Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1882-03-02
Correspondence of the Inter-Ocean.

A Paradise for Cattle and sheep
Raisers.
Correspondence of the Inter-Oeean.
MILES CRY, Montana.-In 1876, after
the Custer massacre, General Sheridan
sent to Kansas for General Miles, the
Colonel of the Fifth Infantry, who had
splendid reputation as an Indian
fighter, to come up here and assist in
subduing Sitting Bulls hostile band.
He secuted over the country, and it
was finally decided to erect canton
ment, as a center Of operations on the
Yellowstone, at the mouth of the
Tongue river. 1t was called Fort Ke-
ogh, after brave captain Of the Sew
enth Cavalry, who died fighting by
Clusters side. A large garrison was
placed here, and the fort was used as
base of supplies for the long, and in
same respects, disastrous campaign,
which finally resulted in driving the
hostile Indians out of Montana, and
opening up a rich and beautiful coun-
try, four hundred miles of river bot
tom, and millions of acres of plateaux
and rolling prairie to settlement.
THE AGGRESSIVE PIONEER
followed the soldiers in aud built his
cabin under the sheltering pr0tec-
ton of the fort. A cluster of houses
was soon gathered, and 4 town was or
ganiZed under the name of Miles City.
1t is at the head of navigation on the
Yellowstone, and is the metropolis of a
region that is becoming settled very
rapidly.
[ find that the climate is the great
bugbear that keeps away many who are
anxious to come, but those who have
spent two and three and four winters
here tell me that the cold is not so Sc
we're as it is in northern Iowa and Min
nesota, and a man who has spent the
greater portion of his life in st. Law
renee county, New York, says that the
atmosphere is more agreeable here on
the cOldest days, and the thermometer
does not go so low as it does at Water
town, N. Y. When it is cold it is
almost invariably still weather, and the
bitter winds that are felt ON the bord-
ers of the lakes or the sea are never
known. A Chicago gentleman, who
was compelled to leave the lake atmos-
phere because of bronchial affi iction,
tells me he has been entirely cured,
and during the two winters he has
spent here has never had cold nor a
sore throat. Catarrh is unknown. and
LUNG DIFFICULTIES ARE CURED.
There is no malaria, and the absence
OF moisture in the atmosphere, with its
9z5hg 0HSty whdtdR ahndt dR It c63RRdap ca6R3Rdap make RepH Il es g
pecially grateful to those who suffer
from pulmonary complaints.
FUEL IS PLENTY.
Coal seems to exist in exhaustless
quantities, and can be secured at one
half the prices we pay in Chicago. The
coal deposits in the Yellowstone field
are found to be admirably adapted for
working, il consequence of easy drain
age, afforded by their gentle dip
toward the Yellowstone river, which
FLOWS through the center of the coal
field. The veins of coal thus far dis
covered in eastern Montana are those
outcropping in the cut-bluffs along the
Yellowstone river and in the outlying
buttes. The thickest and perhaps the
best workable coal vein near Miles
City occupies a position in the cut
bluffs near the surface of the water in
the Yellowstone river. The next best
vein for mining purposes lies about
seventy-fve feet above the former in
the adjacent outlying buttes.
THE CROPS.
At the last official report it appeared
that 80, ,403 acres of agricultural land
had been taken up under the govern
ment laws for cultivation in this valley,
and that last year 22,250 bushels of
oats and 10000 bushels of potatoes
were harvested that was practically the
first farming year in this region. Since
then the settlement has been so rapid
| that the area under cultivation this
year must be at least a thousand per
cent. larger, and the crops have in
creased in equal proportion.
The great demand for local consump-
ton makes farming very profitable,
and vegetables and small fruits bring
the most exorbitant prices New po-
tatoes when first in market this sum-
mer were sold for ten cents per pound,
and at no time during the summer re-
tailed for less than two and a half.
Turnips and cabbage brought as much
as three cents per pound, and cauli-
hower-of which the finest possible
specimens are grown here-from ten
to twenty cents per head celery often
twenty-five cents bunch, and beets
parsnips, satisfy, ETC., bring
CORRESPONDENCE HIGH PRICES.
Tomatoes, which are a somewhat more
uncertain crop on account of the posi-
BILE early frost, bring from ten cents to
as high as thirty cents per pound. Oh
the small fruit there is a still better op-
portunity for money making. Straw
berries are never sold at less than 335
cents, in large quantities, and the usual
price is so cents per quart. Raspber,
ries so to rs cents per quart. and fol
the very first in market som etimes 81
is obtained. Currants bring so to &C
, cents per gallon.
Experiments in wheat culture have
met with the most hattering results
. although as long as farmer can make
twice the money cultivating oats or po
5 tatoes for the local market it will no
be largely entered into, unless some en-
: terprising man should utilize this mag
nificent water-power by erecting I
Touring mill.
STOCK RAISING
$ is and will be the idea in Montana
There are %, 100000 acres of the fines
grazing land in the world in the BASH
of the Yellowstone. The famous buncl
| :.