The Glenwood post., 1907-02-23

to raise beets and silo so large por-
t1on of the crop is certainly evidence
that the siloing proposition is not 50
serious matter as farmers might
be led to believe from his article.
| want to say to the readers of
this article that | do not agree with
Mr.. Ebbert' method of siloing or the
method of the sugar company of pit,
ting the beets in the field foI under
that plan we would lose our beet tops
which are worth 81. 80 to "a per acre;
therefore if We pit beets in the field
we would lose from $40 to 1912 per acre
on the sliced portion of the crop be-
cause we would lose the field entirely
also the shrink in pitting the beets in
the field would be much greater than
il the beets were 81 loed in some por-
tion of the field as 1 understand from
the experimental test made last fall
at the Loveland factory the loss was
less than per cent shrinkage on the
pi lie of 10 tons sliced On the factory
grounds of the beets taken from the
farmers as they came in, this test be
ing made on the final net weight of
the beets after taking the tare when
they went into the piles and when
they came out of the piles. The
truth OF this statement is borne out
by the testimony of numerous farmers
whom | visited at Rocky Ford who
told me that their shrink this year
would not exceed l per cent as the
ground was moist and not cloddy
when they sliced their crop. Bruce
Eaton, who visited Rocky Ford at the
time did, will bear me out in this
statement as he stated this fact at the
beet growers meeting at Fort Col
lins, and | insist that the moisture
conditions which reduced the shrink
on the beets this year in the southern
part OF the state will be the same
with us every year if we take advan-
tage OF the last irrigation given the
beets and plow the strip of ground
on which we are going to place our
silo piles and work said strip to re
tain the moisture on the same princi-
pie our dry farmers retain the mois-
ture on their dry farms.
Had the sugar company, as Mr.,
Ebbert contends they have, come to
US with contract for less than 50
per ton, | would have been kicker,
too, but they have come to us offering
us a contract that provides for IS for
thr.. ,fourths uf our crop and an ad-
ditional price of SO cents per ton on
that portion we may be asked to silo.
| want to insist that the so cents per
ton they offer us for siloing ne-fourth
of the crop will cover all expense of
siloing if hauled to some part of the
field.
Some localities aIe now striving to
get sugar factories for we have all
learned during the past six years that
the beet crop is the most profitable
one we can raise and that we wish to
increase rather than diminish our
acreage. Also it is proof against
hail and other like calamities, fully
demonstrated by my sad experience of
three years ago when | had 200 acres
of wheat which | had just started to
cut and which was hailed out, making
practically total loss of the whole
crop. l want to ask my brother
farmers, will our attitude toward the
present factory tend to induce men
who have money to invest in such an
enterprise to invest it in our locality ?
say no. If we will fight an enter
prise which is with us and has been
with US for six years and has treated
us not only fairly hut generously,
demonstrated by taking our frozen
boets the past year. which is fact
that is conceded by all, would it not
make other people looking for invest
ment of this nature hesitate before in p
vesting their money with usT What
assurance COulO we give new anu
independent factory that they would
not have the same difficulties to con-
tend with that our present factories
are contending with Does it not
look reasonable that in addition to
our disloyalty they would have to
fight the sugar trustl 1t may be in
tel esting to some of our farmers that
are still holding off signing to know
that some of the executive committee
of the Loveland Beet Growers asso-
citation have already signed the silo
contract themselves OF have arranged
for their tenants to sign it.