USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume I > Part 59
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105
When General Pike was captured in the San Luis Valley and taken to Santa Fé he found that the small New Mexican communities through which he passed were shipping 30,000 head of sheep to Mexico annually, and even a larger num- ber of cattle.
The first attempt to settle and to raise live stock in the San Luis Valley was in 1842, when the Mexican land grant in Conejos, or Taos County, New Mexico," as it was then called, was taken possession of by its owners. "Eighty-three heads of families" were on the ground and promised to "occupy and cultivate the lands, raise stock, etc." Thus, it appears that stock raising was a prerequisite to settle- ment. The first attempt failed as the Indians resented the coming of the Mexi- cans. But in 1849 another settlement was made in Costilla and in 1854 in Cone- jos. This latter was the Mexican colony headed by Maj. Lafayette Head, a former Missourian and later a celebrated legislator. From this time dates the beginning of the cattle and sheep-raising industry of the San Luis Valley.
The Government in the summer of 1852 built Fort Massachusetts, a few miles above the present site of Fort Garland, within easy access of the first Mexican settlements in Conejos and on the Greenhorn. In 1858 this fort was abandoned and Fort Garland was erected on the present site of the town of that name.
Governor Gilpin in his contest for the Sangre de Cristo grant, began adver- tising the country in the early '6os as the greatest stock-raising area in the United States.
In 1864 the San Luis Valley was visited by Allen A. Bradford, later territorial delegate to Congress, then associate justice of the Supreme Court, and in a letter to Governor Gilpin he says: "I learned that stock to the amount of 50,000 head were owned by people on the Sangre de Cristo grant." In 1862 Bishop Sampson in a letter to the Christian Advocate says of the cattle raised by the Mexicans in San Luis Park: "Cattle refuse to eat hay in the winter when they can have access to the dry grass of the plains. Beef cattle that have not been fed a pound of grain or hay are very frequently brought to market even in winter."
Sheep raising was also carried on in these early years, and in a letter written in 1867 by C. D. Hendron, from San Luis, then a Mexican town of perhaps three hundred, he says: "Ewes can be bought here for $2 per head; a boy can
529
HISTORY OF COLORADO
easily herd 1,000 at a cost of $10 per month, to include board and buckskin cloth- ing. In the months of April and May when the lambs are dropped, small boys are employed-say four to one thousand sheep-to take care of the young lambs. These boys are hired at about twenty-five to fifty cents each per day. Shearing also commences at or about this time. The shearers receive one sheep for every hundred they shear. Cattle or sheep are never fed during winter, but thrive and fatten on the nutritious grasses which the plains and valleys afford."
And so it was. Even before 1860 the New Mexican cattle and sheep men drove their horses and mules, their hogs and sheep, in fact all their live stock, into the San Luis Valley and grazed them there upon the rich public domain. In 1861 the Territorial Legislature made this unlawful and limited the grazing right to owners and residents of the counties. In 1867 the shipment of Texas cattle had become so extensive that the Legislature, for some reason that cannot be plausibly explained today, prohibited the traffic. This proved a dead letter, and the importation continued on an even larger scale.
In the 'zos the cattle industry took on vast proportions. The finest "freight- ing" oxen in the country were raised here, and when the railroad reached Ala- mosa in 1878 fully a thousand Mexicans started freighting in all directions with yokes of oxen, running as high as twenty-eight head for one wagon and trailer.
The history of the early big herds in the San Luis Valley is in many cases a story of "mavericks." Old John Chisholm and his brother (in the "Twitchell History of New Mexico" this is spelled Chisum) had herds running up to sixty thousand head, and while their range was largely in the Pecos Valley, parts of the herds strayed into the southern end of the San Luis Valley. But the whole region was filled with cattle thieves and outlaws, "the worst of these," says Em- erson Hough in his "Story of the Cowboy" "being under the leadership of Billy the Kid, who died at the ripe age of twenty-three, and at that time had killed twenty-three men, committing his first murder when he was but fourteen years of age."
