In the way of crops, alfalfa takes the lead in Colorado, as wheat does in Kansas. It requires the very minimum of care; the land being once planted with alfalfa, there is need only of turning on the irrigation, and mowing it, at the right time. Alfalfa produces three crops a year, and yields from one to two tons per acre. It sells at from three to ten dollars a ton, and this makes a revenue quite worth considering. The difficulties encountered everywhere in Colorado, in every branch of industry, or in domestic work, are those of securing labor. Wages are high in every conceivable line of work, but to a large extent the labor and service, even when procured, is of a very poor order. In many of the larger hotels employés are often kept on the pay-roll for two months at a time when not needed, simply because it is impossible to fill their places when the need comes. From requirements of the seamstress, the laundress, the cook, the maid, the farmer's working-men, or the employés in almost any line of work, the same difficulty exists. Much is heard regarding strikes and other forms of the eternal conflict between labor and capital; and yet the high rates paid, the concessions constantly made to the demands of employés, the conditions provided for them, would seem, at a superficial glance, to be such as to bridge over every difficulty. Domestic service is something that presents the greatest problem on the part of the employer. If there is so large a number of "the unemployed" in the East, why should not the conditions balance themselves and this superfluous element find good conditions for living in Colorado? This question involves the problem of economics, with which these pages have nothing to do; but no traveller, no sojourner, can linger in Colorado who is not simply lost in wonder that the varied work that is waiting, with the most liberal payments for the worker, and the multitude of workers in the East who need the liberal payment, cannot, by some law of elective affinity, be brought together.
When it is realized that the Rocky Mountains occupy in Colorado more than five times the entire space of the Alps in Europe, their importance in climatic influence as well as in scenic magnificence can be understood. The forests of Colorado are found on the mountains and foothills. The heights are covered with a dense growth of pine woods, while in lower ranges abound the silver spruce and the cedar. Colorado has a state forestry association which aims to secure as a reservation all forests above the altitude of eight thousand five hundred feet, as this preservation is considered most important to the water supply. In the Alps there are nine peaks over fourteen thousand feet in height; in the Rocky Mountains, within the limits of Colorado alone, there are forty-three peaks, each one of which exceeds in height the Jungfrau. There are in Colorado more than thirty towns, each of which is the theatre of active progress, and each of which lies at an altitude exceeding that of the pass of St. Bernard. The sublime cañons and gorges are eloquent of the story of Titanic forces which rent the mountains apart. The vast plateaus were once the bed of inland seas. In the cañon of Grand River towering walls rise to the height of half a mile, in sheer precipitous rock, for a distance of some sixteen miles. The strata of these rocks are distinctly defined, and the play of color is rich and fantastic. The vast walls are in brilliant hues of red and amber and green and brown,--the blending of color lending its enchantment to the marvellous scene. Each cañon has its own individuality. No one repeats the wild charm of another. Excursions abound. There is "the loop," an enchanting mountain ride made from Denver within one day for the round trip; the "Rainbow" tour, and others, besides that of the "circle" already described. In each and all these journeys the route is often on the very verge of the abyss, and the sublimities, the splendor of coloring, exceed any power of language to suggest.