The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-01-04
Written For The HOLIDAY MINER
COUNTY.
It's Mining and Agricul-
tural Interests.
Interesting Statistics Showing the
Growth of the Two Great
Industries.
A Good Section of Montana in
Which to Settle.

Which to Settle.
l will try and give you a few facts and tg-
ures concerning the mining, stock and farm
ing interests of this county. 1t seems to me
that figures taken from the assessment roll
for the present year and as far back as 1872,
will give the best evidence of our past growth
and what our future will be can safely be
Judged by the past. I know that the grum-
bling part of our reading public are tired and
scarcely ever read anything about the re-
sources of Montana.
1t will be seen by the figures given below
that the cattle and sheep interests furnish
two-thirds of our total assessment. In June
1872, G. w. Cook drove into this county
1,4OO head of sheep from the winter range in
Gallatin county. This was the first lot driv-
en- in, except a lot of mutton sheep driven in
by Lamar & Kennedy in 1859. Men who
drive sheep into this county complain of their
losses during the first winter, but they say,
soh, well, they will do better when they get
acclimated.' The fact is the sheep are poor
or half starved when they get here and the
owners have no sheds or stables to protect
them from severe snow storms, or even
hay to feed them; and the consequence is
their loss was considerable, because of their
Indifferent keeping.
The total assessment for the year 1880
amounts to the sum of 81, G97, 1899.
The tax for the year was IA nj. divided as
follows:
Territorial m.
County m.
POOR M.
SCHOOL A............. .............o Ill.
Road TAX. m.
Total amt of taxes collected for
1881 SZ2,623.OO
Total assessment for 1S79...... 1~,1S7,4OS.00
Total assessment for 1872. 80. 507,5333.00
1t requires out little skill to raise wheat.
oats Or barley. Every acre of land, if fenced
and with sufficient water to irrigate it, is
worth $40 to SIS per acre.
Thirty acres Of oats on Duck creek, which
were raised on bench land, averaged 30 bush
els per acre. 40 acres of barley, same place,
same place, averaged 20 bushels. Owing to
the lateness of last spring, this is not up to
the average of other seasons.
The bench lands require about 100 inches
of water to every one hundred acres.
In the section l speak of, it costs the farm
"a, about 90 por ooro TO-. IoLo, ,rbo,o 1o ;,,;
gates three times over.
The bottom lands do not require SO much
water, and, consequently take less labor.
rarms along the river bottom produce nearly
twice as much per acre as the bench lands do,
but the quality is not SO good. Marks &
Patterson threshed $4,000 bushels Of grain
this year against $4,000 last year. Their saw
mill, the only one in the Missouri valley, cut
25O,0oO feet of lumber this year which did
not nearly supply the demand. The same COM
pany produced 10000 pounds of cheese which
they sold at wholesale at 20 cents per pound.
They made about 5000 pounds of butter
which is selling to-day at 60 cents per pound.
There are nineteen stores in the county
that do a general merchandising business.
All but five have a retailers license to sell
whiskey. All sell Intoxicating liquors by the
quart with but a single exception. Besides
this we have twenty saloons. Both stores
and saloons are kept open every day in the
year except on election days. The county
derives q revenue of about $4,000 a year
from this business. If men can afford to buy
whisky at rs cents a drink and spend their
time around such places, make them get out
a license also-a %drunkard's license.
Sixty gold and silver lodges have been
located in Barker district and recorded at the
county seat since last spring. We have gold,
silver and copper leads scattered all over the
county and all being better developed every
day. The quartz mill that has been standing
idle so long on Confederate gulch, is in the
charge of a competent person who intends to
spare no pains, time Or money to put it in OPP
Grafton early in the spring. There have been
no leads found in the district that carry any,
thing but gold. Several parties have found
cinnabar float rock at the head of Confeder-
ate but no lead of that character has been
found.
All kinds Of hired labor receive fair wages.
The producers are receiving a big price for
everything they wish to sell. Considering
the prosperity of our people they are sadly
neglecting churches, schools II school
houses. I'll not tell you how many churches
We have or how many places there are where
public worship is held.
Our county is divided into ten school dis
tricts. We have eight school houses, seven
log and one frame. Two of the ten districts
rent buildings. Whole number of males un-
der twenty years of age, 494. No. of females
under twenty years Of age, 33S. Five male
and four female teachers are employed at an