USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume I > Part 47
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SUGAR PRODUCTION
For fifteen years last past sugar beets have been one of the important crops 'of Idaho, and each succeeding year a greater quantity is raised and the sugar supply is increased. The great Snake River Valley is apparently the natural home of the sugar beet, especially in that portion extending from Twin Falls to St. Anthony.
About 40,000 acres of land are devoted to beet culture in Idaho. From this land an average crop of eleven tons to the acre is produced, making the annual sugar beet production about 440,000 tons. The sugar content of the Idaho beets averages a trifle over 151/2 per cent and from 82 to 85 per cent purity. This means over 60,000 tons of sugar will be made annually by the factories in opera- tion in 1919. The price paid for sugar beets to the farmer has risen from the original price of $4.50 per ton to $10.00 per ton, which is the agreed price. for the 1919 crop.
There are eight factories in Idaho for the manufacture of sugar from beets, their location and capacity being given below :-
Twin Falls .900 tons daily slicing capacity.
Paul . 500 tons daily slicing capacity.
Burley 500 tons daily slicing capacity.
All of the above are owned by the Amalgamated Sugar Company with head- quarters at Ogden, Utah.
Black foot . 500 tons daily slicing capacity.
Shelley . 500 tons daily slicing capacity.
Idaho Falls .700 tons daily slicing capacity.
Sugar City .900 tons daily slicing capacity.
All owned by the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company with headquarters at Salt Lake City, Utah.
Rigby, 800 tons daily slicing capacity.
Owned by the Beet Growers Sugar Company of Rigby, Idaho.
The territory surrounding the towns in which each of said factories is situate has proved well adapted to the successful growing of beets.
Before the war with Germany most of the beet seed planted in Idaho came from Germany and Russia. Since the war those interested in the sugar business have commenced raising beet seed in Utah and Idaho and find it can be raised as good in quality as the choicest European seed. The present year about 3,000 acres will be planted to seed, which should raise over 3,000,000 pounds of seed as the average yield is over 1,000 pounds per acre. To raise beet seed, the beets for that purpose are grown the first year and then placed in a pit for the winter, being used the second year as "mother" beets. The seed is gathered in September,
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threshed and cleaned in October and is ready for planting the succeeding spring. All the Idaho sugar factories are raising the main part of the seed they will use; it being the custom for the factories to furnish seed to the farmers.
The tops of the sugar beets are excellent stock food. Pulp, the by-product of the sugar beet, after the saccharine matter has been extracted, makes ideal feed for sheep and cattle after being siloed, and there is a large demand for it from stock owners who are engaged in fattening cattle or sheep. Each ton of beets worked in the factories produces also about 150 pounds of syrup, which, mixed with ground alfalfa, makes a perfect stock food.
The sugar business is of sufficient importance to warrant an extended reference. There are now ninety-eight sugar factories operating in the United States, one- half of which are in the far West. Ninety pounds per capita of sugar is used in the United States. There is an ever increasing demand for this product and to the far West must the consumer look if the demand is to be satisfied. There is room for twenty-five sugar factories in the upper Snake River Valley, and the constant demand for the product will make the business, apparently, as profitable in the future as it has been in the past.
FIELD PEAS
It will appear strange to farmers in the older states, who raise only a small amount of peas for family use, to hear that hundreds of acres are devoted to their culture in Idaho. The industry was introduced a few years ago by seed growers from New York and Michigan, who, looking for a new field and hearing of the excellent variety and prolific growth in Idaho, concluded to experiment, and the results were so satisfactory that large areas are now annually planted to peas in the southeastern counties. The country about St. Anthony is the greatest field for growing seed peas in the United States. The yield averages 2,400 pounds to the acre and the farmers receive from two and a half to three cents a pound. Great pea warehouses have been built at several of the railroad stations, where the crop is delivered. Canadian field peas are also grown in large quantities for feeding stock. They are grown in rotation with wheat and yield from thirty to fifty bushels to the acre. Being rich in protein, they are fed to hogs as a sub- stitute for corn, or cut green they make a fodder for cattle that compares well in nutritive qualities with clover or even alfalfa. In the vicinity of Kendrick and Juliaetta, in the southern part of Latah County, thousands of bushels of beans are raised every year. In this section it is not unusual to see whole farms planted to beans, the product being shipped to all parts of the country.
