Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1885-1890, 1886-11-13
MONTANA.

We extr act the following from E. j.
Stanley's s'Sketch of the Topography, Re
sources and History Of Montana" which
will prove Interesting to our eastern read
aers:
1t is estimated that thirteen millions Of
acres in Montana are covered With timber,
That used for lumber, consisting mostly Of
yellow pine, black pine, ''bull' pine, tir or
spruce, and tamarack. The yellow pine is
in more general use for all purposes. The
fir is strong and durable and is used for
framing for timbering mines, etc. The
large mines that are being developed, the
Increase of railroads and other improve
ments are beginning to lay quite q tribute
upon our forests. This is the first great
belt of timber on the Northern Pacific
west of Minnesota, and the first to be tap
ped by the branches of the Union Pacific
road, and already there are perhaps one
hundred saw-mills in the Territory which
turn out millions of feet annually to meet
the increasing demand. Retail prices for
lumber range about as follows: Rough
lumber, S13 to S25 per one thousand feet;
dressed and matched flooring, $50 to $40;
dressed finishing lumber, $50 to $50; lath
81 to S. per one thousand: shingles, $500
to So per thousand.
Dairying has always proven very profit
able. and there is not a more independent
and prosperous class Of people in Montana
than those engaged in milking oWs and
making butter and cheese. The quality
produced is unsurpassed.
Many stocSmen even who own hundreds
Of COWS have been known to buy their but
ter or do without it. Butter that is brought
from the east can be had for twenty-five
cents per pound, but the sweet, fresh,
homemade butter brings forty and fifty
cent per pound. The number Of mich
cows reported in 1888 was S,222, which
yielded 69S.721 pounds Of butter and
cheese. The cheese is worth from eight
cen to twenty cents per pound, and milk
sells atssfrom forty to sixty cents per gal
Ion. Good mich COWS are worth at pres
ent from fifty to eighty dollars per head.
The dairyman gets the growth of his
calves in addition to the proceeds OF the
handsome yield of butter and cheese. He
usually lives in a coy cottage at the foot
of a mountain, by the side Of which flows
Il sparkling stream that by means Of a
wheel is made to do the churning, furnish
es ice-cold water for the m~ilk-house, for
domestic purposes, and irrigates garden,
field, and adjoining meadow. He is gen
7 orally supplied with the necessaries of
life and has money in his pocket foremer-
gencies.
1t has been estimated that 10000 900 Of
the 90 JOG 900 acres of land in Montana
are suitable for cultivation.
The soil Is Of three CLASSES, that along
the bottoms nearest the water courses rich
and black, Int a little heavy; second, the
dry. warm, sandy, loam-like bench lands,
easily broken with two horses, easily irri-
g4ted when q ditch is gotten on It, and less
liable to frost: and lastly, the high. billy
land near the mountains. It is we'll adapt
ed to wheat, oats, barley, rye, ~ruta-ba@aas,
turnips, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, beans,
peas, parsnips. squashes, tomatoes, melons,
onions. etc. The smaller fruits, such as
gocselerries, currants. raspberries and
Strawberries are very prolific in the gar
dens: while cherries. pluns, crabs and va
rious species Of apples, grapes and even
pears are grown successfully in some 10
~calities. Corn produces as high rs forty
bushels per acre, but owing to the short
ness Of the seasons and the cool nights it
is not a staple production. It is a small,
Hinty species that is used principally for
table use. Often the stalks Will not be
more than two or three feet high, and
from six to a dozen shoots or suckers
will ONE from the same root. each bear
in- g nice plump ear, which grows right
on the end Of the stalk.
Wheat, both spring and fall, yields ali
the way from twenty-five to fifty and sixty
bushels per acre while the average is
placed at about thirty bushels: oats from
thirty 70 ninety bushels per acre, with in
average Of, say, from forty tosixty bushels;
while potatoes will yield from 100 to 800
N 400 bushels per acre, and nave gone
even beyond that; hay yields from one to
four tons per acre. Potatoes weight from
two to four pounds, cabbages weighing if-
teen pounds, and turnips twenty-five
pounds each, have been frequently seen