etc.
Of the area of Switzerland (15,981 square miles ) 11,443 square miles (including 3,032 square miles of 'forests) are classed
3S "productive," and 4,538 square miles-i. e., nearly one-fourth
of the whole country-c-as "unproductive," consisting of rocks, moraine, glaciers, etc.
WONl)ERFUL .L\.GRICUL'fUR.A.I.J PROGRESS 1900-1910 The 1910 IT. S. Census Report states:
Of the approximate land area of Colorado (66,341,120 acres) 13,532,113 acres were in farms, as compared with 9,474,588 acres in 19'00-an increase of 42.8 per cent!!!
The improved land in Colorado farms was 4,302,101 acres, as compared with 2,273,968 acres in 1900-an increase of 89.2 per cent!!!
Thenumber of Colorado farms was 46,170, as compared wit.h 24,700 in 1900-an increase of 86.9 per cent!!!
The average acreage per farm was 293.1 acres, as compared with 383.6 acres in 1900-a decrease of 23.6 per cent!!!
NOTE.-Ranges or ranches using the public domain for grazing purposes, but not owning or leasing the land, were counted as farms in 1910 and 1900. The counting of these ranges as farms affects all totals, averages and percentages in which the number of farms is a factor. In 1910 there were 157 such ranges included as farms.
The value of all Colorado farm property was $491,471,806, as compared with $161,045,101 in 1900-an increase of 205.2 per cent; the detailed increases being: land, 301.6 per cent; build-ings, 185.6 per cent; implements and machinery, 169.6 per cent; domestic animals, poultry and bees, 40.5 per cent.
The average value of all property per Colorado farm was
$10,645, as compared with $6,520 in 1900-an increase of 63.3 per cent!!!
The average value of Colorado land per acre was $2'6.81, as compared with $9.54 in 1900-an increase of 181 per cent!!!
In 1910, 73.6 per cent of Colorado far1118 were free from
mortgage! ! !
'I'he 46,170 Colorado farms in 1910 were classified as follows : lTnder 3 acres, 569; 3 to 9 acres, 2,222; 10 to 19 acres, 2,279; 20 to 49 acres, 3,882; 50 to 99 acres, 4,384; 100 to 174 acres, 16,355; 175 to 259 acres, 3,004; 260 to 499' acres, 9,472; 500 to 999 acres, 2,426; 1,000 acres and over, 1,577.
Of the 46,170 Colorado farmers in 1910, 80.6 per cent were native white 18.2 per cent were foreign-born white, and 1.2 per cent were ndgro and other non-white.
In 1910, 81.8 per cent of Colorado farms were operated by
owners and managers, as compared with 77.4 per cent in 1900.
