Four large factories are in the valley and three of them within the limits of Scotts Bluff county. Probably six hundred thousand tons of beets were grown in the county and the farmers received therefor approximately seven million dollars. About two million bags of sugar was the 1920 output. Before the war the average consumption of sugar per capita was about eighty pounds but it has fallen some below that since, owing to the habits and lessons of the war. It will be seen that Scotts Bluff county produced sugar sufficient for over two million people.

The county has three large mills, the largest and first built being at Scottsbluff city. The next was built at Gering and the third at Mitchell. A fourth factory is at Bayard within two miles of the Scotts Bluff county line. The four are all the mills of the Great Western Sugar Company with headquarters at Denver.

The story of the first mill and the efforts to locate the same in this valley is told that the spirit of the people of the valley be shown. In the years of its initiation the Great Western sent several men into the valley to look it over and report. By accident I met W. H.

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

Fairbrother and made one or two trips with him. One time I took him to look over the Hiersche farm of two hundred acres east of town and tried to point out its attractive features as a suitable location for a sugar factory.