Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Neb.) 1900-1930, 1905-12-07
Alfalfa

plant to potatoes again. Alfalfa
makes the best fertilizer known.
ihe'far,neyo OF GreeIe' also nat
nure their land heavily and pay a
dollar a='1oad for all the manure
they can,obtain.
Sugar beets yield IS to % tons
per acre and sell at the factory in
Greeley at s. per ton. They are
raised by foreign labor, Russians
and Japs,) the price paid being
$22 per acre for thinning weed
ing, cultivating, digging, topping
and delivering on wagon. The
factory in Greeley consumes 5000
tons daily aud turns out the finish
ed product.
Greeley has also two starch fac
tories that consume the "culls"
from the potato fields. They bay
at present l2c per bushel for culls.
On busheI of cuIls makes 9 pounds
of starch. The cost of building
and plant is $25, 900. They con-
sumo 5000 bushels per day to each
| factory. Onions and cabbage are
also raised in large quantities and
bring good prices. Another i'm
portant industry among the
Greeley farmers is feeding sheep.
Beet tops, beet pulp and alfalfa
hay make we'll balanced ration
and sheep thrive and fatten rapidly
on this feed. Thousands of sheep
are fed every fall and winter at
Greeley. Thus it will be seen
that there are many avenues to
financial success open to the
Greeley farmer and so far as we
could see the farmers of that fav-
Ored spot were on the highway to
prosperity.
There are few openings for the
poor man or the man of moderate
means at Greeley. Land is too
high in price for the poor man to
even gain a fOot-hold. All land
eligible to irrigation is held at from
800 to $250s per acre. All con-
sidered, we believe there are great
er opportunities for the poor man,
the man of moderate means, or the
man seeking an investment for his
surplus cash in the farm lands of
| Northwest Nebraska, than in any
other region of the West. Com
bined farming and stock raising is
the surest and safest way to indie
pendence. Every acre of irrigated
land would have to produce ten to
twenty fold greater yield in crops
than an acre of North west Ne.
braska land, in order to yield as
great a dividend on the invest
ment. The facts are. that every
acre of farm land tributary tc
Gordon, Cor Valentine,) if cult
waited as carefully and skillfuIIy as
are the irrigated lands of Colo
RADIO, will yield from three to five
times greater dividends on the in
vestment. Thousands of acres OF
land in the Gordon district have
produced crops this year worth
double, treble and even quadruple
the price asked for the land. They
did the same thing last year and
the year before and they can be
made to do the same thing every
year with right methods of cult
walton. Besides, nearly every
farmer in the Gordon district has
from one to three sections of land
on which he can Craze from 100 to
800 head of cattle and horses and
have sufficient hay to keep them
fat all through the writer, and his
total investment will not equal the
cost of 40 acres of irrigated land.
We were not disappointed in what
we saw at Greeley. The town and
country are prosperous to high
degree and we confess we are in
fatuated with the place, but for
some reason we returned to our
farm at Gordon, better satisfied
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