The Lamar register., 1920-12-29

part of Colorado includes large part
of the Arkansas Valley. The eastern
boundary is formed by the state of
Kansas. II is an almost perfect rec
tangle AS miles long, north and south,
and 81 miles wide-an area about the
size of the state of Rhode Island. The
surface is principally level valley in
the north and somewhat broken prairie
in the south. The altitude varies from
1900 feet, at the point where the Ark
ansas River crosses the eastern bound
airy, to about 1000 feet in the south
west. Two lines of the Santa Fe
traverse the county.
The Arkansas River crosses the
northern part of the county and its
broad valley contains practically all
of the irrigated farm land. South of
this river the surface rises into brok-
en- table land containing much good,
non-irrigated farming territory. The
soil in the Valley is chiefly underlaid
with Benton apd Dakota sediments,
and is principally an alluvial or sandy
loan with restricted areas of adobe
and other harder soils. On the up
lands the soil is principally a sandy
loan, very fertile and yielding readily
to cultivation. 1t is very retentive OF
moisture and in recent years has prov
ed to be of excellent agricultural char
acter.
The Arkansas River and its tribu-
taries drain the county and furnish
much of the water for irrigation. A
group of large reservoirs lie in the
southern part of Kiowa County and
extend into northern Prowers County,
furnishing water for the irrigation of
n large area Of land. North of Lamar
there is one Of the most extensive sys-
TENS of irrigation from reservoirs in
the state. Water for domestic pur-
poses is obtained principally from
wells and is reached at depths varying
from 10 to 75 feet
The principal industries are farm
ing. stock raising, stock-fecding, dairy
farming and manufacturing. Until re-
| Gently farming operations were con
fined largely to the Arkansas Valley
and the southern part of the county
| was used exclusively for grazing pur-
poses. In recent years farming with
out irrigation has been extended rath-
er rapidly in the south and is prov
ing very successful. A beet sugar
factory belonging to the American
Beet Sugar Company is located at La
mar. The Helvetia Milk Condensing
Company has large condcnsery at
Lamar. II was opened in the early
part of 1914. The plant has a capa-
city sufficient to handle the production
Of 10000 dairy cattle, or 10000
pounds of milk daily. There are large
alfalfa mills located at Hartman, Bris-
tol, Kornman, Wiley. May Valley, Hol-
! lv and Milwood all good shipping
points on the Santa Fe. A flour mill
the second largest in the state, is To-
Gated at Lamar, milling local wheat.
which is raised extensively in Prowers
and adjoining counties.
The principal crops arc alfalfa and
other hay, sugar beets, cantaloupes'
and other melons, wheat, oats, rye
barley, corn, potatoes and garden
VEGETABLES. Broomcorn and various
forage crops are grown rather exten-
siveIy in the southern part of the
county,
The known minerals arc clays, glass
sand, building sand, stone of several
varieties and valuable shale.
At the beginning of 1920 there was
6S5,5 acres of privately-owned land
in the county. or little less than 66
per cent of the total area. The re-
cords of the county assessor show that
| SO, ,5S5 acres of this were being farm
ed under irrigation in 1919, 4,435 acres
were classed as natural hay land, s.
4S3 acres as non-irrigated farming
land, and 583,005 acres as grazing
land, a considerable amount of which
will ultimately he placed under culti-
walton. The remaining, privately-own-
! ed area, is railroad rights of way and
| town and city lots. This county has
a larger acreage of irrigated land un-
der cultivation than any other county