The Lamar register., 1915-03-03
One Year of the Lamar Condensery

The following is an article written
by W. o. Skinner, Pueblo agent for
the Santa Fe X. r..
The year of 1914 stands out prom
inently as showing the greatest de
velopment in the dairy industry in
southern Colorado of any years. At
the commencement of 1914, January 3,
the Hevetia Milk Condensing COM
pany, at Lamar, started their plant,
and began receiving milk from the
farmers. At the close of the year
Of 1914, they were receiving milk
from / $50 cows, owned by 225 farm
ers and they were receiving an aver
age production of about % 900 pounds
of milk per day.
The farmers are very enthusiastic
over this new industry, and look upon
it as a means of bringing in money
the year around. AS the milk people
pay more for milk in winter (the price
being 50 per hundred pounds) than
in summer, the farmers interested in
the dairy business have this to occupy
their spare time in the winter months,
and many of them are arranging to
handle dairy cows in large numbers.
During the year of 1914, there were
shipped into Prowers county 2,9l5 hol-
stein cows and heifers. The large num-
Der of cows shipped into Prowers
county represents an investment Of
more than a quarter Of million dol
lars. The establishment of this con-
densery at Lamar has stimulated the
dairy business throughout the valley,
so that creameries have been estab-
lished at Las Animas, La Junta,
Rocky Ford and Canon City.
In order to obtain the best results
from dairy cows farmers have con-
structed new and sanitary barns for
shelter in bad weather, and for the
storage of feed. An example is barn
built by the Sugar Beet and Irrigated
Land company at Holly. The walls
and floor of this barn are concrete,
thorough drainage system, concrete
feed troughs, sewer connected and
cork-brick for the floor upon which
the cows stand. A concrete milk
house outside of the barn, has flowing
cold water for cooling the milk, The
barn will store $50 bushels of grain
and fifty tons of alfalfa hay. There is
a silo at one end, which contains 125
tons of silage. There has also been
constructed by the American Beet
Sugar company, near Lamar, barn
which will accommodate fifty cows.
Many farmers who have gone into
the dairy business have constructed ST.
los for the storage of feed for their
COWS, so that the flow of milk in the
winter months will be nearly as great
as in the summer months. During the
year of 1914, there were constructed in
the Arkansas valley 129 silos, with an
average capacity of about 110 tons
each. Forty-two of these silos are in
Prowers county. Seventytive per cent
of these silos are of concrete, since
that material is considered the best
for this climate. About 10 per cent are
of stave or wood. The remainder are
underground silos. The objection to
the wood and stave silo is that they
dry out in the summer time, when
not in use, and it is a difficult matter
to get them tight again, which is nee
essary to keep the silage sweet and
from spelling. The pit silo has been
constructed exclusively by the dry
land farmers" These, of course, are
more cheaply constructed, since the
principal cost is the labor of digging
the pit. 1t has been shown that pi