Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-10-08
Varied Experiences OF Farmers
Who Contracted to Furnish
Beets For Wayerly
SOME WILL QUIT THE BUSINESS
Others Have Made Beet Culture
Success and Will Stick to It = Com.
pa. Adopts New Plan to Furnish
Farmers Necessary Hands to Do
prudsery Work.
npecia1 20 Times-Republican.

apeciaI 70 Times-Republican.
Hampton, Oct. S.-During the lattef
part of last year representatives OF tile
Iowa Sugar Company contracted with
various individuals and two "synol-
cates'' in this section of Franklin coun-
ty for the raising of about 200 acres
of sugar beets for their factory, erecteo
since that time in the town Of Waverly.
The acreage Of the respective tracts
varied from those of one acre to one
forty times that amount. The results
are to be seen by the traveller as ne
passes thru the country and form an
interesting subject for investigation
because Of the fact that grain ana
stock raising have to the present time
constituted almost the sole reliance OF
nearly all whose occupation is that Of
soil cultivation.
A more unfayorable season than the
one just closing could not have been
chosen for the beet raising experiment,
the continued excessive rainfall pre-
venting cultivation and wedding at the
time the work should have been done
and the majority Of the raisers, not ex-
pecting so wet a season, selected their
lowest and richest ground for the pur-
pose, wishing to obtain the heaviest
possible yield About 140 acres OF the
total area planted will be harvested.
The opinions of the different men who
signed contracts, as to the future OF the
sugar beet in Iowa vary widely, as
may be easily imagined. One who was
asked as to his probable returns re-
Piled: -Four loads Of hay" He will
attach his signature to no beet rails
inE contract in future. Near the place
where this man lives, another farmer
said: Look at this cornfield, nothing
but nubbins. I'll realize more off
my three acres of beets than
from this whole field. Next year
I will contract to raise ten acres"
He is German and the father of a
large family. One man near town pre-
pared five acres with great care, de-
voted good deal of time to his beets
and has a splendid crop. Besides this
work he found time enough to work at
different jobs for others to pay all his
living expenses. Would he raise beets
again next year? The answer was:
s"Wait till see my check, then I'll
decide"
The forty acres grown by one Of the
syndicates were planted on low, fiat
ground, the cost of labor was heavy,
a high rental was paid for the land
and the experiment will hardly be re-
psated. But a forty acre field Of po-
tatoes and another Of corn near by on
the same kind Of land are in even
poorer condition than are the beets,
but these crops were raised with far
less expense.
The sugar company will, during the
coming season, offer contracts whereby
they furnish families to do all the
hand work" incident to cultivation
and harvesting for $40 per acre, the
farmer to furnish the land, do the
blowing, and haul the product to the
shipping point, and this plan will be
the one most favored for acreage next
season. The promoters argue that the
country needs more laborers and that
Of the many foreign families they pro-
pose to bring in for temporary work
considerable portion will remain and
ultimately turn their attention to
other kinds Of employment. 1t is
claimed that each member of a family
can perform the necessary hand labor
on from five to ten acres. Two Mexi-
cans this year took care Of a twenty
acre field near ,Bristow in Butler
county
The machinery used in beet raising
is two-herse drill which plants four
rows and with which man can cover
ten acres day. A two-row cutivator
drawn by either one or two horses, five
acres being about the amount that can
be plowed in one day, and beet elf
ter on which two horses are used,
three acres being an average days dig
ging. The entire outlay for machinery
is about SIS or $50.
In conclusion it may be said that SO
far as the quality of the soil here is
concerned there Is not doubt that
beets can be successfully grown. Com
petent judges declare that some of the
tracts grown in this vicinity this year
will yield fifteen tons per acre. which
at $3.50 ton net figures up return
of nearly $40 an acre. The deterrent
features of the hand labor and the far
mer who plants beets expecting to care
for them at odd times and when the
corn, oats and stock do not need at
tentjon is doomed to disappointment.
Those living near town on small places
and in cases where the family is large
and the parents ambition for their
boys and girls does not run in channels
of too great breadth, beet raising offers
some. attractive inducements, but If a
successful industry of the kind is to be
built up in this part of the state, at
least, it will probably have to be done
with the aid of imported labor for the
average farmer of northern Iowa pre-
fers to ride on sulky pillow rather
than travel over his fields on hands
and knees, and to keep his daughters
in school or around the house helping
their mother rather than to that kind
Of labor which from boyhood he has
been taught to dread,
G. p. WILSON.