Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-01-11

direction, and supplying the settlers
with what they need at very reason
able rates, and expediting the spring
ing up of important and numerous
trade centers. If we have no timber
for manufacturing implements of
agriculture, they I sent to us in
very large quantities at exceedingly
low marginal profits, forming a bust
ness of gigantic proportions. receiv-
ing impetus from a popular convic-
ton that our abundant agricultural
resources justify and superinduce it
a condition foreign to a country of
stinted resources.
Independent of an abundant supply
of lumber here referred to, there is
another consideration bearing on the
matter at issue, which mustsnot be
overlooked. If we have no pine o
hemlock forest from which to draw
lumber supply, we do not have their
everlasting, almost imperishable
pitchy stumps and roots to form an
almost ever enduring impeachment to
modern field culture by machinery;
and if an attempt is made to remove
these distractions, additional expense
is incurred which the salable priceQf
the land would not liquidate, as wlseh'
the timber is gone very little of value
remains.
We have here immense reaches of
rich. smooth, unincumbered prairie
land that improves with tillage, from
which to draw our differences and
conclusions. and on which to base our
expectations of future glorious devel-
opment, and now, dropping the argu-
ment as tn timber supply, l will con
slider briefly, some points which seem
pertinent to fuel supply. Some allu-
sion has already been made to this
particular, but it being a matter of no
secondary significance in this matter
of defense, I hope it will not be out
of place to refer to it again.
10 you, citizens of a wooded State,
with your capacious wood houses
filled to repletion,with seasoned wood
prepared for the stove, and cut from
your own massive woodland groves
out of hard maple OF white oak, with
a promise of a bountiful supply for
years to come, the idea of accepting
twisted hay as a substitute is simply
supremely ridiculous; but I can as
sure you that a good dinner, prepared
by a competent housewife, with the
good and never failing health enjoyed
here, and regular Dakota appetites,
and all intensified by that coveted
feeling called contentment, by mental
philosophers, su%perinduced by a con
sciousness of worldly competence,
grounded on the possession of many
broad acres of fertile land, is just as
palatable when cooked by the heat of
twisted hay as though hard maple
wood was an accessory in it's prepar-
alton.
But I desire to he distinctly under
stood when [ assure you that Dako-
taians are not thrown upon this re-
source alone for fuel. We have other
expectations and reliances. The
railroads L establishing centers of
coal supply wherever needed, reliable
now. at all times, and immense guam
titles are in store to meet the wants
of the people, and that at reasonable
figures, and the settler a buy his
supply of coal for a year with the
proceeds Of q few acres of wheat or q
few head of cattle-as it costs here
very little toraise them where pastur-
age is SO immense, and where hay
can be put in the stack for $1.75 per
ton. Iowa coal can now be had at
$3.50 per ton. Railway lines are be-
ing pushed forward with great vigor
to the Upper Missouri coal fields,
simply immense in area, and but a
few months will intervene before
there will be an abundant supply
from that quarter.
But our expectations do not stop
here by any means. The better in
formed portion of our people en-
terrain the opinion that deposits
of coal will yet be found nearer
home, as indications of their existence
are frequently met with in the James
river valley, diffused over a very large
area of it's limits, and these indications
in conjunction with the we'll known
fields about Bismarck, D. T., impress
us that coal deposits are not far away
from us, and that they will yet be dis
covered. If any one should ever