The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-15

being as green and fresh as when re-
moved from the soil In SLIDING beets
it is very important to leave wide open
a hole one foot in diameter every hVe
feet on top of the pile for ventilation,
as beets viii sweat after SLIDING.
Experiments in feeding sugar beets
are not lacking in our section; and 1
believe enough has been accomplished
to justify presenting the results of at
least one such experience.
Seventy head of steers, unfortu-
nateiy not weighed into the feed To-,
but estimated by their owner to aver
age 900 pounds in weight, on November
1, 1902, were fed on sugar beets-tops
and all-and without grain of any
kind, until April 4, 1903, making per
iod of $50 days. The beets cost 50 per
ton, and each animal consumed $lI-zo
worth during the period and made a
gain of $50 pounds per head The steers
were shipped and sold on the Kansas
City market at $3.50 per 100 POUNDS,
which was within Is cents of the h1gn-
est price paid for prime corn-fed steers
on that day. When sold the average
weight of the steers was 1850 pounds
The daily ration was so pounds OF beetS.
costing ~ cents per day, and the dally
gain in weight was over 3 pounds
believe a full feed of corn for such
steers is about % pounds per day, and
if that is a fact then corn would have
to sell at Is cents per bushel to equal
this experience in the feeding of sugar
beetS.
Another feeder in our section bought
a bunch of old COWS in the fall of 1902
at 81 per head, fed them exclusively on
sugar beets until the following April,
and sold them in Kansas City for $S3
per head
AT the Denver fat stock and feeder
show last February, 1900 cattle were on
exhibition and the championship was
awarded to a 1000 pound steer fed ex-
clusively on sugar beets and alfalfa.
70
beets in our neighborhood at a cost OF
cents per pound for the dressed pork
Thousands of sheep are annually fed
in the Arkansas valley on sugar beets
and alfalfa.
Horses, which naturally have
sweet TOOTH soon learn to like sugar
beets, and fatten on them.
"Milch cows have been fed with the
best of results on sugar beets, and the
milk was entirely free from any objec-
tionable flavor such as follows the feed
ing of some other root crops.
ION September 18, last, the writer of
this was quoted as follows: The frost
has put an abrupt ending to the melon
business of the upper Arkansas valley,
but the sugar beet comes through smil-
ing and SWeeter than before. In fact,
the fall of the year, after the first froStS,
is the period when the sugar beet, lux
irritating in the mellow sunshine and
cool nights, gathers its largest measure
of the polarizable sweetness. During
the spring it gathers strength sending
its tap-root down deep into the SOIL
in the summer it gathers bulk and in
September and October it sweetens as
it ripens. The more experience we have
with the seasons and the climatic cOndl-
lions prevailing here, the more assurance
we have that when the sugar beet comes
to its own it will be the chief end of
agricultural pursuits in this valley and
possess these rich irrigable lands. AL
falfa will serve as a rest crop on sugar
beet lands to enrich and rejuvenate the
soil. Melons, fruits, cereals and their
kind will occupy a subordinate place in
the husbandry of the Arkansas valley.
The uplands for stock, the valley for
sugar beets-such is certainly our des-
tiny and why delay working together
toward that natural order?'
And these are my sentiments STILL
MIR. HATCH OF KANSAS.
People who are readers of agricul-
turaI journals are generally familiar
with the writings of Henry Hatch of
Kansas. The majority of farm papers
west of Chicago publish regular let
ters from him on agricultural topics,
and they are nearly always of conSid-
cradle interest.
Mr.. Hatch has been little known per
sonally in Kansas. Most people have
supposed him to be a farmer we'll along
in years who has been writing obser-
vations resulting from years of exper-
fence. Instead he is a young man who
u
ty farm, has educated himself. and by
personal observation and study has
! learned many new things about farm
ing.
Secretary Coburn asked Mr.. Hatch to
read a paper before the board
/ of agriculture this year. He chose as
1 his subject THE Mail Order House and
the Farmer" Mr.. Hatch contends that
the farmer is entitled to buy his goods
where he can buy the cheapest, al
| though he gives the country merchant
| due credit for helping the farmer in the
past. He said in part:
| Like a good many farmers of the
west we, that is my parents, brothers
and self began life west of the Missouri
/ living in a dug out and thankful for
that. What we bought in those days
was mighty little, and many times, in
fact nearly all the time, with the ex-
/ ception of the annual pay day, the
! home merchants carried US along. All
necessities of life were never paid for
| on the day they were bought, but We're
/ paid for when the day of reckoning
either, though the amount we actually
/ bought seems small today.
! beginning at the beginning, then
we must waive this one point. though
a doubtful one it is, to the home mer-
/ chants side of the question. He fur
/ nished us grub when grub was needed
was a friend indeed when a friend was
needed, but we paid him for 1t. Such
however, was life everywhere in those
days; all were poor alike. and the
country merchant had to carry all from
i one season to the next. and his price
must of necessity be high-the mar
who stayed and farmed it out had tc
pay his own debts as we'll as of those
who farmed, failed and moved away
away from his almost unimproved anC
then nearly worthless homestead anG
his debts.
This was the white mans burden Of
H. los to h nxxry7 17n0 ny
debts and those of the man who was
either too poor or too dishonest to pay
The merchant was only the man who
handled the goods; the conditions were
such that he handled very little cash
above what his goods cost him, high
freight rates and other expenses now
done away with added.
''Neighbors were few and far be-