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Recently I chanced upon one of those books only a true
numeric addict could cherish. Better than the CRC
Handbook of Physics and Chemistry
or The Collected
Works of Pythagoras
, Colorado Agricultural
Statistics 1994
ranks right up there with the
Statistical Abstract of the United States
, the
Bill James Baseball Encyclopedia
and The Metro
Denver White Pages
for digital delight.
For instance, on Dec. 1, 1993, Colorado boasted 3,283,000 hens and pullets of laying age, 690,000 hens and pullets not of laying age, and 67,000 other chickens. That comes to slightly more than one fowl per capita, and their total value is $8.08 million.
But we're down to less than one cow per capita, with only 2,900,000 Colorado beeves, as compared to 3,400,000 Colorado humans. A little extrapolation reveals that in about 1986, people passed cows in Colorado. This date may be significant to future historians when they chart the decline of western civilization.
Our state department of agriculture also keeps track of things like dry beans (Weld County leads with 77.8 million pounds), sunflowers (Yuma County with 22.9 million pounds), cucumbers for pickles (no county data, but 9,570 tons for $2.01 million) and African violets (45,000 pots, 96 percent sold at wholesale, average price $2.10).
Even though these statistics appear exhaustive at first, they miss some important Colorado produce. Our state agricultural yearbook should also provide some information about other crops:
Park County led in the annual aspen harvest, passing Summit County for the first time in more than 20 years.
In September of 1994, a long viewing season combined with generally clement weather attracted 434,327 aspen viewers to South Park, each spending an average of $19.31 on food, gasoline and auto repairs.
We really promoted the red aspen on Boreas Pass,
said a Como spokesperson, and I think the mudslides
along the I-70 corridor helped.
He discounted rumors that the county chamber of commerce
had bribed Denver television broadcasters to tout the
region's colors as the best in the state. That's just
the talk of sore losers, and besides, we all got some help
from the weather and the baseball strike.
He added that there are years when we get an early
wind storm with some freezing rain, and we lose the whole
crop. Like all agriculture, aspen farming is risky
business, and so far, we haven't qualified for federal crop
insurance programs.
Summit County came in second with 397,852 aspen viewers, followed by Grand and Custer. Long-time leaders Gilpin and Teller are no longer contenders, since so few go there for any reason other than to gamble indoors.
In another agricultural category, San Juan County won even though it has not a single acre of arable land.
However, it leads the state in wildflower harvest. Picking the flowers is illegal, but from its wildflower crop, San Juan garnered 14 four-color coffee table books, 27 illustrated trail guides and 221 calendars.
Ouray County was second, and Rio Blanco County displaced San Miguel for third this year, as American image consumers rebelled against the spate of glamorous Telluride wildflower meadows which flooded the market in 1991.
Gunnison County led the state in chuckhole production in 1994, thanks to a hotter than usual summer followed by a typical Gunnison winter.
While it's gratifying to pull ahead of Routt County
in this important category, we're still having trouble
developing an export market for this crop,
said a
county official.
It all depends on what you're looking for,
a
Routt spokesman countered. Gunnison probably does have
more of those routine little alignment-wreckers and
teeth-bashers. But our chuckholes are the result of years
of selective breeding, and one of our special breeds can
swallow a semi.
Chaffee County, just across the Divide from Gunnison, lead in rock sprouts, a crop that may be unfamiliar to many Coloradans.
You go camping, and you clear off the area where you
lay your sleeping bag so that there are no rocks and it's
perfectly smooth. And then about three in the morning, one
sprouts right in the small of your back, and you can't
twist away from it? That's a rock sprout,
the
agriculture department explained.
In fertile Chaffee County, rock sprouts often occur four or five times a night, putting it far ahead of previous leaders Lake and Saguache counties.
Another usual first-place finisher to fall by the wayside in 1994 was Denver County, the perennial state leader in organic fertilizer production.
A department analyst observed that since the General
Assembly started meeting regularly in Denver, the city has
always out-produced the rest of the state by a considerable
margin--after all, the rural areas send their best
producers here.
But 1994 was an election year, fought all across the
state, which dispersed production, and Doug Bruce and
his Amendment 12, all by themselves in El Paso County,
generated more than all the others put together.
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