During what is known as New Mexico's "Lincoln County cattle war" many head were driven north and became the nucleus of herds owned by Mexicans in Colorado.
It was not long before the big cattle kings, both Mexican and American, began to buy up these herds, and thus in the 'Sos the industry took tremendous strides forward.
The Mexicans had for decades fed small herds of cattle on the field pea in the San Luis Valley, but the advent of the railroad in 1878 brought the stock- growers to a realization of the value of this vegetable for cattle, sheep and hog raising on a large scale. The investments of T. C. Henry for the Travelers In- surance Company, made first in 1883, gave the entire San Luis Valley another great advance in the stock-raising industry. There had been until this time much feeding of thousands of range cattle brought from Texas, and not alone fattened, but changed by the climate and the feed to a richer color from what in Texas had been a very light red. Here as elsewhere, except on the vast old Mexican grants, the settlements soon put an end to the big herds. But the scientific stock raising of the present day had its real beginnings in the splendid irrigation projects and in the accidental discovery of the first artesian well about eight miles below Alamosa by workmen employed under T. C. Henry. Today there are about Vol. 1-34
530
HISTORY OF COLORADO
four thousand of these wells, some of them having sufficient flow to irrigate forty acres of land.
The discovery that the field pea, which turns mouldy under the hot sun in the east, here thrives and has ideal feeding qualities, has made the entire San Luis Valley a great live stock "fattening" district.
An acre of peas will fatten more lambs than an acre of corn, with less than one-tenth of the labor. The lambs to be fattened are simply turned into the fields in the early winter. They eat the cured vines as hay, and eat the peas as grain. All the attendant has to do is to see that they eat up the feed clean as they go, see that they have water, and keep dogs and coyotes away. In sixty to ninety days the lambs are finished, ready to go on the eastern markets, where they bring the highest prices paid.
Hogs as well as lambs are fattened on field peas. In the cool climate of the San Luis Valley hog cholera and swine plague are absolutely unknown. Enor- mous crops of roots are raised as maintenance crops for herds of swine, to be finished off on field peas. Pea-fattened pork is of the highest quality, especially for butchering and bacon making, and the exceptionally healthful conditions under which the hogs are raised and fattened puts San Luis Valley pork products almost in the line of fancy articles. Denver and Pueblo packers are now paying from 10 cents to 15 cents per hundredweight more for pea-fed hogs than for hogs of the same grade fattened on corn.
The San Luis records of lamb, sheep and hog shipments show a continuous and enormous growth.
LIVE STOCK STATISTICS
The following figures are from the Government census reports, and give in number and values the records of the industry :
LIVE STOCK ON HAND
Year
Horses
Mules
Oxen
Milch Cows
Other Cattle
Swine
Sheep
Value of all Live Stock
1870
6,446
1,173
5,566
25,017
40,153
5,509
120,928
$2,871,102
1880
42,257
2,581
2,080
28,770
315,989
7,656
746,443
8,703,342
1890
155,170
7,139
1,282
76,948
639,631
64,358
717,990
22,594,010
The valuation of all live stock in 1900 was $49,954,311 ; and in 1910 it was $70,161,344.