WHERE IDAHO RANKS FIRST
The following table, compiled from reports of the United States Department of Agriculture for a period of ten years (1904 to 1913 inclusive), gives Idaho first place among twenty of the leading agricultural states of the Union in the production per acre of seven staple farm products. In the table the figures in the first column represent the average production in the twenty states, and the second column the quantity produced in Idaho :
Wheat (bushels)
12.5 26.6
Oats (bushels).
28.6 40.6
Barley (bushel's)
22.5 34.7
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Corn (bushels)
25.9
30.1
Rye (bushels)
22.5
40.4
Potatoes (bushels)
106.I
160.6
Hay (tons)
2.52
3.12
THE LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY
CATTLE AND HORSES
Most of the farmers in the early '6os and '7os ran cattle and horses in connec- tion with their farming and from the small beginnings of most of them soon were developed large herds. In order to distinguish the stock of one owner from that of another, brands and flesh marks became not only important, but absolutely necessary, and statutes were soon enacted requiring that various brands and marks be recorded with both state and county officers.
Cattle in the earlier days had a comparatively small value as compared with present prices. The expense of raising them was slight; all that was needed to start a herd was a few cows and a branding "iron." Then, turning the animals loose on the range, they were fully able to care for themselves, an occasional "round-up" by the stock men of a particular district being had, when the calves were branded by the person whose "iron" showed on the mother cow. Before winter set in a few days were generally spent by the stock owners uniting in gathering the cattle and driving them from the hills to the valleys. Once there,
all range cattle looked out for themselves ; no one pretended to feed or to put up hay to feed range cattle. The last season's grass was plenty, there was usually but a slight snow fall, not enough to prevent the stock from obtaining the grass it covered, and if the winter was extra severe, the great Snake River plain was easily reached, where in addition to the grass, was unlimited amounts of the nutritious white sage, upon which cattle could easily subsist.
It will be remembered that it was late in the " '80s" before any general attempt was made to farm any lands except those adjoining streams and low bench lands to which irrigating ditches could be easily constructed. Settlers had not as yet gone into the great valleys and stock had free access to every part, except the few fenced ranches wherein cultivation was had. Eastern Idaho, except for a few of the older and easily settled valleys, was for fifteen years in reality one big cattle ranch.
In the late "seventies" began a movement which was of vast interest to the stock men. Cattle were very low in price in Oregon, Washington and Idaho because the local demand was limited and there seemingly was no outside mar- ket. There was no way to get the cattle to the California or eastern markets except by driving them. This was impracticable, so far as California was con- cerned, because the only routes upon which drives could be made were over deserts without sufficient feed or water, or through farming sections where feed had to be purchased, and either method was impracticable. But through Eastern Oregon, Southern Idaho and Wyoming to Cheyenne the case was dif- ferent. A trail existed off the line of settlements, without farms to be inter- fered with and ample feed and water for the herds driven, and so for a number of years scores of herds of cattle, seldom less than two thousand head in a herd, were each year driven from Eastern Oregon and Idaho over the trail and into
HAYING SCENE NEAR ST. MARIES
SHEEP RANCH, FILER
Vol. I-30
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the stock yards at Cheyenne, Wyo., where they were shipped at small cost to the great markets of Omaha, Kansas City and Chicago; and while the herds in Idaho and Oregon decreased, the owners became wealthy and the remaining cattle had a reasonable value.
THE SHEEP INDUSTRY
Hon. John Hailey first conceived the idea that the ranges of Idaho were peculiarly well adapted for raising sheep, and with his characteristic prompt- ness, he no sooner conceived the idea than he acted and in the late "sixties" brought in from Oregon several large bands of sheep and put them on the range. Mr. Hailey's service in Congress in 1872 and 1873 prevented his personal atten- tion being given to the business and he soon after disposed of his holdings. The high price for transporting wool and the impossibility of putting the lambs on a market precluded any great attention being given the sheep business in Idaho until after the building of the Oregon Short Line, and with the advent of the railroad soon came great herds of sheep.
