Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1907-02-21
OUR WESTERN LETTER
Received Some Weeks Ago But Was
Crowded Out From Lack of Room
IDAHO SPRINGS, COLO
RADIO. JANUARY 1907,

IDAHO oHhlNGS, NDLO-
RADIO, JANUARY 1907.
EDITOR OF REPUBLICAN-As | have
been away from my Audubon county
friends for some time / get to thinking
about the great difference between our
smooth land and this mountainous
country. | came TO Fort Collins and
found a prosperous place with great
industries, especially the sugar beet
industry The farmers all raise beets
and they get $500 ton for them; one
ton makes three hundred pounds of
sugar. | was permitted to go through
the factory though they do not allow
visitors only certain days. 1t is big
thing as they employ five hundred men
and the average wages Is ". 20 per
day. They have beets enough to last
till March, and they are piled up along
the railroad, some with little dirt
piled upon them but mostly exposed to
the atmosphere and are frozen. Their
output is $3.50 sacks of sugar daily.
The sugar is mixed with lime, as they
have lake of Stacked lime adjoining
factory and they have machinery that
grinds the lime rock up so fine and
burns it which makes il so fine that IT
is easily mixed with the sugar. The
people say they do with the sugar like
we do with our pork; they get their
sugar from the eastern market, and
when it comes back from there it is
cheaper than they can get it al the fac
tory. The sugar beet is very rich in
sugar, and also very sweet to the taste.
There are three factories here and are
under the same management or com
pany, so they can do as they please
=. Il. e., hn. -
some trouble but held II conference
and settled satisfactorily with the
farmers; they signed the contract and
are to get $3.50 per ton, but they have
to silo a certain part OF them so the
factory can have time TO work them
up. In my judgment they will lose
many beets, as in one place near the
factory they are dumped off the cars
on both sides, piled twelve or fifteen
feet high and some of them are heat
ing already They feed beets to stock
and say they are the cheapest feed they
have.
was at the Colorado College
Farm and saw the fat stock they were
fitting for the Denver Fat Stock Show;
saw some fat sheep and cattle but they
are not anything fine and cannot com
pClG WIN OuIS III huduDoh COuLbg
They had one fat steer that weighed
eighteen hundred pounds, and several
good heifers. They have breed of
hogs they call bacon hogs, and | told
them they looked like our old hazel
splitters or elm peelers; but they had
several fine April Poland-China pigs
that weighed two hundred and twenty
five pounds each. Their cows are not
up to date, but they have fine place
for them, as they have better place
than many of our farmers for them
selves TO live in; and it is kept up in
hrst-class style. Then they have a
big agricultural school and many stu
dents are learning to farm. The farms
are all small and they hold the land
ut $4,000 an acre, where they can get
water, but that is the rub as find out
they have q good deal of trouble
about that matter as it takes an album
dance OF. water to cover the ground
here, and they tell me their crops
suffer for moisture and that retards