Some of the beet acreage subscribed was raw prairie and hardly to be classed as beet land. In this we are all surprised at the results from prairie land put into beets. It took considerable emphasis on the part of such positive natures as Craig McCreary to get the company to accept our claim that the acreage question was solved and that the additional four thousand acres would be subscribed as soon as it was definitely given out that the factory was to be located at Scottsbluff. We "got away with it" but the fact was that there were never over seven thousand acres raised that year. It is also a fact that the factory did not care for more beets at that time as it was a little late in getting started.

There were acres covered with machinery shipped in and under the direction of Geo. Cumbers this gradually went into place. Some of the parts of the old Ames factory were used and much new machinery. As a tribute to the intelligence of the construction genius let it be said that thirteen acres of floor space was filled with complicated machines all driven from one propelling engine and that when ready to start it started and ran for sixty days and nights without a pause for adjustments or any other cause.

The struggles incident to the location of the first factory in Scotts Bluft" county have been

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

duplicated in a way by the building of the others at Gering, Mitchell and Bayard. Not perhaps quite so intense, for the company has not required the exacting terms in other cases since they were unnecessary. Acreage has always been more than the local factories could consume and tons have been shipped out to the factories of Colorado.