The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-02-22
WHAT IRRIGATION HAS
DONE OUT IN COLORADO
BY cAsslus M. STANLEY.

| only city in the state which has a better
| paying express office.
| They ship peaches, apples and vegeta-
bles of all kinds which take prizes
wherever they are exhibited.
The biggest day of the year in the town
is Watermelon Day." which occurs an
nually in September. Thousands of peo-
pie attend this from all over Colorado
and adjoining states, for watermelons and
cantaloupes are served free to all COM
ers. Last year the pile of melons donated
to visitors was a hundred yards long,
! twenty feet wide and three or four feet
| deep. There is no limit to the number
one can take. Visitors are simply urged
to help themselves and eat all they can.
| The melons are placed in an immense
grove near the fair grounds and the day
is like a gigantic picnic in which thou
sands take part.
Excursions are run from Denver Col
orado Springs, Pueblo and Trinidad for
the occasion and 1t is advertised far and
near 1t is an excellent advertisement
for the town. for there is probably no one
in Colorado who doesn't know all about
Rocky Ford. even if it is a place of only
four thousand people.
Beet Sugar Factory.
But the thing that the Rocky Forder
is most proud to show the visitor is the
beet sugar factory This was erected
three years ago at a cost of over a mil
lion dollars and it produces hundreds of
barrels of sugar every week during the
beet season, which lasts from September
until about April or until the crop Is ex-
hausted.
The authorities of the factory, different
from those of most factories built on so
extensive a scale, invite and even urge
rieff t. ,,.xI, fI1atp YR1a
teous guides are on hand to explain ev-
erything. to take the visitor from one de-
partment to another and to make him feel
that he is always welcome.
First the guide shows you the way
beets are unloaded from the wagons
which bring them in. 1t is all done auto
matically with immense hooks run by
electric motors. Then the washing pro-
cess is shown. From the washer the
beets go into the shredder. which tears
them into long slender shreds. They
are next put In a compress and the juice
finally evaporated. The men who handle
the evaporators are all imported from
Germany and draw immense salaries.
Years of experience are required to be
able to stop the evaporation at just the
proper time and to get the sugar granule
the right size.
Next the sugar goes into the dryers and
finally comes forth as white as snow,
where it is barreed or bagged and
shipped.
The trip through the factory requires
an hour or more, but 1t is well worth the
time.
After the visitor has seen the factory,
the melons and the fruit, and has heard
the wonderful tale of Rocky Ford's
growth, he leaves with the impression
that the town is almost an ideal place to
live in, even II 1t was a desert a few
years ago.
Valuable Lesson.
Any town or city can get a valuable
lesson from Rocky Ford by coming in
contact with its people. There is proba-
bly, not a better advertised town in the
United States than it is. and 1t is due as
much as anything else to the way its
people treat visitors. A man who has
once been there never tires of talking
about the place.