The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-12-28
.FATTEN|NG STOCK
SHIPPED FROM UTAH
Live Business Man Talks Of 0p-
pOrtunities Lost by Utah
Farmers.
STOCK is SHIPPED
BACK AND FORTH
Visitor Chats InteIligently of
Existing Conditions in High
ly Favored State.

A. D. Ford, of the Western Live
Stock commission of Denver, has been
IN the city for several days and is a
guest at the Kenyon hotel. Mr.. Ford
said that his company was buying up
stock hogs In Utah and Idaho for ship
ment to San Luis valley, Colorado
where they are fattened on peas. In
an interesting conversation with a Tri-
hume reporter last evening, Mr.. Ford
said.
There are 600 quarter sections Of
land tributary TO Monte Vista planted
in peas. Being fed on these peas this
year are 250,000 lambs, about 10000
hogs and 10000 cattle These peas
Yield from % to 40 bushels to the acre.
The animals are turned into the fields
and there they feed and fatten Peas
are very nutritious and produce more
peet and pork than corn, and of bet
ter quality. Hogs fed and fattened on
Canada peas produce quality of meat
that sells in the market for IS cents
per hundred pounds more than corn
fattened hogs
Peas IN that country are cheaplv
grown. They are put in the ground
with drills, often in stubble land that
has not been plowed About 40 pounds
OF seed is required for an acre. They
grow by sub irrigation. No overflow
irrigation is resorted to in the valley.
The peas require no care after planting.
The country down there is very
prosperous. Land that was only worth
SO an acre a few years ago is now
worth SO per acre. The San Louis
valley is the best agricultural country
in Colorado. All kinds of crops grow
TO perfection and there is always a
good market
Learned from Mexicans.
The settlers first got their idea Of
feeding peas to stock from the Mexi-
! cans, who grow in profusion pea
which is called the native or Mexican
pea Then the Canadian marrowfat
pea was introduced and that is now the
staple. profitable pea Of the valley
Conldn Z the farmers of Utah raise
peas for stock purposes to adyautage2r
don t see why they couldn t.
ieas would grow to as great perfection
IN many parts of Utah as they do in
at the apathy and apparently purpose
less work of the Utah farmers as a
rule. They seem to lack in Judgment
and energy, Outside of Salt Lake,
where there is beginning TO be a little
enterprise manifested, there is mighty
little hustling, enterprising life in
Utah. They are a pretty shiftless lot.
This does not apply to all. by any
means, but the great majority of Utah
farmers are short-sighted and far be-
hind the times. Take the business in
which We are engaged as an illustra-
ton. We come out here every. year
and buy all the stock hogs we can get
IN Utah and southern Idaho. ship them
western part of Colorado, fatten them
on peas. and from Denver sell them the
same hogs in the shape of fattened
pork at high riceS in the very country
and settlements where they were raised.
We bad contracted for thirty carloads
OF stock hogs TO be shipped from the
Salt Lake stockyards, but the parties
not be able to furnish so many this
year, 1t is the same way with beef.
They sell their cattle 10 parties who
ship them East and then these same
cattle are shipped back to be consumed
by the people who raised them. and pay
eXorbitnnt prices for the privilege.
This is not good management, neither
is it good business sense
Don t YOU think the shiftlessness
and lack Of management in the rural
districts of Utah is largely due to the
fact that the majority of the people
have been taught to look to their al
legged spiritual leaders for guidance in
h'l lungs ttipOldi az Ncll dS
ual7'
Shiftless People.
fWell. I think that has a great deal
to do with it. There is no question but
what people who will permit them
selves TO be led and guided in lfe's
work by few men who claim to stand
between them and their souls saliva
ton, and that they have authority
from on high to fix things for them
with God. with whom they claim to be
in partnership, and charge them ten per
cent of all thoy raise for the trouble
they and God have in keeping them
straight and governing them for re-
served seat in the great ampitheater Of
the next world, ! say, these things are
calculated TO be destructive Of enter
prise. and TO destroy their independence
and individuality ms n people. This is
the result. rs shown by history, of all
peoples subject TO such cnsaving en-
vlronments. Look Mt Turkey, of which
Utah is its prototypei The same is
true of Russia and in every priest-rid-
den country that exists or ever has ex-
listed on earth. And in the heart Of
these Rocky mountains. in the freest
land that ever was devised by man, the
same blighting influence is seen. So
long as this state of affairs exist, so
long will Utah be away behind this ago
of enterprise-und decades behind the
people of other States not nearly so
highly favored with natural resources
and urcot npportOnjtjes ';