The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-11-29

with the prices to be received for the
crop fixed in advance and the money
ready as Don as the crop is delivered
so one may grow one, five acres or
one thousand (1,000) acres and know
that all they grow will be turned into
cash as 500 as it is harvested.
The beet crop is as sure a crop as
can be grown; frost in the spring or
fall does not injure it, hail Injuries it
very little, less than most any other
crop grown.
The farmers in Colorado consider 1t
hail proof. Beets may be grown pro-
fitably on nearly all kinds of soils. OF
course, some soils are better than
others for beets, but with proper are
and suitable climate they do we'll on
either sandy ground, heavy soil, gum
DO or alkali; gravelly ground seems
to be the only kind that will not raise
beets. In Colorado they have proven
very profitable for the farmer.
The most of the growers we have
talked with are getting : this year
twenty (20), twenty-five (22), and
twenty-five (25) tons and sometimes
more per acre, but a few do not get
quite so much, some from fourteen
(14) to twenty (20). One company
had in four hundred (4O0) acres that
is yielding twenty-five (25) tons to
the acre this year.
1t costs from t%hirty-five $3.50 dollars
to forty ($40) dollars per acre to grow
and deliver the beets, so if n can
raise twenty (20) tons to the acre the
gross receipts will be one hundred
($100) dollars minus forty ($40) dol
lars for expenses, a net profit of sixty
($60) dollars per acre. This may be
increased by producing more or less
to the acre. 1t will cost nearly as
much to produce fifteen (15) tons on
an acre as it will twenty-five (25)
tons.
Land values have always increased
at once with the establishment of a
beet sugar factory; bank deposits and
business increase. In one small place
with two banks the combined deposits
thousand $4,000 0 dollars four a.
years ago with the building of the fac
tory to one million C$1, 900, 00O) dol
lars now. At another place n bank
was to pay out OF the 18th of Novem-
Der two hundred fifty thous-
and ($25O,O00) dollars for beets
and a like amount on the
18th of December. There deposits are
increasing at the rate of one hundred
thousand ($1Uv,0O0) dollars per year.
This increase was not all attributed
to the beet sugar industry, however,
but it seems to indicate a prosperous
condition of the community.
In Colorado the establishment of a
beet sugar factory has increased the
sale and the price OF alfalfa and nay.
The beet pulp from the factory is
valuable for feeding purposes and
large numbers of sheep and cattle are
brought in to use it up. They must
have some hay. Alfalfa is said to be
scarce and hard to ind there now at
five ($5) dollars per ton in the stack.
A beet crop must be kept clean,
and in order to secure good yields
continuously, the ground must be fer
tilted or crop rotated, SC while you
are making money on your beet crop
you are also freeing your land from
weeds and increasing it's productive
ability and therefore increasing its
value to you, whether you wish to sell
it or live on it.
The beet and sugar industry brings
about a condition of affairs where one
who owns land, but does not are to
farm it himself, may let it out with
profit to himself and the renter.
Beet land is rented in Colorado for
one-fifth (1-5) OF the beets delivered
at the factory or dumping station, the
renter doing all the work and paying
all of the expenses and getting four
fifths (4-5) of the crop, and where any
thing like a fair crop is grown there
is profit for all parties.
The growing of beets does not re-
quire a large investment in machin-
cry, a drill that will cost about forty
($4O) dollars, a cultivator that will
cost about twenty-seven ($27) dollars,
a pillow that will cost about sixteen
($16) dollars, and a rack to haul the