Gunnison news-champion., 1915-01-29
K M n U
u1u N uxfI
As Tod By JSha ! f3sssS a Mos,-
rose ct . S,sckaess Met
ae Ik<se.

practically qaIf The business.
As ve began 10 ilnd oct how produc.
tive our and was for the growing oi
fnIit. sugar beets. onions snd POTATOES
a good part Of our alfalfa land wss
pioWed gp and planted 70 these crops.
Cur mining toWus we're at that time
fairy prosperoas and took q good por.
tion Of our potatoes. grain and fruit.
bat a. these creps kept steadily increas-
mg We had to look farther east for a
market.
Daring the last SIX years our fruit and
patstoes, although of excellent quality.
have hardly paid the cost Of growing
Freight charges and the toll demanded
by the middiemen eat sp all the profits
and many Of oar farmers are dissstis-
fied with the proposition.
There are several reasons why we
should change our methods.
Owing 10 our labor Troubles and men
with capital seeking investment are
feeling shy of this state and as a conse-
heng developed as they could be and
our mining towns including Denver. are
all dull in business way, and we surely
cannot hope for better markets here at
home for some time to come.
The middle west, Of which we are a
part, in the last few years has made a
wonderful development along sgricuitu-
raj lines, but il has not developed to the
same extent in the building of large
cities and manufactures.
We have here in this valley every
thing needed by the farmer to produce
good crops, perpetual sunshine, pro-
ductive soil and plenty of water, but no
nearby cash market for what we pro-
duce
/ Interest, taxes, water costs and labor
are always coming due and must be
paid
The farmers pay for his labor comes,
as a rule, only once year and hard in
deed is his lot when his products do not
command a ready and profitable mark ct.
We have no competition IN transporta-
tion and our crops are bulky. We nave
only one sugar beet factory and one
mill in our immediate vicinity and its
products for market is limited to the
nearby towns. Last week | noticed
wheat selling for 81. 40 per bushel in
Chicago while here it was 81 As per 100
pounds.
Now what are we going to do about
it? 1t looks TO me that the feeding of
more live stock would help to solve the
problem. We, as members of this ~
sociation, are more interested in the
growing and feeding of cattle.
Our ran yes that at one time supported
thousands of cattle are now occupied by
the sheep industry and perhaps as at
present administered will not carry very
many more cattle but we can with
profit and should feed and finish more
of them.
There is generally about a dollar a
hundred difference between the price of
feeders and finished cattle in favor of
the latter. This, with the gain in
weight, insures fair price for the feed
consumed.
In the growing of beets, hay, grain
fruit and potatoes and hauling these
crops off the farm we are rapidly i'm
poverishing the fertility of our soils;
the quality of our product soon becomes
inferior, especially is this SO with fruit,
beets and potatoes. The secret of good
crops is to feed as much of them %
possible to live stock there produced.
and buy as much of the crop of the
other fellow as possible and feed that
too. This system has put many a
farmer on easy street who would al
ways have had his nose to the grind
stone if he had let the other fellow have
done the feeding.
We are raising as good a class of
beef cattle as can be found anywhere
and most of them are going onto the
market as feeders to be finished by the
farmers in the east
We have a good winter climate for
feeding and our alfalfa when harvested
as it should be combined with barley.
and if necessary, wheat, oats and
beets, will put on as much gain and
make as good meat as the farmers in
Iowa and Illinois can put on who are
feeding their cattle on corn and clover
hay.
Our crops will be converted into a
greatly diminished bulk and our prod
ucts can be shipped to market where
there is some competition and we can
get the cash any day in the year out of
our crop, which by our present methods
We are unable to do.
1t would take US perhaps year or
two before feeding could become gen
eral as not all farmers know how to
handle cattle to make them fat. In the