It is still within the memory of boys when it was almost universally agreed that nothing was more impossible than successful fruit raising in Colorado, with the exception of certain varieties of small fruits. It is easy to see how such a belief grew up, for even now in many places it requires ocular demonstrations to convince that, in parched valleys where frequently even cactus and sage-brush are but sparsely represented, fruit can be grown that in lustrous bloom and richness of flavor can not be surpassed in any country or climate. That such is the case, however, has already been so thoroughly proven, and the proof is being so persistently repeated year after year, and in widely separated localities, that to longer disbelieve or cavil is sufficient evidence either of ignorance or determination not to believe. When travelers first crossed the prairies and followed the sandy or adobe river bottoms they could hardly be expected to think of the barren tracts as covered with orchards and gardens within a few years. Yet there were indices even then, and had not every mind been wholly absorbed in the search for gold, some one might have drawn a lesson from the laden plum and cherry trees that lined every foot-hill, cañon, and ravine, sometimes following the stream far out on the prairie. In the mountains, too, were raspberry patches, sometimes covering thousands of acres and yielding almost incalculable quantities of luscious fruit that, having no more appreciative pickers than bears and birds, annually decayed among the rocks and fallen logs. There were, and still are, countless numbers of huckleberries, and in every part of the mountains grow more or less wild strawberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, thimbleberries, huckleberries, and numerous varieties of cherries, plums, and nuts. Considering these things it would not have required a great stretch of imagination of some old fruit man from the East to have foreseen something of the possibilities now beginning to be almost phenomenally realized in every part of the State. A history of horticulture in the Centennial State has not yet been written, and it is impossible to say when and where the first domestic fruit was grown, or to whom is due the honor of having taken the initial step in the industry that from its rapid development and the enthusiasm already enlisted bids fair to outstrip all other pursuits in the State. In rapidity the growth has been much like that of our magic capital city, and as fruit is one of the things with which a luxury-loving people will not dispense, it may fairly be predicted that the infant industry, without any protection or coddling, will keep pace with the State and city.