The Lamar register., 1902-04-30
THE SUGAR BEET
AS A COLONIZER
PLAT ROGERS SAYS 1T Is IDEAL
FOR INTENSIVE FARMING.
Filithe State With Compact
communities.

The great future that the estab
lishment of the beet sugar industry
and the intensive cultivation of the
soil which that industry entails has
provided for the state of Colorado,
was described by Plat Rogers yes
terday at the weekly luncheon of the
Real Estate exchange. Every seat
at the tables 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 communi-
ty, to be permanent, must depend
upon agriculture.
''It was something more than 20
years ago." said Mr.. Rogers, "that
the first attempt was made to irrigate
tracts of land by great systems, and
to attract to the lands thus reclaimed
the general settler. These irrigation
enterprises have never heretofore
proved financially successful. 1t
costs from $12 to $25 an acre to get
the water upon the land, through an
irrigation ditch of any size, and the
companies have not been allowed to
exact charge in proportion to this
cost, because the farmer could not
stand it on the crops he raised.
'In sugar beet farming we have a
fixed price assured the grower for a
given lumber of years Indeed so
far as the finished product-sugar-
il, concerned, save for some slight
fluctuations due to tariff changes, its
value is as fixed and definite as that of
gold. The introduction of the beet
sugar industry provided an imme
diate market for the product of in
tensive farming. The value of land
which was made available for beet
growing was instantly doubled.
trebled, even quadrupled compared
with its value when we had general
farming of coarser crops The rails
ing of beets required a greater
amount of labor than general farming
and this compelled the subdivision
of the land. Instead of 100 acres
poorly titled, we have now 40 acres or
less we'll titled, SO that the work of a
given family is limited to 20 or 40
acres. The Great Plains Water
company, as the enterprise with
which am connected is generally
called, instead of selling its lands to
anyone, in tracts of 100 acres, with
out conditions, as it formerly did,
now sells it in tracts OF 40 acres, at
twice the price, on the condition that
it be at once improved and the whole
area put into cultivation and crop
raised the first year.
Gas to the matter of the price
which the farmer will get for his
beets in the future, my own judg.
ment is that, instead of there being
any chance that his revenue will
lessen, he will have every reason to
expect an increase in the price of his
beets. We have here under irriga-
ton, a condition peculiarly appIica
BILE to sugar beet culture. In raising
sugar beets to obtain a maximum of
ssccharine contents, it is as Import
ant that water be kept off the beets
at the proper time, as it is that they
get water when they do need it. 1t
is not desirable that water be applied
much after the 18th of August
Now, the open, dry falls, with the
cool nights which are characteristic
of this climate, provide exactly the
ideal conditions for the growing of
sugar beets, and the Colorado farmer
may plant his crop with a certainty
that he will be able to harvest beets
of the first quality and the highest
value.
There is another element which
promises to materially increase the
value Of the Colorado beets. l say