The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1877-09-29
MONTANA LETTER.
MOnsana's Staple Producfs-.-
Indian Troubles. etc, etc.
WHITE HALL, Montana,
Sept. 9th, 1874

Editors NeW Dom inion.
! send you, by this days mail, two
species of bunch grass; one is valley
the other, mountain growth. They
are, / think, Montana's staple product,
especially so five can get the hostile
Indians out of the section of country
so that we can have safe and free
pass to the eastern market with our
beef cattle. / also send you two
samples of blue joint or, more proper
ly, wheat grass. One grew without
being irrigated, the other was irri-
gated few times. 1t is splendid
feed for stock in the winter, or at any
season for horses or cattle that you
cannot let run to bunch grass. These
grasses are all of spontaneous growth
in Montana You will also find a
small bunch of wheat which grew
from few grains that had been scat
tered or spilled where a party of us
fed our horses last Spring, on the sod.
The ground had never been broken or
cultivated in any way. The grain
sproutcd and took root in the sod and
would have produced good, large
grains had it not been for a vista
ton of grasshoppers, whose every
touch seemed to have poisoned the
grain. This is the Toas wheat that
you had advertised. My object in
sending you the sample of Montana's
beefproducing grass is, that you may
place it on exhibition at your coming
Fair, that your stock men may see it,
and bear in mind that horses, cattle
and sheep will not only thrive on it
at all seasons, but will actually fat
ten on it through the winter unless
an unusual severe one. l will try and
send you good sample of wheat, also
flour made from new wheat. 1t is not
my desire to persuade any one in
Monongalia to migrate to Montana,
but would advise them. that if healthy,
contented and prosperous, to remain
where they are; for my own part |
would not exchange this Jefferson
county for all West Virginia, but it is
best that we do not all see and think
alike. Should there be those in your
midst who desire to emigrate West to
secure cheap land for agricultural
purposes or for the better and more
profitable use of raising stock, let me
advise him or her to lose no time in
coming to Montana while this Indian
trouble is in existence. Ranches are
cheap. / have, within a few days,
purchased fine ranch of 800 acres
improved and in sight Of White Hall
for 500. Improvements cost more
money. Under the recent act of the
last Congress we can preempt 640
acres and not live on it, but pay down
at time of entry % cents per acre.
You then have three years to pay the
remainder, $640, and to comply with
the act, to pitch water ON it by
bitches for irrigating purposes. But
a man may engage profitably here in
stock growing without owning a foot
of land. To permanent settlers !
would advise them to secure a home.
Laboring men are scarce in Montana,
not enough for the demand. / have
been paying, since / have been in
Montana, near II years, $50 per
month, during the haying season, and
pay from $40 to $25 during the win
ter. Men who understand milking
COWS can get $40 per month the year
round.
have no doubt you have ere this
read much Of our indian troubles.
Lord Sitting Bull on our north and
east and Chief Joseph on west and
south, who has, rs / intimated in my
last, proved himself an overmatch for
the self-styled christian warrior, How
ard, who calls on our worthy Gov B.
f. Potts to stop the hostile indians
for him. The Governor makes a call
for volunteers; his call is responded
to with that alacrity never surpassed
in any country; our citizens rush to
the front, mounted and equipped at
their own expense, ready to give bat
tie to the hostile Indians. At the
moment we are ready to strike, the
War Department telegraphs oul
Governor that he cannot organize
volunteers. AT this critical moment
Gen'l Sherman, he who marched
through Georgia and wound up in the
town of Columbia, South Carolina, by
firing the residence of Wade Hamp
ton, appeared at Bozeman, in eastern
Nop+aua Our Gnyarnor AMMAN aI