Editing Hershey, Nebraska (section)

=== Agricultural context ===
Hershey is located between the North and South Platte rivers in the midst of good agricultural land, much of it irrigated.  From an early date, agricultural production emphasized stock raising, alfalfa, and sugar beets. The sugar beet industry was encouraged by a tariff on sugar enacted in 1897.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Davis|first=Roger|date=2001|title=Latinos Along the Platte: The Hispanic Experience in Central Nebraska|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/188048246.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201008200145/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/188048246.pdf |archive-date=October 8, 2020 |url-status=live|journal=Great Plains Research|volume=12|pages=32}}</ref> In 1905, there were 721 acres in Nicols Precinct planted to sugar beets. Shipments from Hershey in 1919 included 904 rail carloads of hay and 279 carloads of sugar beets.  While the sugar content of the beets raised near Hershey was high, the volume was long insufficient to support a processing plant.<ref>Ira L. Bare & Will H. McDonald, ''An Illustrated History of Lincoln County, Nebraska and Her People'' (American Historical Society, 1920), pp. 86-87, 284.</ref>