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.

The property of the Great Western Sugar Company in Scotts Bluff county is probably worth seven or eight million dollars and including the Bayard mill will probably represent ten million dollars in value.

The by-products from the mills -- pulp and syrup -- is of great interest to the feeding industry; thousands of cattle and sheep being fed annually adjacent to the sugar factories. Stock feeding yards covering hundreds of acres are near the mills and the company as well as others use them in the feeding season.

The Soil

I have told the story of "The Gering River" which ran westward into an inland sea. The enduring monuments that form the Wildcat range were then laid down. At Chimney Rock it was 140 feet deep as shown by the depositions in the spire. But much of the rich soil of Scotts Bluff county was laid in the bottom cf possibly one hundred fathoms of water before that river was in existence. Sheep -Mountain, Castle Rock, and Scotts Bluff are distinctive monuments of the ancient river and in part the valley lying alongside received its alluvial substances from wash from these hills.