It should be borne in mind that at this time the ranges were open ; not only were they "free" so far as charges were concerned, but there were no regulations in regard to their use except a few peculiar statutes passed by the Legislature of Idaho, generally considered as of doubtful constitutionality, or of no real efficacy. Disputes naturally arose ; there was a fierce jealousy between the cat- tlemen and sheepmen, and frequent battles occurred for the possession of the water holes and choice feeding grounds, and many serious crimes were com- mitted which intensified the harsh feelings between the rival stock men. The sheep herders, accompanied generally by one or more dogs of the Scotch Collie type, who were thoroughly trained to and perfectly understood the handling of the bands of sheep, followed the snow as it melted from the mountain ranges in the spring and often reached an altitude of 8,000 feet or more by June. In the fall, usually in October, the return would commence and the bands of sheep would get back to the lower grazing lands to remain during the winter months,, and then the serious disputes would arise and the real trouble between cowboys and sheep herders would commence. These troubles lasted for many years and until new conditions developed and new policies were adopted.
SETTLEMENT OF THE RANGE QUESTIONS
The "free range" system could not last. There were too many interests be- sides the livestock industry involved for the old methods to remain. Emigrants from the East seeking homes, men from the mining camps who realized that the inevitable working out of the placer mines meant their adoption of a new method of livelihood, came in ever increasing numbers into the valleys, and the home- steaders and men taking advantage of the laws in regard to "desert entries," soon settled all over the one-time ranges, selecting the choicest lands and soon fenced up large areas that had always been devoted to grazing herds. Over- pasturing followed, the winter ranges became things of the past, feeding became necessary for all kinds of stock during a part of the winter months, and for a time it looked like the cattle business in Idaho was doomed, and that the sheep business was in but slightly better shape. But both state and nation came to the rescue. The state made arrangements with the stock men to graze their horses
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HISTORY OF IDAHO
and cattle on the state lands, paying a small rental per annum for the privilege, and this has not only been of great benefit to the stock, but the state has aver- aged nearly sixty thousand dollars per annum income from this source during the last four years.
The Federal policy with regard to grazing rights in the National Forest Reserves has been equally liberal and practically all the forest reserve lands have been used for grazing purposes. The regulations adopted have prevented the overcrowding of the ranges and greatly benefited all classes of stock men, also resulting in a much better feeling between the cattlemen and sheepmen than before existed.
The importance of the livestock industry in Idaho can be best appreciated by reference to the proceedings of the last State Board of Equalization, whose duty it is to assess the value after the amount of each kind of stock has been re- ported by the county assessors. The assessed value of the sheep in the state is $4,793,532 ; of cattle of all kinds, $10,534,116; of horses and mules, $9,795,315; of hogs, $558,435, making the total valuation of livestock, $25,681,398.
THE DAIRY INDUSTRY
Prior to 1912, but little attention was given to the development of the dairy industry in Idaho, the cattle and sheep that ranged by thousands upon the public lands having been raised for their meat alone and no attention paid in most places to dairy products. With the introduction of irrigation and the cutting up of the lands into small farms, a more intensive system of farming has come in, with the result that the milch cow is coming into her own. An article written in 1913 by E. V. Ellington, then in charge of the department of dairy production, University of Idaho, says:
"The climate of Idaho is very favorable to dairying. In the higher altitudes of the state the winters are a little severe, but not nearly so hard as in the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, which are famous as dairy communities. The greater part of the state is better adapted to the work than are any of the central states. The soil is exceedingly fertile, yielding as good pastures as are found in the famous blue grass regions of Kentucky. The climate is such that expensive barns are not necessary. One fact must not be overlooked ; that cattle bred in this section for two or three generations have developed vigorous con- stitutions, showing great capacity for feed and having well developed lung power. Partly because of this, tuberculosis among native cattle is practically unknown. It is a notable fact that less than two per cent of the cattle in the state are affected with tuberculosis. Of the cattle from which market milk for the larger towns of Idaho is supplied, less than one per cent are affected.
"Probably the greatest direct expense in dairying is feed. In the produc- tion of the most successful dairy feeds Idaho is most fortunate. It is the nat- ural home of the greatest milk-producing feed-alfalfa. It is for this one feed that the middle western farmer is paying from $24 to $28 per ton for cattle feed- ing. While in Wisconsin during the spring of 1912, the writer found one dairy community in Walworth County that had paid out $50,000 for Idaho alfalfa at $26 per ton to be used for milk production.
