Gilpin observer., 1902-05-01

Denver, April 29.-The great future
that the establishment of the beet su-
gar industry and the extensive culti-
walton Of the soil which that
industry entails has provided for
the state of Colorado, was de-
scribed by ex-Mayor Platt Reg
ers at the weekly luncheon of the Real
Estate Exchange. Every seat at The
table in the quarters of the exchange
in the Graymont block was filed, the
attendance. being larger than at any
previous luncheon.
Mr.. Rogers spoke OF the fact that he
had been brought up to believe that
the prosperity of any community, TO
be permanent must depend upon agri-
culture.
1T was something more than twenty
years ago." said Mr.. Rogers that the
first attempts We're made to irrigate
large tracts of land by great systems,
and to attract to the lands thus re-
claimed the general settler. These IL
rigatiOn enterprises have never here
tOfore proved financially successful.
1t costs from $12 to $50 an acre to get
the water upon any land, through an
irrigation ditch of any size. and the
companies have not been allowed to ex-
act charges in proportion TO this cost
because the farmer could not stand
1t on the crops he raised.
1T has been my endeavor in the
last ten years to bring, or to attempt 90
bring, an enterprise of this kind from
failure to success. l determined that
with low class of products we could
never get the value of the water from
l..s.I I....
er get the population which 1t was en-
titled to have. In other words, what
was needed was intensive cultivation
by which the soil, by the expenditure
of greater and more skillful labor,
would return more valuable product.
But intensive cultivation required so
much attention and knowledge that it
seemed almost to require the employ
ing of a highly educated scientist to
do the work of day laborcr. Or, on
the other hand, 1t required that the cul-
tivation of the soil and the application
of water to the growing crop Use to
the dignity of a science. That meant
the. growing of a high-priced product
In sugar beet farming we have n
fixed price assured the grower for a
given number of years. Indeed so far
as the finished product-sugar-is CON
cerned, save for some slight fiuctua-
tions due to tariff changes, its value
is as fixed and definite as that of gold.
The introduction of the beet sugar in
dustry provided an immediate market
for the product of Intensive farming.
The value of land which was made
available for beet growing nTasinstantly
doubled, trebled, even qHardupled CON-
pared with its value when we had
general farming of conrser crops. HE
raising of beets required greater
amount of labor than general farming.
and this compelled the subdivision OF
the land. Instead of 100 acres poorly
Tiled, we have now forty acres or less
well TILED. so that the work of n Civ
en- family Is limited to twenty or forty
acres. The Great Plains Water Com
pany. as the enterprise with which i
am cOnL ected is generally called. in
stead of selling Its lands 10 any one,
in tracts of ,60 acres. without condi-
tons, AZ It formerly did, now sells il in
tracts of forty acres. at twice the
price. ON the condition that It he at
once improved and the whole area pu.
into cultivation and crop raised the