Rocky Ford enterprise., 1901-02-01

w NV sNuhihE CohIllE ohs
clay tho joys OF "one and twenty"
sttlI bc with you. even now.
Though yolr heads arc fTn,tlng over
AMI ;Lc lIHcs arc OF your brow.
- yug travel down iIfo'- river
To- the great c!prnal sea.
whos, tho pilot cries ''bc ready
a. he Ecsk0ns you and me.
May you lie r,ady. ready waiting
f0r the coming oi the tide.
May you live and love forever
When you reach the other side.
After another piano solo and n
second song by the qunrtette Mr..
Swink responded to Col Lock.
hnrt's address.
He confessed that the demon
stra,ion was the greatest surprise
Of his life-wns completely roped
in. He expressed his most hea rty
thanks for the splendid gift. He
WIS glad of the success which had
attended his work and that Of
o,hers-slad TINT til. benefits
were so wide spread. He came to
Rocky Ford almost 30 yenrs ngo
to make n home. He wns dead
broke. his only assets being n
dozen children. He hesitnted
whether tn stay or go back to ILL.,
inois. but after whole days hard
study OF the land aud general sit
uation concluded to stay. In those
days only the land with n river
front was deemed of value, the
general opinion being TINT this
was destined to be only stock
But Mr.. Swink thought
different and finding n government
corner proceeded to survey some
d,sirable land, soap weeds being
his fling holders in running the
lines. Before the survey proceci-
ed fnr n rattlcsnnkc fastened itself
to one leg of his pants. BY the
time he got the reptile shaken off
and killed he Ind forgotten all he
ever knew about civil engineering.
Nevertheless he located his claim
aud prepared to stay. 1t was hard
work to convince settlers that this
was anything but stock country,
but after hard winter killed many
cattle it was net so diiiicult to get
people to experiment on other re.
sources of the valley. A deserved
tribute was paid to Mrs. Swink for
with him the privn-
tions OF pinoeer life.
Mr.. Swink began to work for n
beet sugar factory eleven years
ago, sending to Germany for seed
to make experiments. Tried to
get the legislature to appropriate
$500 for beet seed but was laughed
Mt by short-sighted senators. His
experiments in the direction of n
beet sugar factory cost him 5000.
At Grand Island, Neb., some years
ago he met Henry Il. Oxnard and
showed him the analyses made OF
beets grown here. Mr.. Oxnard
said then that there was no better
place in the union to grow beets.
He and Mr.. Swink agreed on the
fact that we did not then have the
people to grow the beets. Mr..
Oxnard promised that rs soon ms
the valley was ripe for n factory
he would build one. Aud he did.
After returning from his visit
to Grand Island Mr.. Swink was
convinced that the securing OF n
sugar factory would be promoted
bv having the country well sup
piled with small tract gardeners.
He Mt once laid off n portion OF his
land in 5 and 10 acre lots. A. Z.
kouns was the first man to come
to purchase. A five acre lot was
bargained for and Mr.. Swink asked
Mr.. Kouns how much he could
nav down. Mr.. X. said he could
pav nothing-was dead broke
had only 81 so. Nevertheless the
deal was closed. Then Mr. kouns
asked: What am / to do for a.
house? Finding that Mr.. konns
was not able to build house Mr..
Swink furnished the money to buy
the material for the new home
This was the beginning OF the
Garden tract era in tue Rocky
Ford country. Mr.. Kouns soon
made enough money out OF the
land to pay for his first five acres
then bought another tract-nnd
n few months ago, ont of the prof
-. ,r .,,,,r hrnt culture, pu.chas-