Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1881-12-03

uCHtS VI Vic SIdtCS lS thaI thSiS 10 ho
field for inyeament or profitable labor
outside of mining or some branch OF
employment which is concurrent with
mining in the Hills. This is not so.
There is here everything that presents
inducements for settlement in any other
region, and in addition to that, mining.
The usual way is for man in the east
contemplating immigration to think in
this wise. If want to 20 10 farming |
must go to Minnesota, Iowa, or Kansas.
If want TO go into the lumber business
| must 60 to Michigan, Wisconsin, or
Minnesota. If want to go to mining !
must 90 20 Montana, Colorado, Arizona,
or the Black Hills. Now the fact is
that the Black Hills alone presents bet
,er inducements for any one of the three
branches of industry than does any of
the other places mentioned. OF mines
every one knows we have plenty un-
developed as we'll as plenty as yet un-
discovered every one knows that this
region takes it's name from the dark ap-
pearance that our mountains present
from their vast tracts Of timber, all of
which is good and only waiting cheap
mode of transportation to the prairie
countries to the east and south of us ;
but it is not so well known outside of
the Hills that no other country can com
pete with US as An agricultural country
TO be sure we have not the vast prairies
Of Kansas, Iowa and Minnesota, but We
have many thousand acres of rich ara
ble land open to the settler which will
in few years make him more money
than lifetime of toll on the prairies of
Iowa can DO. Take the valley of the
Cheyenne river which is probable our
largest tract of tillable soil. There are
there many thousand acres Of land,
without a stone or stump, with rich soil
which will yield eighty bushels of oats.
forty bushels of wheat, or sixty bushels
of barley to the acre, instead of the
meagre crop of prairie countries of tif-
teen bushels of wheat, thirty-fve
bushels Of oats, or twenty bushels of
barley. Forty acres of land we'll cuiii-
yated here will yield more than any
other hundred acres that we ever saw,
and the price realized per bushel is
more than double that Of the states east
of us. TO make farm productive and
profitable here requires greater outlay
Of labor than OH the prairie but the
labor is well repaid. Suppose for in
stance that man takes up one hundred
and sixty acres on the Cheyenne, or on
some Of the streams running into it. lie
must first bring water on to it which
will perhaps take him one season Of
hard work in addition TO the labor of
erecting buildings and breaking say
forty acres. He then has an almost
positive certainty Of raising good crop
every year He is not dependent upon
the uncertain fall Of rain, but has really
nothing TO fear but a possible hail storm
which he must risk in any country.
Then after harvesting a larger crop from
his forty acres than he could get from a
hundred acres in Iowa, he has 4 market
that has never yet been half supplied,
where he can get two cents per pound
or one dollar and twenty cents bushel
for potatoes five cents per pound or
three dollars and twenty eight cents per
bushel for wheat, four cents per pound
or one dollar and twenty eight cents per
bushel for oats, and four cents per pound
for barley. These prices seem fabulous
to one accustomed to the prices in
Minnesota and Iowa, but they are what
those crops bring here to-day, and there
seems to be no prospect Of a dim,nution
Of price for some time to come, and then
our home producers will have the east
ern price plus the cost of transportation
even after a railroad is built here.
The Black Hills will grow as a market
faster than the farming settle
ments will, and there is little or no
danger Of there being any surplus crops
for years to come. New mining enter
priscs are continually starting into Ike
and busy operation, and every man that
works on them, and every team that is
employed on them, adds to the already
immense horde Of consumers. There is
hardly place in the United States
where farm produce brings so high a
price and sells so readily as in the Black
Hills. Several men now living here
ana engaged in lucrative business
have taken up ranches believing that it
is as good an investment as can be
made, many others will follow suit the
coming summer. The best proof Of the
assertions contained in this article is
found in the fact that there are to day a
large number Of farmers in this county
who have as yet got but very few acres
under cultivation, generally but about
ten or fifteen, and they have more mon
ey as a class than any other class ofmen
in the county. All Of them, or nearly
all, started with absolutely nothing not
even team, and thought themselves
lucky if they could get up log cabin