The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-12-24
Western Kansas Would Like
Legislature to Help.
1. l.. Diesem Says They Have
Become Problem.
NO BOUNTY THIS TIME.
Beet Sugar Men Want No More
Money From State.
Has Reached the Dignity OF a
Paying Industry.

The sugar beet growers of the Ar
kansas valley will not ask the coming
legislature to make an appropriation
this winter to encourage the growing
of sugar beets in Kansas, according to
L. L. Diesem of Garden City. Mr.. Die
sem is himself one of the prominent
citizens of southwestern Kansas. He
has lived in the Arkansas valley in the
neigh borhood of Garden City for near
| ly a quarter of a century. He is a
member of the state board of agricul-
ture and is well informed on every
| thing pertaining to farming in the
southwest. He is a beet grower him
| self and is enthusiastic on the subject
| of raising sugar beets.
1.-THE sugar beet business is now be-
yond the experimental stage with US, )"
said Mr.. Diesem Friday to a State
Journal reporter land so far as am
| concerned we won't ask the leg1sla-
ture for any further bounty. 1t has
been proved that beet raising is a
profitable industry in the Arkansas
valley and now the industry will go
ago w. M. Kinnison. our representa-
tive from Finney county, made the
fight in the legislature for the beet
sugar bounty, but have told him that
1 did not think we ought to ask the
state for it again, and L think he does
not intend to introduce any bill to
that effect this winter. In fact, he has
been approached by people in other
counties and has told them that while
he will vote for a bounty he will not
make a fight for one himself"
Heretofore for the past four years
the legislature has appropriated $1O,-
600 for the biennial period as a bounty
to growers of sugar beetS. The bounty
was one dollar a ton for all beets used
for sugar. The beets were sold to a
factory at Rocky Ford, Colo. The
amount appropriated for the bounty
has not nearly been used UP during
either biennial period, alth Ough a con-
siderable amount will be used this
year. It is distributed under the direc-
ton of the state board of agriculture.
eff the coming legislature wants to
do anything special for u.s. continued
Mr.. Diesem, they might make an ap-
preparation of perhaps $4,000 to ex-
pertinent in destroying the grasshop-
perS. We have had a great deal of
trouble with grasshoppers this year.
wouldn't even ask the legislature for
that, but I think it would be money
well expended. A great deal of fun
was made of that appropriation to ex-
terminate prairie dogs, but it was a
good investment for the state, reclaim
ing a large amount of land that the
dogs were destroying. L don't know
Just what could be done in the way or
discriminating graSShOppers, but they
might be inoculated with some disease
as chinch bugs were. 1 imagine that
would kill them off. We lost our last
two cuttings of alfalfa this year on ac-
count of the grasshoppers. We got
two crops early but we didn't get any
after the first of July. 1 have been
away from home in the east for the
last five weeks. but 1 understand that
the snow we had a short time ago
killed off millions of little hoppers that
had recently hatched.''
Mr.. Diesem is an enthusiast on the
subject of irrigation and he looks for
great
Arkansas valley from the government s
experiments in bringing the underflow
to the surface, if the experiment is car
RED out. 1t will require about $45,-
600 to build the plant to make the
experiment, but Congressman Murdoch
and Senator Long hope to get through
an appropriation i'll congress to get
this amount from the IRRIGATION fund.
Elwood Mead, chief engineer of the
bureau of irrigation, has already made
the surveys for the experimental plant.
"Al that we want is for the govern
ment to prove that the underfiow can
be brought to the surface by the force
of gravity" said Mr.. Diesem. after
that is done private capital will put in
all the plants needed, but private in
dividuals do not like to put up large
amount of money to experiment with.
According to the plans and sur
veys made by Mr.. Mead, it will take a
pipe three and half miles long to
bring the water to the surface on the |
used for irrigation. In the distance
the river has a fall of about rs feet, |
but that much of a fall is not needed |
'Mr. Mead's idea is to run big tiles |
out from a central point in the bed of
the river, gather the water into the |
pipe which will take it down the river |
and bring it to the surface three and
a half miles further down. The esti- |
mates he has made are to bring up a |
stream thirty-six inches in diameter |
It is now planned to throw this stream |
into the Garden City ditch on second |
bottom a mile or so above Garden City. !
where it can be readily utilized If it !
is a success there will be plenty of |
capital available to put in more plants |
of the kind.
eve are also experimenting on
pumping water on a big scale near
Garden City. A man who owns a |
farm of a thousand acres above Gar
den City has dug a well 120 feet long
and 4 feet wide. The length extends |
across the underfow. He has put in |
a steam pumping plant with a centri-
fugal pump with a capacity of 5000
gallons a minute. He expects to be
able to irrigate his entire farm with
that plant sufficiently to grow sugar
beets. The plant cost about $1,000 |
which will be pretty cheap for water
to irrigate a thousand acres. We are
going to have an irrigation convention