Semi-weekly herald., 1915-01-07

product Of his boyhood home could |
be manufactured and where it would |
have a fair chance to compete with
the high priced cane sugar from the
West Indies and the southland.
What encouragement he met from
the farmers whose thoughts never
ran above wheat and alfalfa when
he urged them to plant beets; what
prophecies of ultimate failure he en-
countered on every hand when he be-
gan assembling his plant now often
"Boettchcrs Dream" was dinned in his
ears. Boettcher does not relate. The
results have proved this dream to be
| one of those which come true. Out
of it has developed one of the great
est beet-sugar manufacturing manu-
featuring concerns in the world. One
Of its consequences has been the
greatest growth in scientific farming
which the west has ever known. From
lit Colorado has derived immense tolls
! in gold and still more in the increased
productiveness of her soil. 1t has made
millions for the men who associated
themselves with Boettcher, has enrich
ed thousands Of farmers and made
money for the railroads which carry
the beets to the factory and the sug-
ar from it, and has placed the cat
| tie feeding industry on a new and
higher plane.
In the fifteen years since the ori-
ginal plant began to grind beets the
beet sugar industry has caused the
distribution in Colorado alone of
more than S150,0O0,000, exclusive of
the cost of buildings, machinery and
the factory sites and company lands.
All of it has gone to the beet grow
Iers, the factory hands, office help,
the railroads and to sundry local in
stitutions for supplies.
OF this great sum, more than $751;
100000 has gone to the farmers for
beets. 1t is cash money, too, paid
as the beets are being sliced. How
much more wealth mas come to the
farmers through the Improvement in
the value of their land through the
better tillage required for successful
production of sugar beets, can be i'm
agined from the fact that good beet
land in the neighborhood of Fort Col
Inns sell at 5000 an acre now. Before
J the advent of the sugar factory this
land would have been sold dear at
S75 an acre, including the water.
So, Boettcher's dream was by no
means an IDLE one. lhe waking shows
Colorado richer in hetter farmers, in
higher land values, in manufacturing
, industry which leads the whole coun-
try in its own class, and above all
in an advance in farm practice which,
no matter whether the sugar industry
. lis a permanent one or not, will always
give this state high repute for its
progress along agricultural lines
From New Years edition of Denver
Post.
This is the industry Charles S.
Thomts voted to drive out of the
state. Durango might have a beet
sugar factory TODAY but for Ward
Darley, who with his newspaper back
ine at the time, drove out the would
be investors as it was openly given
out that no trust capital was wanted
in this neck of the woods when the
fact remains that it is the only way a
community win get sugar factory.
1t is too bad Durango was the vic
tim of brace game because it is a
fact that beets have proven the most
remunerative crop the farmers of the
state have raised and also enabled
them to receive better prices for gen
eral crops, especially alfalfa.