El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-08-29

pertinent speeches characterized
- the meeting at the chamber Of
commerce Monday night when a dele
CATION from Las Cruces. farmers in the
vicinity of FL Paso and FL Paso busi-
ness men met to consider the Holly
Beet company's proposition which, 1t
developed at the meeting, will make
effort 10 have a sl.5OO,OO0 beet sugar
factory in operation at some point in
the valley in time to handle the crop OF
beets in 1917. or not later than 1918, II
sufficient acreage can be secured TO
justify such investment. The Holly
Beet company asks for contracts Tor
1000 acres. scattered through the lower
and upper Rio Grande valley. The
meeting ended with six contracts
signed for a total of 215 acres.
Vaudeville Talks.
J. NJ. Wyatt presided as chairman,
and got Immediately at the point by
calling on w B. Vaudeville, of Las
Cruces, and promoter of the sugar beet
idea in this part of the country. to talk
cultivation and nature of the beets-
,Beets have been near my heart and
on my mind for 20 years." said Mr.
Vaudeville. 4 have lived in various
parts of Colorado where the crop is
grown and have seen the advantages
and disadvantages of different locali
ties for its successful raising. This
section has the advantage of Colorado
because the farmers will avoid what is
known as SLIDING his crop after the
beets are ready for shipping This
consists simply of covering each pile
of beets with the tops which are cut
off when the beet is dug This is done
to avoid freezing. That will not be nee
essary here. as beets raised in this
country will reach the factory before
freezing weather. The Rio Grande
valley has the advantage of California
and Arizona, some of which territory
has been abandoned by the sugar COM
panies. because the nights are cool
enough here to allow the beet leaves
to open during the night, which is alb
solutely essential. and also to cool the
beet itself to insure high sugar con-
tent
Gets Is Percent Sugar.
'Of the little patches I planted" con-
tinued Mr.. Vaudeville. the test result
ed in IS percent sugar. which is con-
sidered very high and purity rate of So
percent When this report and other
Investigations were reported to the
president of the Holly company I was
instructed TO get 1000 acres of beet
contracts"
Small Tracts Better.
7 cultivate large tracts in the Ar
kansas valley of Colorado, but 1 have
observed that the highest sugar con-
u.
say from three to 10 acres. It costs me
S34 per acre to cultivate and put my
beets on board cars. The yield aver
ages about i tons per acre OF course
there are many tracts which yield as
high as 20 tons to the acre and others
Of that same district that reach % tons
TO the acre.
The company does not accept beets
that do not test 10 percent sugar con-
tent. for the reason that IL costs as
much to pulverize a dead beet as ii
does one Of 10 percent sugar content
Only Four Mile Haul.
The company arranges beet loading
stations at points not more than four
miles from any farmers field. The
station consists of scales. an elevated
dump on which the wagons drive.
where they are tilted by machinery and
the beets loaded onto cars. The sugar
company makes every effort TO make
the farmers beet yield up to the stand
ard Their field superintendent, or
agriculturists are allotted certain dis
tricts and he is at the service of the
farmer"
Must Not Be soaked.
In answer TO a question from the
audience as to irrigation, Mr.. Mande-
Vile said During one certain month,
perhaps May or June in this country,
beets should have water once each sew
en- days. not flooded and soaked with
water, but the irrigation system should
De so arranged as TO allow light
stream of water. sufficient to reach the
end of each row and then shut off"
At this point Mr.. Vaudeville was in
terrupted and talk took a sudden turn
from beets to the problem of getting
water at the proper time. J. A Smith
president Of the board of governors OF
the Water Users association, said that
the system of laterals were a tickle
proposition to depend on for anything.
To- inn
build the laterals." he said, until we
form an irrigation district If we have
10 spend a year going through the for
mality of organizing a district and
then waiting for the government to act.
the sugar factory will be forgotten. It
seems to- me the best thing to do is TO
contract for the beet acreage and then
tell the secretary of the interior to get
busy"
"Get Contracts Signed,
Talk drifted deeper into water and
farther away from beets. when judge