Rocky Ford enterprise., 1914-12-25

badgers. coyotes, or ring-tailed mon
keys gazing from behind the small
bushes and things seemed to have
polka dot tails or dainty blue bor-
der across their yellow expanse, as
we have been told some Colorado
badgers have. still we maintained a
discreet silence The consequence
mysteriously evolved itself out of the
air off in the distance, as coyotes us
ually do. we are reliably informed
land again truth compels the admis-
sion that this particular coyote when
| it got ready vanished via the same
| route.) the result was that every
body saw it first but the editor. Per-
| sonally we were too busy trying to
| classify a jackrabbit that was trying
to get run over in the road. We do
seem to remember seeing flash of
gray lightning going by the car we
were in. The hounds were set free
and started under full sail But alas
and alack, the curious jackrabbit, fail
ing to commit suicide under the
wheels of our car. attracted the dogs
attention and they trimmed their sails
for it. The last authentic informa
ton about both the coyote and the
jackrabbit is that they laughed them
selves to death.
1t was all very exciting From then
on we saw heads back of every bush.
The small members of the party were
for stalking the game on foot and SO
humiliate the dogs. The trouble as
later explained to bewildered ten
derfoot was that greyhounds do not
| track their prey by their nose. Their
ocular equipment is their manstay,
and as the rabbit was the last thing
| to come within range they gave their
undivided attention to it. However,
they ran down little grey cat later
on and before anyone could interfere
and explain to the dogs that the eti-
quette of COW camp forbade eating
the inhabitants thereof, the cat had
been partially digested.
The hound pack is kept for the
amusement OF the factory men. They
are dogs trained to hunt and are at
the service of the men. All this at
first may sem foreign to one accus-
toned to the dull round of the ordin-
airy factory life, but it is one of the
things that has entered into the max
ing OF the wonderful organization at
Rocky Ford. 1t typifies the realiza-
ton by the management of the hu-
man element which when utilized. as
in this case. goes a long way toward
smooth working of any business.
While Rocky Ford. the factory, is
busy making sugar. and sugar men as
one of the byproducts, the company
has been busy demonstrating what
can be accomplished by up-to-date,
scientific farming. The beet sugar
industry in the west may be said to
be the dividing line between garden
and waste land. When it goes into
any part OF the country it takes with
it all the knowledge available on the
subject of farming. 1t also takes the
means for turning the desert into a
prosperous country side, All that the
majority OF the western lands ever
needed was water. Without water
some OF them are perhaps little
more productive than the Sahara. but
with water they will grow anything
the climate viii permit. and that is
some. When the sugar companies
went into the Arkansas valley. the
valley was there and with the excep-
ton of the great grandfathers OF the
coyote we chased that day, that was
about all worth mentioning. There
are stretches OF land yet where water
has not been put on and on the trip
by auto from Sugar City to Rocky
| Ford this fall we had vision of
| what the valley might still be il the
beet sugar industry had not taken up
| work there, There was a long reach
of windswept prairie lands which in
good seasons would afford pickings
for cattle and in bad seasons even the
| cattle would starve. But the three
| companies in the Arkansas valley,
with their six factories (three idle
this season. have changed the face
of the country.
When the American Beet Sugar
Company, which now owns and oper-
aters about $4,000 acres of land. some
of it adjacent to Rocky Ford but the
biggest part up Lamar way, first
bought it, the intention was to devlop
and put It in shape so that living
could be made on it and then to sell
it off, Later 1t was decided to keep
it and operate II,
The company practices to an in
crcasing extent the policy OF selling
manufactured products off its land in
stead OF selling only the raw mater
ial and marketing the finished pro-
duction in the shape of cattle, sheep
and hogs. What is raised on the
land over and above the requirements
for manufacturing meat animals and
feeding the work stock is sold. They,
in this way. raise their grain, hay and
other feed as cheaply as possible and
by selling it in the form of finished
meat animals. get the market price
for finished products. and yet send
off the land nothing but the squeal.
Some of the best looking cattle. sheep
and hogs we have seen in blue
moon were being feed on the farms
owned and operated by the Ameri-
can Beet Sugar company,
To those who lament the passing
OF the day when meat was cheap, be-
cause range bred and fed. the part the
sugar industry already has played in