Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1896-03-19
THE BONANZA STATE.
One Hundred and Forty Delegates
Attend the rIlneral and Irrigation
Convention at Helena.
Able Speeches Made and Plans Proposed "a
Forward the Material Interests
Of the State.

The mining and irrigation conven-
tiOn which was held i'm Helena last
week was attended by 40 delegates,
every county in the state being repre-
scntcd. Walter \. Cooper of BoZe-
man was made chairman and A. II.
Barrett of Butte, secretary. with C..
ID. Greenfield of Helena and C. II.
Edwards of Nlissoula, as assistants.
Gov. Richards delivered an address
of welcome which was responded to
by A. c. Logan, of Carbon county.
Able addresses were made made ON
our agricultural and mineral resour-
ces, $. NJ. Emery, president OF the
State Agricultural college, presenting
the former and +. p. Egerton the
latter. Mr.. Emery said in part:
What will be done with the in
creased products of the soil, should
Mpntana's 1000 farms he increased
ten fold? First, supply the home
table OF Montana; place upon it the
choicest cuts of the tops of the herds,
summered upon the luXuriant bunch
grass and wintered upon the nutric-
loue ftlIuud NlpNCI vi tDt
great valleys of the eastern slopes.
Keep them at home; they are too
prime to- bring you only iOur to five
cents from the great meat combines,
to whom you have so long paid un-
willing tribute. Flank this with the
shapely hams and wholesome bacon
of highly bred porkers raised upon
succulent pastures and finished off
with a. ration of wheat. barley and
peas, such meat being infinitely supe-
rior to- the corn-fel, bacteria bred,
cholera wed hog of the mississippi
valley TO these add home grown,
home fattened mutton, such as we
now export tO old England. tOenable
her to maintain her fast fading repu-
tation for Southdowns in their best
estate. Upon this gioaning table
must he found poultry unequaled in
quality. such as can only be grown in
our pure mountain air. Montana
oat meal, butter. cheese, eggs, fruit
vegetables and bread stuffs. ClOthe
,is with wooden garments 50 fine in
texture us To he fit for the raiment Ol
y king; supply our homes with car
pets and blankets, woven ON urowI
looms. Let us he shod with genuine
leather, taken from home herds
tanned i'm home watts, and manufac'
tured ON home benches. Do all these
things tn the 200,0O0 souls now here
and whose ranks will be augmented
by countless other thousands who
will flock to the state to operate the
mines which will be opened on every
mountain range when capital is avail
able.
"If IfMontanians were dependent upon
their own food supply and manufiic
tpvt- nj fS fhnnoh i'm 4 he N m q m
of per capita wealth they excel every
other state of the Union, they would
go hungry, save for flour, beef, NUT
ton and potatoes, for ten months q
the year; while i'm the matter of raj
ment. we would he no better off thar
was the red man who roamed the
prairies two generations ago. Ths
home market generously supplied W.
could then by reason Of the greater
fertility of the soil and increased crOI
production, together with the supe
rior quality of the product. offset thu
greater distance lying between III
and the markets of the world ant
successfully compete with sisterstate'
i'm this great and growing traffic.
There were speeches ON a variety %
subjects pertinent to the occasion
The speakers told of the wealth O
the state i'm mines and i'm lands tina
need only to be developed to max
the Montana one of the leading state
of the Union. They told some facts
hitherto not known as widely a
they should have been, about tE
greatness of the resources of thecom
monwcalth, and the delegates and |
good audience of people from thecit,
listened attentively to what was sal,
and went out of the hall with new
hopes for the future.
There was "a large attendance ol
Wednesday and the proceeding
proved of great interest.
Papers were read by Jerry Collin
on ''The CIimatology of Montana;
r. +. Collins, Montana Iron;" Nose
FOLSOM, Immigration and How t