HORSES AND MULES
1900
248,843
$ 7,686,283
1910
. 312,007
29,318,193
1911
· 328,000
29,448,000
1912
338,000
27,380,000
1913
341,000
29,905,000
1914
357,000
29,988,000
1915
365,000
31,295,000
1916
380,000
34,409,000
1917 (January Ist)
385,000
36,025,000
531
HISTORY OF COLORADO
CATTLE
1900
1,433,318
$35,532,738
1910
1,127,737
31,017,303
19II
1,133,000
31,329,000
1912
1,088,000
33,269,000
1913
1,093,000
40,660,000
1914
1,135,000
49,678,000
1915
. 1,201,000
57,465,000
1916
1,315,000
64,869,000
1917 (January Ist)
1,387,000
68,825,000
SHEEP
1900
2,044,814
$ 5,584,897
1910
1,426,214
6,856,187
19II
1,611,000
5,800,000
1912
. 1,579,000
4,737,000
1913
1,737,000
6,253,000
1914
1,668,000
6,172,000
1915
1,751,000
7,704,000
1916
. 1,839,000
9,563,000
1917
1,950,000
14,625,000
SWINE
1900
101,198
$ 482,722
1910
. 179,294
1,568,158
19II
. 215,000
2,107,000
1912
.211,000
1,688,000
1913
. 205,000
2,255,000
1914
205,000
2,152,000
1915
256,000
2,688,000
1916
320,000
3,624,000
1917
352,000
4,224,000
Colorado's wool clip in 1870 was 204,925 lbs .; in 1880 it was 3,197,391 lbs. ; in 1890 it was 3,334,234 lbs. The wool product in 1916 was 8,400,000 lbs., which sold at an average price of 25.2 cents. This compared with the output of 7,800,000 lbs. in 1915, for which 21.2 cents was paid.
THE STATE CATTLE GROWERS' ASSOCIATION
The "Colorado Stock Growers' Association" was established in 1867 and was largely to prevent stealing of cattle. But it was not effective and no concerted effort at securing protective legislation was made until November 10, 1871, when a second Colorado Stock Growers' Association was formed. At the meeting, held in Denver, January 19, 1872, both the Wyoming Grazers' Association and the
532
HISTORY OF COLORADO
Southern Colorado Stock Growers' Association were represented. And thus with the cooperation of practically all the cattlemen in this territory and region the first measures for adequate protection were framed and submitted and passed by the Legislature. Roundups were regulated, recording of brands was pro- vided for, which has now been perfected. In 1876 the Colorado Stock Growers' Association changed its name to the Colorado Cattle Growers' Association. This went out of existence in 1897, when the National Live Stock Association was organized in Denver by the cattlemen of the country.
On the question of the leasing of the public domain to the cattlemen there was a split-up after the Fort Worth convention in 1899, where favorable action was taken. In 1900 the Colorado Cattle and Horse Growers' Association was formed as a distinctive Western Slope organization fighting the leasing propo- sition.
In 1900 the two factions in the national field divided and the American Cattle Growers' Association was formed, merging a year later into the old fold under the joint name of the "American National Live Stock Association."
In 1905 the State Cattle Growers' Association was formed, composed alto- gether of men who were both farmers and stock growers.
CHAPTER XXVI
HOW COLORADO WON BEET SUGAR LEADERSHIP
CONDITION OF THE INDUSTRY WHEN MOVEMENT STARTED IN THIS STATE-NATIONAL PRODUCTION BY YEARS-GROWTH IN NUMBER OF FACTORIES THROUGHOUT THE NATION-HOW IRRIGATION'S BENEFITS WERE DISCOVERED-SUCCESS IN UTAH STIRS UP WESTERN SLOPE-CHARLES S. BOETTCHER AND JOHN CAMPION HELP ALONG THE INDUSTRY-WHAT THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE WAS DOING SHIP- PING THE FIRST BEETS TO NEBRASKA-THE FAILURE AT GRAND JUNCTION-SUC- CESS FOLLOWED WITH EXPERIENCE-THE GREAT WESTERN SUGAR COMPANY- HAVEMEYERS COME INTO THE FIELD THE AMERICAN BEET SUGAR COMPANY- THE OXNARDS-THE NATIONAL-THE HOLLY SUGAR CORPORATION.
