The La Jara chronicle., 1911-08-18
HAD HIS EYES OPENED
oat Salesman Becomes Booster
For Rolled Oat Factory.

Mr.. Shumaker, a representative
of The National Rolled Oat Com
pany while calling at the johnson
Mercantile company's store last
Saturday was explaining that the
high price of oat meal was due to
the poor crops in Iowa. Iowa
you know is the great oat state,
producing last year Isl, ,440 bush
els, the greatest production of
any state in the union. This year
the production is said to be much
below normal and the grain light
weight. w. A. johnson suggest
ed that the company should To-
cate a mill in the San Luis Val
ley where a crop failure was
never known and the grain would
weigh almost twice as much per
bushel as the Iowa crop. Mr..
Shumaker thought the San Luis
Valley could not raise oats enough
In a year to run one of the com
pany's factories more than two
days. One word brought ON an
other and w. A. Braiden, Geo.
Nutting and others took Mr.. Shu-
maker in charge. He was whisked
away in an automobile to various
nearby oat fields and given sam
pies of the grain which is just be-
ginning to ripen. Right in the
edge of town is the Shawcroft
field and d. E. Newcomb S field
in which the oats are standing
considerably higher than man s
head. He was given samples of
last years oats weighing ~
pounds to the bushel grown by
Richard Golden and G.. n. Seeley
furnished pictures of Mr.. Golden
standing in his oat field, on his
face the smile that won t come off
Mr.. Golden was present and told
Mr.. Shumaker things about valley
oats that astonished him.
The La lara mill was next visit
ed. This mill makes a speciality
of Ben Hur high grade flour which
is rapidly gaining a name for it
self second to none in the west
ern market but also buys and
sells a great many oats. Geo. a.
Fitzpatrick, the manager, estimat-
ed there were about $1,000 pro
ducing acres tributary to La Jara
and about 100000 acres tributary
that could be made to produce.
All this information and more was
written down and with the sam
pies duly forwarded to the man
ager OF The National Rolled Oat
company.
Mr. .Shumaker states that the
president of the company will
spend a month s vacation in Col
orado this fall and he will make
an effort to get him to visit the
valley. Mr.. Shumaller had his
eyes opened to the fact that
rolled oat factory at La Jara
might not be such bad invest
ment after all and before he left
had become enthusiastic on the
subject He promised to take the
matter up with his company and
do all he could to promote the
project.
At last Friday nights meeting
of the Commercial club the sub
ject of electric lights was taken
up. In common with other towns
in the valley, parties have ap-
piled to the trustees for an elec-
trio light franchise at La Jara,
but for some. reason the impress
sion prevails that the applicants
are not acting in good faith. 1t
is thought they may be seeking the
franchise with the idea that it
may have a sale value if passed
on to someone else. A number
of citizens proposed to finance
"A local company and a committee
was appointed to look the matter
up and report on ways and means.
Ii sufficient contracts can be Sc
cured to make a local plant a
succe7s no doubt it will be equip
ped and running within few
aonths. The La Jara Milling
and Elevator company has near
ly all the machinery necessary
for five hundred light plant