In the start of the 20th century, the area papers stated how the Milk River Valley was prime ground for sugarbeets. The paper also stated three things were needed to raise them: a farmer, train and sugarbeets.
Thanks to the railroad, the farmer could raise large amounts of sugarbeets in the Milk River Valley. They would plow the ground in the spring to a depth of 12 to 15 inches. The seeds came in a burlap bag weighing 100 pounds each. Some farmers that had flood irrigation would split the bag and use it to dam up the ditch. Most farmers used a horse-drawn four-row planter. Yes, it was hard to keep the rows straight. When the seedlings would get 2 to 3 inches tall, they would be hand hoed and thinned to one every 12 to 18 inches apart. They were weeded by hand, and the dirt cultivated to stay loose.
The longer the sugar beets stayed in the ground, the sweeter they got and the more money the farmers made. Harvest time was in late September and lasted six to 10 weeks — depending on the amount of beets and the weather.
Some beets stayed in the ground and froze; the farmers didn't have enough help to get them out in time. When harvested, the farmers would use a horse-drawn beet lifter to loosen the beets.
Then the ground was leveled and the workers would pull the beets, smack two together to get the dirt off and cut off the tops. They would throw the beets in piles for the haulers to load. They were loaded by hand with a beet fork on a horse-drawn wagon. If the ground was wet or it was raining, they would use more horses to pull the wagon. When loaded they would take the wagon to a "beet dump" to unload, unless they were 5 to 10 miles from a factory.
On a good day, the farmer could make about four trips a day. It was hard work; Sundays were usually "rest days," even if a farmer didn't belong to a church. The horses worked hard all week and also needed to rest. Even beet dumps would be closed on Sundays, and the locals looked down on you if you worked.
In January of 1906, the farmers and businessmen of this area started a campaign to get a sugar factory to locate in Chinook. In 1925, the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company was going to put a plant in the Milk River Valley at either Malta or Chinook. The executives of the company looked at different sites, then went back to Utah to decide.
Source: www.greatfallstribune.com