The same condition prevails in all the counties in the northwest part of the State, though, with the exception of the Greeley neighborhood and the Platte Valley, the country is too recently settled to have made much progress in the culture of fruit. In the last few years the blight has been causing considerable discouragement in the Platte Valley and up the tributary streams in Larimer and Boulder counties. Like other diseases, it has struck hard in a few specially valuable places, and in the riot of its march has caused more annoyance through fear than through actual ravages. It may thin out a few susceptible varieties of trees, but when it shall have run its course, the orchards that remain and those that will grow up in the future will be practically impregnable to its attacks. There are many varieties of fruits that will flourish just as well as apples and pears, and which the blight never touches. Men who are ready to drop the business when the fruit pest appears are not the ones who will win success. Many of the trees from which the finest apples are picked this year were badly blighted last year or the year before. CHAPTER XXXV. HOW ENGLISH CAPITALISTS GOT A FOOTHOLD. There are thousands, if not millions, of people in the United States who, if asked how they accounted for the fact that there are so many millionaires in the United States, could not give us a satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon. It is a fact that there are hundreds who have amassed fortunes ranging from $1,000,000 to $100,000,000 each, within the last thirty years, and but very few people have any idea how they have made such immense fortunes in so short a time. Not only our own people have made these vast fortunes, but hundreds of foreigners have accumulated immense wealth in this country, and now hold it. To give an idea of the immensity of these fortunes, I will call the attention of the reader to some well-known facts. First, to the fact, as is shown by Poor's Railroad Manual, that there is now about $5,500,000,000 of railroad bonds and floating debt, and there is about $4,500,000,000 of railroad stock, making a total of about $10,000,000,000, and this vast wealth is in the hands of comparatively few people. Then there are national bonds to the amount of about $600,000,000. In addition to these are the bonds that have been issued by the States, counties, cities, towns, and school districts, amounting in the aggregate to probably $3,000,000,000. Then there are, according to the last census, about 9,000,000 of mortgages upon the farms, homes, and property of the people. The aggregate of these 9,000,000 of mortgages is probably not less than $5,000,000,000, and all of this vast amount of bonds, stocks, and mortgages draw interest, requiring about $1,000,000,000 each year to pay interest.