The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-03-24
BEET GROWERS SHOULD
NOT DESPAIR


Beet growers in. the Snake river
valley are confronted with q rather
discouraging proposition in regard to
raising sugar beets. It does not ap-
pear that the contract. offered this
year is q very encouraging one and
: it does not appear that the sugar
companies have very much faith IN
the profits Of their own business for
the present or that they are not suf-
ficiently willing to share 1t with the
farmers who grow the beets. So
long as one entertains any of the
feeling that the contracts are not as
favorable to the grower as they
should be there is not much salts
faction in signing the contract.
However, this office wants to re-
mind the agricultural classes of this
valley that the sugar industry is too
great an industry and too beneficial
to the whole population to be given
up lightly. None of us may be wise
enough to predict what may be the
outcome or the future of the industry
in this valley. We may not be able
to give advise that will be worth fol-
lowing, but there is always the pos
sibility or even the probability that
developments of the future will open
new and vast possibilities for affect
ing the industry. Even. tho the
farmers do not raise sugar beets this
year they would do well to keep in
full touch with the business and make
careful study of it. The experience
Of the orange growers Of southern
California has some lessons in it that
it might be we'll for the Snake river
beet growers to keep in mind at this
lime. Here are some of the facts:
4 Golden Applies Of Hesperides.
A third of century ago, raising
oranges in southern California was
about as uninteresting an experiment
as raising scrub cattle without any
market for them. The old, old
orange trees introduced by the
Spaniards had produced oranges, but
not very marketable oranges. The
trees were not very good stock, they
were not we'll cared for and, fortified
and they produced an Indifferent
crop. $3.50.
But some .enterprising fellows in
,troduced well bred orange stock,
They fertilized and cultivated and
produced very superior. orange. The
southern Pacific and the Santa Fe
were building towards southern Cali
fornia and there was promise of rail-
road transportation, but the average
man was Mortified at the Suggestion
of shipping oranges across the con-
tinent to find market The express
charges would be worth several times
as much as the oranges in the mar
ket. Then came the cotton exposition,
at New Orleans and all the world
brought in products and entered
them in the contest. Florida oranges
the world heaters of the western
hemisphere were beaten by the
oranges from California and right
well did the Californians provide the
means of spreading the information.
Groves in sunny California became
popular and investments began to
flow into them. They imported
orange trees from the nurseries of
Australia, where they had been de-
veloped to a high degree and with
them came the cottony scale, a |
deadly insect that ruined all the
grange crops as fast as 1t reached |
them. For two years they raised no
oranges worth mentioning. The new
cottony scale imported multiplied by
the millions and the billions and all
the efforts of the scientists to kill
them off with sprays or any kind of
poison were futile. The cottony scale |
came; 1t saw and it conquered Calfor-
mia. 1t seemed as If the orange in
dustry was doomed.
But somewhere was a wise man |
who asked questions One of the |
questions which he asked and which |
could answer was, "Why did
not the cottony scale ruin the crop |
of Australia" When wise man be-
gins to ask questions it often hap
pens that plenty of people are ready |
to give an answer that does not
amount to anything and there were
plenty of that kind. Some thought |
the climate of California was just |
right for cottony scale and that or
anges would never grow there again,
but the wise man went to Australia
to investigate and found that cot
tony scale was devoured there by the
lady bug. neutralizing its
effect to such an extent that it did
not make the industry a failure.
Then he got busy and shipped Aus
tralian lady bugs to the orange
groves of southern California, the
lady bugs multiplied and did their
work in season and the cottony scale
soon disappeared entirely from the
orange grove.
When they got railroad transport
tation from southern California;
when they organized the Citrus Fruit
Growers association, and arranged to
market their oranges gradually with
out gluttng the market; when they
built refrigerator cars so that they
could ship them thru in carloads to
The eastern markets and later by
to the eastern markets,
when they got so they could shut out
The Florida oranges and even come
IN competition witch the oranges from
The islands Of the Mediterranean
yea; when they got so they could
transfer trainloads of oranges to
pecan liners and ship them to con-
mental Europe in competition with
he oranges from Malta and 0ther /