THE IREIGATION AGE. 



309 



Sugar Beets. 



Seven sugar mills are now in operation, providing 

 sufficient sugar to furnish the entire population of the 

 United States, men, women and children, with their total 

 demand for sugar for thirteen days out of every year. 



Cantaloupes. 



The Rocky Ford brand of cantaloupes is so well 

 known that it needs no comment as to quality. It is 

 highest in demand in the market and is grown in all parts 

 of the valley. 



One hundred dollars an acre is not an exceptional re- 

 turn from cantaloupe land per season, and where a high 

 degree of intensive farming has been attained this figure 

 has been doubled and trebled. 



These are sure irrigation crops, but let us not forget 

 the great increase in product and quality irrigation pro- 

 duces in alfalfa and small crops. 



Finally, the six thousand acres of apple blossoms now 

 waving at the head of the valley, and the thousands of 

 acres being developed in fruit at every point in the valley 

 must not be overlooked. 



As surely as the west grows and waxes great, so 

 surely will a few years see Cimarron the center of a 

 garden spot, carpeted with the pleasing green of the 

 alfalfa and perfumed by the sweetness of the apple 

 blossom. 



can be made by showing the productiveness of this sec- 

 tion. 



"One grower in Otero County was paid $1,822 for his 

 crop of sugar beets from twelve acres, an average of 

 $151.67 per acre. Another, in an entirely different section 

 of the county, received $1,451.41 from ten acres, an aver- 

 age of $145.14 per acre. 



"While the sugar beet industry, for instance, has be- 

 come established, yearly the growers are becoming more 

 and more interested in the culture of their crops; not only 

 from a tonnage standpoint, from which they have received 

 their pay, but also from a 'sugar content point, on which 

 the manufacturers depend for their returns. For the past 

 years the beets have been paid for at so much per ton, 

 $5 being the usual price. The method of payment for 

 the beets has changed in the last year to a minimum of 

 $5 per ton for beets carrying the minimum amount of 

 sugar content, and 25 cents per ton for each one per cent 

 of sugar in the beets over the minimum. A grower, there- 

 fore, producing 18 per cent sugar content beets receives 

 25 cents per ton over the minimum of 14.9 per cent, or 

 $6 per ton, for his crop. Beets of that quality are only 

 produced by extra effort, for which the grower is well 



paid." 



REVIVE A PROJECT. 



Assistant Secretary of the Interior Pierce issued an 

 order which will serve to revive a large irrigation project 



Main irrigation canal. Twin Falls North Side tract, showing heavy rock cut and concrete lining. This canal will supply water for more 



than 200,000 acres of land. 



Elmer T. Peterson is secretary of the Commercial 

 Club. This club will furnish all information gladly to all 

 inquirers, as to soil and water conditions, water rights, 

 land opportunities and business chances. 



The following relates to the Valley of Content. Cim- 

 arron will soon be the center of intensive farming: 



"It is estimated that one man and team can handle 

 forty acres of melons in the cultivation up to harvesting. 

 The average is about 150 crates per acre, which, at 70 

 cents per crate, represents a value of $105 per acre, or 

 over $4.000 for the forty acres. This on land which is 

 valued at from $75 to $500 per acre, dependent entirely 

 upon water rights and distance from the market points. 

 Hauling is a factor to be considered in handling the crops 

 from irrigated and intensive farm lands, and it bears a 

 decided effect upon the prices of lands. It is estimated 

 that it costs 15 cents per ton per mile to haul crops to the 

 shipping points, a factor which amounts to a considerable 

 item in the course of a year's hauling, if the farm is sit- 

 uated some miles out. 



"The growers of one county last year received, ap- 

 proximately, $1,750,000 for sugar beets, an enormous 

 amount to be distributed in the section, considering the 

 acreage. An explanation of the amount paid to growers 



at Phoenix, Ariz., in which a syndicate of Cincinnati and 

 southern Ohio capitalists is interested. There are two 

 tracts of land affected, one of 30,000 acres and the other 

 of 72,000 acres, which were purchased about twenty years 

 ago by a party consisting of Dr. C. D. Walton of Cincin- 

 nati, M. C. Kinney, J. K. Cullan, William H. Beardsley 

 of Hamilton, the late H. R. Morey, C. D. Oglesbee and 

 Captain Robert Wilson of Middletown. This syndicate 

 had expended about a quarter of a million dollars in con- 

 structing a dam and digging ditches. Water was about 

 to be turned on, when, in 1902, a blanket order was 

 issued withdrawing this land from settlement. Since that 

 time the syndicate has been trying to induce the officials 

 of the Interior Department to reverse the order. Efforts 

 in this direction were unsuccessful until Representative 

 James M. Cox of Dayton made a proposition to the In- 

 terior Department by which the government is to ex- 

 change the Arizona land for another tract which is located 

 in the Moqui Indian Reservation, which the syndicate has 

 purchased. After working on the exchange for a couple 

 of months the agents of the land office have completed 

 the transfer of the 39,000 acres of land, and it is expected 

 that the other tract of 72,000 acres will be turned over to 

 the syndicate in the near future. 