"With alfalfa and clover the dairyman is supplying the most expensive por- tion of the cow's ration. Supplementing alfalfa, corn for corn silage is being
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HISTORY OF IDAHO
grown in most sections of Idaho, and where the silo is being built the cost of producing a pound of butter fat is being materially lessened. While in most dairy sections of the country the greatest problem is the securing of cheap feeds, the opposite is true in this state. One farmer in Canyon County by keeping an accurate record of the milk and butter produced and the feed used, found that by the marketing of his alfalfa hay in the form of butter fat, he was enabled to receive $23 per ton for it. Another Canyon County dairyman during the month of July received $17.10 per cow from seven cows which were allowed to run upon seven acres of blue grass pasture. Blue grass pasture, when properly handled, will support two cows per acre."
Another eminent authority on the subject is Prof. C. H. Eckles, professor of dairy husbandry in the University of Missouri, who recently wrote to the Boise Commercial Club :
"I am in receipt of your letter asking my opinion of the adaptability of your section of Idaho for the development of the dairy industry. I am familiar with the dairy conditions in nearly all parts of the United States, having given ad- dresses on the subject in eighteen states. In my opinion the irrigated valleys of Idaho and other mountain states offer some of the best opportunities for the development of the dairy industry that are to be found in the United States. I am of the opinion that the cheese and condensed milk industry will find their greatest extension in the future in these valleys. Alfalfa will certainly continue one of your main crops and in no way can it be used to better advantage than by feeding to a dairy cow.
"The product, be it butter, cheese or condensed milk, is in a condensed form and may be shipped long distances to market if necessary. Your climatic con- ditions also are favorable for the best results in the way of large milk yields. Farmers in your immediate section would do well to decide if possible upon one breed of cattle and introduce the best possible blood of this breed with the object of making it a community proposition so far as possible. Some of the other valleys of the West have considerable of a lead over yours at the present time in this respect."
Farmers of Idaho are beginning to realize the favorable conditions of their state and are giving more attention to the dairy industry every year. In 1918 the dairy cows of the state were valued at nearly three millions of dollars. Al- ready there are several cheese factories and milk condensing plants in operation, and there is hardly a county in the state that has not one or more creameries for the manufacture of butter. Another decade is bound to witness great strides forward in the dairy industry of Idaho.
BEES AND HONEY
The broad, irrigated valleys of Idaho, with the fields of alfalfa and clover, the great orchards, with their prolific bloom, and the large number of sunshiny days each year when the busy bee can carry on his labors, make the state an ideal place for the production of honey. Many farmers are taking advantage of these conditions to engage in the business, which in every instance, when properly conducted, has yielded a handsome profit. Idaho Falls, the county seat of Bonneville County, is the headquarters of the Idaho Honey Producers' Asso-
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HISTORY OF IDAHO
ciation, which numbers about two hundred members. In 1914 the district about Idaho Falls shipped 300 tons of honey. There is a company there that handles all kinds of supplies for bee keepers.
Another section in which the honey-bee thrives is the lower Boise Valley around the City of Caldwell. Forty carloads of honey were shipped from that city în the fall of 1918, bringing to the shippers $270,500. Bee culture is taught in some of the common schools of the state, and there are a number of men engaged in the business who gave up positions paying good salaries to devote all their time to their apiaries.
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES
Almost from the very beginning of Idaho's political career, encouragement has been given to the agricultural interests. In his message to the Third Terri- torial Legislature in December, 1865, Governor Lyon said :
"For the better encouragement of ranchmen and farmers, who are making the valleys golden with grain, and who are growing in. great perfection the most of our edible roots as well as the fattening of kine; who, by their labors in man's primeval occupation give health and prosperity to our growing community, I would suggest the propriety of incorporating a 'Territorial Agricultural Society' for the improvement of the breeding of stock, as well as in the labors of the dairy ; being confident that the annual fairs, as in other portions of the United States, would be promotive of great good and mutual benefit."