The condition of the beet sugar industry in the United States when the movement for the erection of factories started in Colorado, was not exceptionally favorable. The entire capacity was not much more than thirty-five hundred tons, and the factories were able to extract only approximately II per cent of sugar from the gross weight of the beets. The extraction now is from 15 to 17 per cent. In the official report in 1897 by Charles F. Saylor, special agent and in- vestigator of the sugar beet industry, he said :
"In Europe farmers are required to do a great deal of fertilizing, while in this country we have sufficient lands to produce our sugar without fertilization- lands which will excel the production of Europe, both in tonnage and percentage of sugar and purity of beets; and now that Congress has arranged for a pro- tective tariff, having in view the fostering of the beet sugar industry, extensive experiments are being carried on in various parts of the United States in the culture and test of sugar beets. There can be but one answer to the question as to whether this country will eventually manufacture its sugar. We not only think that it will manufacture the hundred million dollars' worth of sugar that we now purchase, but we feel safe in predicting that, in this industry, history will repeat itself, and the United States will be offering its sugar to the other countries of the world at a profit."
In the year 1897 there were in operation the two Oxnard factories at Grand Island and Norfolk, Nebraska; the Lehi, Utah, factory, operated by the Mor- mons; and the four California factories at Alvarado, Watsonville, a Spreckles concern, at Chino, an Oxnard factory, and one at Los Alamitos, controlled by W. A. Clark and J. Ross Clark of Montana. Aside from these there was a small factory at Eddy in the Pecos Valley, New Mexico, and one at Rome, New York, the latter just opening up. Oxnard, California, was also in process of construction.
533
534
HISTORY OF COLORADO
By 1900 thirty-one factories were in operation. By the winter of 1901 eleven additional factories were opened up. Expansion continued until 1906. After a building respite of several years eleven new factories were built in 1911 and 1912. In 1914 there were seventy-eight beet sugar factories in the United States, located in seventeen states, Colorado and Michigan leading, each with sixteen; California had thirteen and Utah seven.
The work of the sugar companies took them far afield from the domain of manufacturing sugar. They became involved in every phase of the farmer's life and problems. Irrigation systems depending on direct irrigation found them- selves not infrequently without water at critical stages of the crop development and the irrigation systems of the state had to complete tremendous water storage reservoirs, and not infrequently these extensions had to be financed by the sugar companies.
In those early days of the beet sugar industry the companies had to erect their factories, finance the planters as to seed and labor, bolster up and perfect defec- tive canal systems, provide frequently implements of tillage peculiar to the in- dustry, and also keep in bank available a working capital equivalent to 35 per cent of their total investment.
During these early days of struggle and constantly increasing investment the price of sugar was steadily declining and there was an incessant clamor for a higher price for beets. Nor was the course of affairs at the nation's capital such as to make easy the minds of those who had invested in the securities of the sugar companies.
Cane sugar from the Philippines, Hawaiian Islands and Porto Rico obtained entry into the United States duty free, and Cuba, the greatest producer of cane sugar, had been given a 20 per cent reduction of the tariff. German beet sugar producers were being paid bounties on all sugar exported, enabling them to de- liver raw sugar (88 per cent) in London at $1.50 per hundred pounds.
Some relief was afforded by the Brussels Conference in 1903, at which boun- ties were abolished. The price of raw sugar immediately rose to $2 per cwt. in London; in May, 1904, it went to $2.33 and in September, 1904, the price was $2.72, and in December of that year reached $3.50.
But in spite of all obstacles and handicaps the American beet sugar industry was making steady growth, winning its fight. By 1916 there were 665,000 acres devoted to sugar beets, and seventy-four factories made 822,887 tons of sugar.
The investment of approximately fifteen million dollars in construction of fifteen new sugar factories in 1917 indicates what shrewd investors think of the future of the beet sugar industry in the United States.
The total number of sugar factories in this country is now, January 1, 1918, ninety-nine. Utah leads in new construction with four; California, Idaho and Montana with two each; Iowa, Washington, Wyoming and Colorado with one ·each.
