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Show 131 A Boil with 40 per cent, of clay bakes too much for fruit. Three miles above Carlisle, Beaver Creek empties into the Arkansas River, which, at that point, has about double the volume at Pueblo, twenty miles below, where the supply of water is much depleted by large irrigating- ditches. The average yield of the farms is 40 bushels of corn, or 50 to 60 of wheat per acre. A specimen of soil from a fine corn- tield near the farm of Carlisle, was analyzed, the result being as follows: Potassa -• 0.147 Soda traces. Lime 2. 53 Magnesia 0.12 Oxide of iron and alumina 0. 62 Phosphoric acid 0. 061 Sulphuric acid, chlorine traces. Hygroscopic moisture 1 2. 79 Chemically- bound water and organic matter 3. 51 Insoluble in hydrochloric acid 89. 21 Twenty- five miles southwest of Pueblo^ is the Greenhorn range, which rise above the plain gradually to a height of 5,900 feet, where the mountains proper commence. Around the base* of the mountains and between the foot- hills are fertile valleys, drained by a number of creeks and well grassed over. Ascending the mountains along the valley of Hardscrabble Creek, and passing the divide, we descend, on the southern slopes, into Wet Mountain Valley. On the routo is Rosita, a comparatively new mining- settlement. About five years ago this valley was selected as a farming- settlement by one Mr. Wallston ; a town was laid out and named Colfax before a single house had been erected; but the enterprise proved a failure, not only on account of night- frosts almost every mouth of the year, incident to the great altitude, but also from bad or injudicious management, the colonists being selected from among unsuccessful Chicago tradesmen, who were ignorant of farming. The Wet Mountains on one side, and the Sangre del Cristo range on the other, not only inclose this valley, but also farther south and in lower altitudes the valleys of the Muddy and Huerfano, ( Huerfano Park.) In the second and third are 250 ranches and farms, farming being done by irrigation from the Huerfano. Among the settlers are Americans and Mexicans. Mr. Moore, who settled here twelve years ago, informed me that he had 120 acres under cultivation, and raised 2,000 pounds of wheat to the acre. He cultivated, besides, corn, oats, barley, watermelons, and potatoes; beans and beets have not as yet been tried. The high price of potatoes- 5$ cents a pound- was on account of but few places being able to produce them. The altitude of the Huerfano Park ( 6,600 feet) is such, that the dryness of the air does not exert much influence, the average temperature being lower. Corn brings 4 cents a pound ; wheat 3 cents. The park itself contains but little grass, but there is good pasturage some miles off between the foot- hills of the mountains, where cattle and sheep are raised, the former to the extent of 12,000 head. There are numerous little creeks draining the slopes of both mountain- ranges, among them Turkey, William, Pass, and Jamero Creeks. Between May 15 and October 10 frosts rarely occur in the park. Between the foot- hills of the mighty peaks of the Cerro Blanco are a number of fine valleys, among which is the valley of Ute Creek- a stream reaching San Luis Park at Fort Garland, and soon afterward emptying into the Sangre de Cristo Creek or Rio Trinchara, a tributary of the Rio Grande. The San Luis Valley in its southern portions is dry and sandy, excepting the bottoms of the penetrating streams, and is covered with sage- brush and grease- wood, Artemisia tridentata, Sarcdbalatm vernicularis, ApU> pappu8.) The surgeon at Fort Garland, Dr. Moffat, called my atteution to a so-called poison- weed, a small leguminous plant growing along the river- bottoms, and by many thought to be very injurious to cattle, numbers of ranchmen having left the San Lnis Park on account of1 . heavy losses in their herds. It being rather unusual to find poisonous plants among our western leguniiuosn?, I suspected a mistake, and attributed the poisonous result in question to Aconitum napellus, a decidedly poisonous plant growing here and there along the river- margins, and particularly where the altitudes are over 7,000 feet. But it had been repeatedly observed that the latter plant was never touched by cattle. The leguminous plant there called " poison- weed" was determined by the botanist of the expedition, Dr. Rothrock, as Oxytropis Lamhertu Dr. Vasey, botanist of the Agricultural Department, states that in California also bad effects are experienced from another leguminosa. The San Luis Valley proper is about one hundred and forty miles lon^, and'averages fifty- six miles in width, but only a small portion of this area can be irrigated. The southern part has an elevation of 6,700 feet, while the northern section is perhaps 300 to 400 feet higher. The water of the Rio Grande, where this river traverses the valley, is available at only a few places, being hemmed in chiefly by deep canons. In the southern portion of this park is a moderate depression, into which empty a number of creeks. This depression is the so- called San Luis Lake, the last remnant of a former |