American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1910-12-10

TINE. CaDDage and matO may
be growing where the radishes and
lettuce has been harvested and tt
truck farmer banishes the idea of
raising sugar beets. Therefore the
very thinly and the very thickly pop
ulated districts may need not be de-
pended upon to produce sugar, and
their supply of sweets may be ship
ped In, for sugar is not perish able
like radishse and lettuce, cabbage
and tomatoes, and 1t may be ship
ped from far away states or from
across the seas If we go on revis-
Ing the tariff downward.
Some of the local advantages of
having the beet sugar industry are
that it furnishes profitable employ
ment at thinning time and al the
time of pulling and topping, but as
for the boys and girls doing this,
1t Is a pretty hard job for those just
out of school, and not many of them
do 1t. In the fall they ought to be
IN school, and are unless they go
through the formality of showing
that they are obliged to earn the
living and thus secure a permit to
approach the Thanksgiving season
with more money and in greater
ignorance and with less preparation
for citizenship.
Sugar beets are sold at a stated
price, $4.75 here in Eastern Idaho,
and the farmer knows from year to
year what he is going to receive per
ton. If he knows that he is going
to harvest ten tons or more he
knows that he is going to make ex-
penses or better. If he knows that
he will raise fifteen or eighteen or
twenty tons he knows that he is on
the way to wealth. If he can so
till his soil that he can get up
to that high water mark approach
ing thirty tons then he has it com
ing his way in plenty.
He will need to fertilize his soil
and he can do this successfully by
raising stock on the land, feeding
the pulp from the factory and in
turn making a profit upon his stock,
granting, of course. that ne raises
good breeds and not scrubs.
The soil in this valley is as good
as can be found for beets, the eli
mate hot enough and cold enough
The Utah-Idaho Sugar company does
freely what it can to educate the
people in beet culture and to make
It easy to get the beets on the cars
The Oregon Short Line does its
share to supply rolling stock and
low rates for moving the crops. In
fact both companies have noured Or
treasure like water in anticipation
of making beets a great staple r
/ IN this Ta 1I6ry 1nI ,,-l--- ------
raise the beets much of these ex-
penditures will have been in vain
There are days of disbursement
Tor captains of industry who &C on
a great sacrifice to stockholders to
provide the proper conditions under
which the masses may develop q
great inductry to their own advan-
tage and there are periods when it
looks as if the advance guard stood
alone and stood to lose, but when
the history of the upper Snake river
valley is written some twenty years
from now it may be said that dur
ing the first decade of the new cen
fury the Introduction of the beet
sugar industry was marked by lack
OF response on the part of the hardy
pioneers who had empires and de-
~linquent taxes in their heads, as
well by the Carey act promoters
who sought to become nabobs by
land and canal development, but in
the final analysis of the situation
neither the pioneers nor the pro-
moter were listened to so much as
the voice of the man who knew how
and was willing to spread manure
upon the field and pillow deep to
raise some sugar beets each year,
to rotate his crops, to raise the fin
est breeds of stock, to treat all the
animals as gently and as kindly as
If they we're members of the family,
and to find pleasure at all times in
farming only so much as he could
farm intensively, feeding the soil a
carefully to keep it strong and
healthy as he would a yearling colt.
In that period the sugar beet
will be one of the main spokes in
the wheel, and the wheel will be a
bigger. broader, stronger one thar
now.