Prior to the war, in 1914, Europe had 1,254 sugar factories; Germany, 341 ; Russia, 294; France, 208; Austria, 201 ; Belgium, 68; Italy, 39; Spain, 31 ; Hol- land, 27; Sweden, 21; Denmark, 9; Rumania, 6; Serbia, 3; Bulgaria, 3; Eng- land, Switzerland and Greece one each.
It should be noted, however, in connection with the European sugar factories that they do not compare in size or in economy of operation with the factories
.SING
-------
The wagons shown were laden with sugar beets.
VIEW OF THE CENTRAL PART OF JULESBURG IN 1908
536
HISTORY OF COLORADO
of Colorado. Most of them are very old and do not slice over a third as many beets as a new mill in this state. Besides this, most of them do not refine the sugar, whereas the western mills of the United States turn out the very finest granulated sugar.
Europe builds for permanency and the Europeans hate to scrap a building and its machinery, even after they have become obsolete. Well informed sugar men assert that when the time comes to rebuild the sugar factories that have been destroyed in the war zone there will be erected such factories as will match the best in the world. Their destruction will not have been an unmitigated evil, as the new mills will in time save in economy of operation their cost of con- struction.
Not all the beet sugar factories are old. Many of those in Germany are of the latest pattern and up to date in every respect. The ninety-nine sugar fac- tories in the United States are probably equivalent in slicing capacity to 300 European mills.
Colorado now leads all the states in beet sugar production with about 31 per cent of the total crop. The table below shows the source of beet sugar sup- ply in the United States, the percentages given being approximate :
State
Per cent
No. of Factories
Colorado
.31
16
California
.22
15
Michigan
15
16
Utah
.IO
15
Idaho
6
7
Ohio
4
5
Other states
12
25
In 1891 some California beet growers irrigated their beets. The sugar factory management thereupon issued a printed notice to the effect that irrigated beets would not be received. The farmers were stubborn and persisted in the irrigation of the crop and at the end of the season it was found that the beets were both high in sugar and heavy in tonnage.
Now more than half of the beet crop of the United States is grown under irrigation and sugar production has been a potent factor in opening up to settle- ment large areas of western desert lands.
The annual production of beet sugar in the United States from 1889 to 1915 follows :
Year
Short tons
1889-1890
2,467
1890-1891
3,874
1891-1892
5,999
1892-1893
13,460
1893-1894
22,344
1894-1895
22,503
1895-1896
32,746
537
HISTORY OF COLORADO
Year
Short tons
1896-1897
42,040
1897-1898
45,246
1898-1899
36,361
1899-1900
81,729
1900-1901
68,082
1901-1902
184,606
1902-1903
218,406
1903-1904
240,604
1904-1905
242,113
1905-1906
312,921
1906-1907
483,612
1907-1908
463,628 .
1908-1909
425,884
1909-1910
509,655
1910-19II
510,82I
1911-1912
585,380
1912-1913
688,174
1913-1914
726,764
1914-1915
722,054
For 1916-1917 the tonnage of sugar beets in Colorado was 1,801,580. Federal tariffs, and in some instances, state bounties, greatly stimulate the industry.
In Colorado the acreage and the average yield per acre since 1904 is as follows :
Year
Acreage
Average yield per acre-short tons
1904
44,456
12.38
1905
85,916
10.19
1906
110,943
13.4I
1907
127,678
11.93
1908
119,475
9.28
1909
121,698
10.33
1910
81,412
10.62
1911
86,437
II.07
1912
144,999
11.32
1913
168,410
10.93
1914
I35,400
12.60
1915
171,222
11.03
For the year 1917 the acreage was 157,817 and the average yield was 11.43 short tons per acre.
The beginnings of the sugar beet industry in Colorado have a close relation- ship to those of Utah, for it was at Grand Junction, near the Utah line, that the first factory was built.
A few men in that Western Slope town had been watching the Utah experi- ments, which succeeded only after long years of patient and persevering labor.
