The Springdale news., 1888-07-06
FROM MONTANA
GoRHA,I, MONTANA.
 June 2S. lSss.

June 2s. 1Sss.
 EDITOR NEWS: As I am q sub scriber 10 your paper I thought l would give short sketch of Mon taua. as some ef my friends around Springdale. Elm Springs and l Wheeler would like to hear from here. Two fifths ef Montana is q plain and three feths is mountains. The plains ara q grassy table land, the finest in the world for raising stock. The grasses are the bunch and buffalo grass The summers are generally so dry that the grass natures yerv early. Itcures stand ing and retains when dry all its strength. The grass on the plains i is short and is better adapted to sheep raising than it Is to cattle The foot hills are covered with bunch grass which is very fine for horses. Horses are extensively raised here. It costs .oth1ng 10 raise them they as keep fat the year round on tho range. Horses are good 1nstfers, they can get plenty to eat in two feet of snow bv paving tie snow away lt IS differeatwith sheep though. When the snow gets that deep we haze to use SHOW blows to let the sheep get to the grass.
 The mountains furnish tolerable good supply of timber. The tim Der IS all pine and fir. We have no hard wood growing here. The climate shows great extremes ard sudden changes, but not so severe as might be expected from the alti- tudc here. The cold waves from British America arc met and often driven back by q warm west wind, the so called Chinook. When the current reaches the valleys of Mon tans it k warm and dry and ire auentlv melts the snow in mid win ter. The greatest rain fall is in April, May and June. Thealtitade here where 1 iiyc is something oyer five thousand feet We can see snow the year round on tie noun tains. On the night of the 22nl there was quite a iali of s ow here. We sometimes have show here on thc Fourth Of July, bat noi enough to sleigh ride. The first of 0eto- Der last year the snow fell twenty fve inches .teep. We have the fn- st sprlngs aeFe in this section of country that l ever saw. tic springs on Wild Cat hot excepted. Game of all kinds i, plentiful
 Tie buffalo are nearly all gone hut there is stil plenty of erizly and black bear, Hoaatan lions, iYnXes ani g.lid eatS, wolves aud coyotes, moose aHd elk, dcer and antelope, mountain sheep and gaats, faxes and hares, prairie dog4 and prairie sqairreis. Game birds are also plentiful Swan geese, ducks. sage hens, prairie chickens. and erouse. Nearly al the streams are well stocked win fish. II is mo8n- tam treu1 and white f~h III the small streams. Stock raising is the principal industry here. although I they raise grain here 10 some e,- teht. It yields well. Wheat and barley forty to sixty bushol to the acre. 9ats nifty to saycuty-fiYe. l There k some ranches that raise from ten to fifteen thousand bush els of gram. Irish potatoes yield well from two to four hundred bushcl to the acre The firm tbat l work for have thirteen thousand head Of sheep. They seld five thousand head Inst fall, some nut lon and some lambs. Trey brought two dollars and sixty cents a head The name of the firm is Mullcry 1 < Cannon. The shearers are at work now shearing. There are twenty men shearing Some men shear one hundred and fifty in a d2y whfle others don't shear but fo tg. They get elghtee I head and board. Labor is s4o tos60 per month, s2.50 to $500 per day. The Sioux reservation is thfoWn open to settlement and you cores pendent thinks of drifting that way. Ii lies iu the northern part of Mon tana There are over eighteen mil. lion acres of land waiting for the homeste2lers.
 l would like b spend the summer in old Arkansas and help tic boys eat peaches and watermelons, but will wait til more convenient season.
 THos. W. PURsELL.
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