Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1883-11-09
DakuTA TALKED ABOUT.
An Interview With General starlweather
of Watertown

An Interview With General Starlsweather
Of watertown
Chicago Inter-Ocean. 9th.
General G. E. Starkweather, promi
nent citizen of WATERFOWL, D. r., was at
the fremont house yesterday afternoon,
and in the course of conversation with
reporter for the Inter-Ocean gave some
clear-out views OF the territory and its
condition.
How is the real estate market in your
locaiity?' % asked the reporter.
"Real estate is being held very firm by
the dealers. The growth CT the bust
ness is strong, and in the cases where 1t
is slow 1t is yet steady and satisfactory.
immigration? Growing all the time,
and the class of people who are coming
IN are first class in all respects. Crops?
They nave been excellent. Last wear
they were good, but this year there is a
| grand Improvement. Corn was hurt by
the frost, as in Illinois and Iowa. but
wheat will be fine crop.
Il put the average in southern Dakota
at from twenty-fonr to twenty-five bush
els per acre. Now, heard that Dalrym.
pie told collector for the j. 1. Case
Manufacturing Company that the aver
| age on his farm-the great northern one
was about nine bushels per acre, while
the report had gone out that his average
was thirty. The staying qualities of tue
soil OF Dakota? There is no reason wby
it should not hold out as we'll as any in
| the world as long as our farmers do not
exhaust 1t, and they are learning by the
experience OF tillers of the soil all over
the world that it does not pay to wear
out the land. They are fertilizing the
soil as preventive against exhaustion -
"What is the condition of affairs gen.
orally IN your locality?"
"Excellent.-The population of Wa
tertown, my town, has increased 100 per
cent in the last year. The volume of
business has been rapidly growing, The
total amount of the business transac-
tlons for the last year was S5S6,00O. Out
OF this there was S9l 600 spent for ma
chinery and Sl05,o00 for lumber. / am
confident the business for the year 1883
will increase that amount loo per cent.
The first tive acres of wheat sown in our
county (Codington) were sown in 1878.
The total OF this years crop will not be
less than 100000 bushels. Manufactur.
| 'ao ~ io"AhsS niSos tuouku, VI course,
more slowly.
"Deadbeats in Dakota? No, sir: that
cry is false one. We find that the col
lections in southern Dakota by the mer.
chants are very good. Wenever had but
one failure in our town. The opinions
that are held about vast quantities of ir.
responsible citizens of western states
tiocking into Dakota are wrong. can
assure you, sir, that we don't have q
deadbeat population by any manner o.
means"
"Will there be any such suffering
among the people this winter as in tht
past?''
Not in our locality, anyway. Probably
threefourths of the coming winters fue
is already in store, and if you could Sc,
the long lines of freight trains coming il
loaded with nothing but coal, you wonlt
not think there was much danger o
suffering. l suppose there are probabl,
1000 tons of coal in Watertown alon
already. Peat? Used but very little
Coal is the staple fuel.
"What was the outlook for the yot
upon the constitution when you left ?"
''WeI. it looked favorable Tor its ador
tion. We, IN our part, want the divis,o
{ made upon the forty sixth parallel. W
know that the territory has populatio
! enough, strength enough. brains enough
l money enough, and We hope the electio
OF tomorrow will be favorable to on
: interests"