538
HISTORY OF COLORADO
As early as 1850 Brigham Young, in his anxiety to supply his people with home industries and with the sugar that they needed, had sent a delegation to France, and this committee brought by ox teams across the plains some very crude ma- chinery of the open-kettle type. The father of Senator Reed Smoot was super- intendent of the first sugar mill of which he later said: "That is about the only failure I ever made in my life." There was no means of polarizing the beets, and the only thing produced was what is today called "macerate," or the entire mass of the material. This they ate, but with no great relish, for while it was sugary it "almost took off the end of the tongue," as Mr. Smoot put it.
Until 1865 the price of sugar at Salt Lake City was $1 per pound, so that the Utah experiments were continued despite apparent failure.
As far back as 1871 the experimental work with sugar beets began in Colo- rado, and in 1872 a bill to pay a bounty of $10,000 to the first successfully oper- ated beet sugar factory was defeated by one vote. The promoters of that period, however, formed a company, of which the principal directors and officials were James Archer, H. P. Bennett, Fred Z. Salomon, H. G. Bond, Henry Crow, Charles W. Perry, F. L. Schirmer, George C. Schleier, Wellington G. Sprague, Peter Magnus, and Phillip Trounstine. While approximately thirty thousand dollars was raised, it was insufficient for the enterprise, and so the company gave up the project.
Not until 1891 was the first actual working factory built at Lehi by what was then called the Utah Sugar Company, finally merged into the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company. This almost proved disastrous. People refused to buy stock, and the farmers did not want to raise beets. In that first year the Government paid a two cent bounty on sugar, and Utah paid a one cent bounty. Despite this, it cost 9 cents per pound to manufacture that first sugar, which amounted to 500 tous.
For three years it was a struggle. After this the agricultural problem was at least partially solved, and so the project grew to success. By 1898 the second factory was started at Ogden.
By this time the agitation for sugar-beet culture in Colorado had developed along several lines.
The value of such an industry to Colorado had first been shown by the State Agricultural College, even before Į888, the date of the establishment of the first experiment station. Plots of beets were grown on the college farm ať Fort Collins. These were carefully analyzed for sugar content and purity. Later with the cooperation of the Department of Agriculture enough sugar-beet seed was obtained from a German seedsman for distribution in small lots to five of the main irrigating sections of the state. These crops were grown and the analysis made by the Department of Agriculture showed sufficient sugar content and purity to warrant the establishment of a factory.
Before the coming of the beet industry the state was growing grain and engaging heavily in the cattle business, and the range was then more or less open. In favorable localities the price of land ranged from $20 to $31 an acre, and rotation of alfalfa was just beginning. The principal market for the farm prod- ucts were local mills, either cooperative, built by the farmers or else built by Denver capitalists. The potato industry around Greeley and in the San Luis Valley had just developed and was offering a new crop for rotation.
With the advent of the beet industry there came first of all another new crop
539
HISTORY OF COLORADO
for rotation, a tremendously important factor in farming. This was followed by pulp cattle-feeding, and land that formerly sold for $20 to $30 per acre went at once to $150 and $200 an acre.
Beet culture has played a great part in the evolution of scientific farming in Colorado. The better methods of cultivation in France and Germany were imported and greater efficiency in agriculture resulted. The specialists in the employ of the factories educated Colorado ranchers in beet culture and naturally in systematic farming.
But these were the developments of the future. About 1898 John F. Campion was president of the Denver Chamber of Commerce. He had made a vast for- tune at Leadville and was ready and anxious to spend it in helpful ways for Colorado. Through the foresight and interest of Charles S. Boettcher he be- came deeply interested in the beet sugar movement, and secured its endorsement by the Chamber of Commerce directors. The committee of the Denver Chamber of Commerce which had the subject of the beet sugar industry in charge consisted of Earl B. Coe, J. F. Callbreath, W. A. Hoover, I. N. Stevens, Charles F. Wil- son.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.