FORT COLLINS, Colo.—Throughout the long, hot summers, workers tended the fields where sugarbeets grew—fields prepared, for decades, by horse-drawn plows; tractors were expensive and needed gasoline.
Once planted, the beets had to be thinned, a task done by hand, workers bending over to select the hardiest plants and cull the rest. As the beets grew, they had to be carefully tended—weeded, watered, and fertilized, also by hand. Workers wielded hoes all day long. Rainfall was insufficient here, so irrigating was required; ditches were dug from the river to the beet fields, the water guided to where it needed to be.
When Great Western Sugar Factory opened in 1904, bringing jobs and income to Fort Collins, beet-growing became a cooperative venture between the farmers and the factory. Since Fort Collins had a land-grant agricultural college, agronomists were available to advise the farmers about best practices to improve yields. Field men hired by the factory consulted with farmers on a regular basis. Farmers competed to achieve the highest, largest yields.
Source: www.coloradoan.com