On January 11, 1866, Governor Lyon approved an act of the Legislature authorizing William L. Ritchie, Thomas H. Calloway, A. L. Hale, John H. Baxter, D. C. Goodrich, Stephen Hodgson, B. M. Anderson and A. I. Turner "to open books of subscription to the 'Idaho Territorial Agricultural Society.'" The act provided that any one who paid $5.00 and enrolled his name might become a member of the society, which was required to hold an annual meeting on the first Monday in September, and appropriated $1,000 to be expended in premiums, provided an equal amount was raised by subscription.
No record of this first agricultural society can be found, and it does not ap- pear that it continued long in existence, as on January 15, 1869, another Terri- torial Agricultural Society was incorporated. The incorporators named in the act were: C. R. Hull, S. D. Aiken, Seth Bixby, Thomas Davis, Cyrus Jacobs, J. C. Geer, J. H. Whitson, J. B. Walling, J. M. Blossom, C. D. Vajen, H. P. Isaacs, L. F. Cartee, T. B. Hart, E. T. Beatty, T. C. Bail, S. P. C. Howard, F. M. Shoemaker, V. S. Anderson, T. J. Butler, F. W. Wilson, Doctor Noble, Robert Turner "and their successors."
The society was given power to purchase a tract of not more than forty acres for a fair ground and was required to meet on the first Monday in March, 1869, for the election of officers and effecting a permanent organization. An appro- priation of $1,000 was made for the benefit of the society and the first fair was held in the fall of 1869. This society, like its predecessor, was in existence but a short time and left no records of its proceedings. Since the admission of the state into the Union, county agricultural societies have been formed in a majority of the counties and fairs (sometimes called roundups) are held annually.
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At the meeting of the Idaho Cattle and Horse Growers' Association in January, 1917, at Boise, Clay Vance then president, a resolution favoring the
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HISTORY OF IDAHO
establishment of an Idaho State Fair was adopted. State fairs had been held prior to this time, but the resolution put new life into the proposition and the fairs of 1917 and 1918 were a great improvement over those of previous years. In 1918 W. T. Dougherty and O. P. Hendershot, president and secretary of the state board of agriculture, issued a statement to the people of Idaho in which they said :
"The state fair of Idaho will be larger and better this year and offer more and larger premiums than ever before. For the first time in our history as a nation, the Federal Government is taking an interest in state fairs and will have an exhibit and a food demonstration at our state fair, September 23d to 28th.
"The Lewiston Livestock Show at Lewiston now ranks next to the interna- tional. This year it will be larger and better and offer more premiums than ever before. No state in the Union offers such advantages in mining, agriculture or livestock as does Idaho. * * * These fairs are planned to be educational and recreational and the means to help increase the production of food. All citizens are urged to attend both of these fairs, as there will be lessons of value to each and every one."
CHAPTER XXIV HORTICULTURAL INTERESTS
FIRST FRUIT TREES IN IDAHO-WESLEY MULKEY'S ORCHARD- THOMAS DAVIS A PIONEER FRUIT GROWER-THE FIRST NURSERY-IN SOUTHERN IDAHO-IN NORTHERN IDAHO-HOW FRUIT GROWING PAYS-PRUNE CULTURE-SMALL FRUITS - MARKETING THE CROP - STATE ENCOURAGEMENT - THE SIXTEEN HORTICULTURAL DISTRICTS IN 1918.
When Henry H. Spalding left New York in 1836 to take up the work of an Indian missionary, he carried with him a small quantity of apple seeds, which he planted at the Lapwai Mission, in what is now Nez Perce County, Idaho. The trees that grew from these seeds were the first fruit trees in the Northwest. Some of them grew to be quite large, lived for many years, and it is said they bore a fair quality of fruit. More than a quarter of a century elapsed after the planting of these "seedlings" by Mr. Spalding before another attempt was made to establish an orchard in Idaho.
In the fall of 1863 Wesley Mulkey, one of the pioneers of Lewiston, pre- pared a tract of fifteen acres for an orchard and set out a few apple and pear trees. The following year he completed the work and the Mulkey orchard of fifteen acres really marks the beginning of Idaho's horticultural history. This orchard a few years after it was planted furnished practically all the apples used in Lewiston and the mining camps north of the Salmon River. Pack trains carried them over the Mullan road to the Montana settlements on the upper Missouri. The "Idaho" pear, now recognized by horticulturists as one of the standard varieties in all sections where pears are grown, originated in the Mulkey orchard.
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