Rocky Ford enterprise., 1912-08-30
SUGAR FACTORY
To BE ENLARGED
Is the Late Current and Per
sistent Rumor
A. B. S. co. OFFICIALS
ON INSPECTION VISIT
Rumor Has it That Company Will
Build Million Dollar Plant in South
ern Colorado Within Year

ern Colorado Within Year
Although the Enterprise has no
authoritative information to give
out at this time, those who are in a
position to know claim that there
is more than mere rumor in the
report that the American Beet
Sugar Co. contemplates greatly
enlarging their Rocky Ford fact
ory and will within a year have
another beet sugar making plant
in southern Colorado.
1t is current report that the
Santa Fe railroad will in the near
future extend its Grand valley
spur into Patterson valley and
south and west to the lands under
the Prairie, Swink and White
Rocks systems. where vast fields
Of sugar beets will soon be grow
ing under contract with the A. B.
S. Co., and that these beets will
be brought by rail to the Rocky
Ford factory, which under Super
intendent Mobiles supervision is
the most successful plant in tho
state.
The present visit of III. II.
Duval, Robert oxnard and Il. @.
Howe, president, vice president
and general manager of the
American Beet Sugar Co, who are
now in Rocky Ford, would seem
to lend color to these persistent
rumors, but these gentlemen are
not willing to give out information
until their plans are fully matur-
ed.
The most pleasing agricultural
prospect OF the Arkansas Valley Is
the future OF the sugar beet industry.
When Vice President Hamilton OF
the American Beet Sugar Company,
made his initial visit to the Arkan-
sas Valley in % and addressed large
gatherings of farmers in all the
towns and hamlets from Pueblo to
the. state line. one of his favorite
word pictures was that he hoped to
see the time when he could stand on
some eminence in the Arkansas Val
ley and from a single point OF view
II. IL
from the smokestacks of fifty sepa-
rate and distinct sugar factories. He
said this was already fact in Ger
many and why was it not possible
in the Arkansas Valley where the
soil and climatic conditions were
more favorable for beet culture than
in the home of the sugar beet indus
try.
The sugar beet industry in the
Arkansas Valley is thirteen years old.
Germany is the home of the sugar
beet industry, and its first factory
was erected in ISI2-one hundred
years ago. Previous to 1900 there
was not an acre in sugar beets in the
ATkdllsds AMY Hol ouS"' 'aNtoiS
in operation. At the present time
there are thousands of acres in sugar
beets in the Arkansas Valley and six
sugar factories will be in operation
this fall. The yield this year both
in quality and quantity, is going to
exceed all previous records.
That there is room for more sugar
beet factories in the Arkansas Valley
is the argument advanced by the La
Junta Tribune last week, as follows:
Sugar beet growing is the most
profitable type OF arming followed in
Germany, and probably has done
more than anything else to bring
about the excellent type OF intensive
farming for which central Germany
is so Justly noted. If sugar beet land
in Germany is worth $500 per acre,
and the returns, even on that valua-
ton, are large, why not in the Arkan-
sas Valley? The province OF Saxony
with an area of less than 10000 square
miles, contains 200 sugar factories
WHY not an equal number in the Ar
kansas Valley, where conditions are
even more favorable than in the home
of the sugar beet industry? The foui
counties of Pueblo, Otero, Bent and
Prowers contain 1854 square miles
according to a recent bulletin OF the
thirteenth census of the United State:
taken in 1910, as follows:
Square Mile.
Pueblo county ...'.....''''.''.1 1'43,