Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1876-11-16

ONE of the principal reasons ior'the com
p~arative inactivity of the farmers and stock
growers of Montana is the want of IA steady
and permanent market, yet for the past ten
years we know of no country where prices
of produce will average anything like what
has been realized here. There were q few
years that our granaries were full and grain
and flour were not worth the actual cost of
production in consequence of which many
become disheartened, when i'll reality there
was no cause for any reduction in our pro-
ducts whatever. But many were so short
sighted that they only looked to the market
ing of their grain and f1our tor profit, with
out giving a thought to anything else, and
when the price of these commodities became
so reduced as to render their production UNI
profitable, they turned their attention to
other branches of industry when, in truth,
there has never been a season, however
bountiful our harvests have been, that arti-
cles, which should have heen grown here,
were not shipped from abroad. Even when
flour was $1.50 per cwt. and grain was sell
ing at corresponding rates, the farmers
Kitchen was supplied with lard and bacon
shipped from the Safes. Yes-lard, bacon,
hams, ETC., produced where land is worth
from $3.50 to S4.00 per acre rent, has ever
been furnished our people, and not only the
miners but our agricultural population have
depended upon the same source for supply.
Our soil is as rich and will produce more
bushels per acre than any land in the States,
besides the expense Of tillage is not more
than one-half what it is in the States. Hence,
we see that the alarm Of our farmers with
regard to the market is wholly without
foundation. When Montana is made to
produce a full supply Of such commodities
as may be grown here with equal profit as
may be realized elsewhere, whenolr canned
vegetables and canned small fruits are
turned out from home manufactures, when
much of our dried and Alden-cured small
fruits and vegetables are all put up within
our borders, when we have more bacon and
lard than can be consumed within our bor-
ders and in the mining camps of the Terri
tories adjoining, it will be time enough to
become alarmed about a market.
But the %grasshopper scourge for the past
three years has so lessened the yield as to
render prices high at present, and there is
no probability that they will ever fall so low
as at the time referred to, even though
grasshoppers be numbered among the
things that We're.
The rapid development Of our mines for
the past twelve months indicates that this
industry has taken such a start that the de-
mand for farm-products is more likely to
advance than decline. This is no visionary
conclusion. The prospects of the farmer
were never better than to-day. Tie pro-
duct of our quartz mines the past season has
more than trebbled that of any previous
year. Several new camps of unbounAed
wealth have been tested, and it's nothing
more than fair to presume that, in another
year, this pursuit alone will employ ten-fold
the capital employed the past season.
Should this prediction prove true, and it
stands to reason that it will, it will require
an addition to our agricultural population to
supply the demand.
1t will also require a great increase of our
dairy facilities. A few years ago otlr dairy
farmers worked themselves up TO the belief
that this article of manufacture would GER
tainly decline in consequence of the business
being overdone. Yet good packed butter
retails readily at'S0 cts. per ih, and whole
sales at 40 cents, in every mining camp in
the Territory. During the summer season
there As a low grade of butter which is sell
dom si..eted higher than 20 cents. but the