The Montana post. [volume] (Virginia City, Montana Territory [i.e. Mont.]) 1864-1869, 1868-01-25

be asked, If this is so, and it takes year
to develop property before il is advisable
to purchase machinery. why do not men
from the mining regions urge the fact
upon capitalists? The reason is that
they are generally over sanguine of the
richness of the property and think there
is scarce possibility of failure another,
that it is almost hopeless undertaking
TO oorganize company without pros
psct of returns for nearly two years, and
between the two, what they know to be
the only true policy, is not urged with
that persistency which il should be.
We take it that not one company in
twenty would fail to make fortune in
Montana if the owners would evince the
same shrewdness, prudence and business
tact they did in amassing the means
which they invest. We take it that ev.
cry failure is told ten times as often on
the eastern exchanges as are the in
stances of success, and that therefore ev.
cry failure is more serious detriment
TO the Territory than successes are bene-
ficial. IL is the duty of the people and
the press tn urge, privately ana public
ly, the vital importance of development
as primary step. It has been said by
the ablest writer that has written ol
| Montana, that the expenditure of half
million in development in Montana the
coming season would warrant the erec
tion of a thousand mills the next. Can
we hope for such results from the pres
ent systeml There are few companies
in Montana whose managers have been
quietly but vigorously developing pro-
perty for the past eight or ten months
and with shafts upon their leads of lot
or 175 feet with hundreds of cords o
good quartz out and in sight. are now
prepared for the reception of machinery
suited to it's reduction. Their residence
in the vicinity of the lead during all sea
seasons, has given them opportunity tC
select the best site for mill 10 exam
inc the facilities for fuel, water and trans
portation to determine the character
quality and quantity of ores the mines
will produce, and the capacity and kline
of machinery requisite to most economi
cally reduce them. There need be n,
doubt entertained of the success of sucl
companies. There will bc no failure O
the leads to supply supply sufficien
rock, or lack of fuel and water, so likel,
to overtake companies whose manager
erect mills without having first spent
season in developing. Not one of the
least important points is the differenc
in cost between opening lead to suppl,
mill at the same time as testing il, am
developing merely TO prove the vein
The former requires greatly larger shaft
than is requisite for the latter, and W
hazard little in saying that leads whicl
have failed at the depth of one hundre
or more feet could have been tested fo
one third the expenditure, had it NO
been necessary 20 sink an immense shat
10 supply a mill, instead of smslle
, prospect shaft. Where it is practicabl,
f tunnelling is vastly superior to shaftins
and one reason there are so few tunnel
, is that the expense has been so great i
, s;nking on shafts that companies shrin
from the additional outlay, even after
. is demonstrated to be in every respeS
the better method. There are compa
nies who have stumbled upon success b
the premature, hap method, an
few that commenced by developing
: bat they are exceptions among the man!
whose owners have become Discourage
and whose property, as is abundant
evidenced by the experience of otht
3 localities, will pass into other hands b,
. fore they become valuable. The quart
owners of the Territory offer the mo.
liberal terms to companies, and the
would rather see a gang of hands 60 q
j a lead TO prove it up, than to have mi
8 erected without a surety of its runnin
. six months. In every light, Montaniar
= may consider il, il is the best course
u meet this issue squarely and advise col
: stantly the introduction of capital; f rst 4
q develop; in time, machinery to reduc
= Every one can see the evils resultiu
from any other course, and the preseI
Il the only time an evil car ever
remedied.
The Hon. w. w BRooKINGs.
;. Yankton, recently introduced in I'll
upper House of the Territorial Assem-
bly, of Dakota, memorial asking Co
10 gress TO organize into n new territol
!, that portion of Dakota west of Nebrasl
D and South of Montana, stating that
contains from FIVE to ten thousand inha
u itants, and the Development of Il
lr Sweetwster mines makes il probab
'e that by the coming summer there wi
n be fully ten thousand men in that SCI