The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1903-12-25
TALKS ON RESERVE
LeSte.Yi|le Editor Makes Response to a
Criticism Concerning the Lands
on the Reservation.
lie Says That the Land is the Best in
Nest for Range Purposes and He
Proves 1t.
An Editor Finds That Burning Ashes is
Fuel Saver by Thoroughly TRy-
ing the Experiment.
TOUCHES ON RESERVATION
Lcsterville Ledger Handles Reserva-
tion Subject Properly and
Doesn's Knock, Either.

DUtSu huUGk, ElLn6I.
Yankton Herald Brother Killion.
or the Lesterville Ledger, assures
us tnat he didn't mean to knock the
state at all in his capital article and
we are glad of it. The brother has
always seemed very patriotic and
level. headed and that is Why we
were SO grieved to see him make a
misstep.
Lesterville, Yankton county, Ledg-
er: There is no ''didn't mean about
it, Brother Bennett. We didn' t
knock the state at all nor will not.
but we will endeavor to give facts
that will bear out the statement that
we made IN our ''capital article" as
you term it, by giving you some more
facts about the western part Of the
state or rather that part OF the state
that lies west of the Missouri river,
and Between there and the Black
Hills country.
From Pierre standpoint the Her.
aid puts up very good argument and
the editor Of the Herald is unques-
tionably very good writer, but we
are sorry to say that from the stand
point of facts he is considerably shy.
1t is probably as evident to the
Yankton brother If be cared to admit
it as it is to any other resident of
the west that there is a line-and a
fairly we'll defined one at that-be-
yond which the agriculturist goes at
his own risk, and it would not be a
good business for the editor of the
Herald to advise the sons of Yankton
county farmers to make break across
this line.
If the old settlers of Yankton coun-
ty, who have lived here through pio.
neer days and underwent all the
hardships' OF pioneer lfie-living as
they do, so short a distance from the
lands west of the Missouri river-does
the editor of the Herald suppose for
moment that these old settlers
would not have their sons 90 there
and enter the agricultural business
instead of paying from S45 to $50 an
acre for farms for them in this and
adjoining tiles, were it known to
them that it ever would become one
half as productive as the country on
this side Of the river.
A thousand capital boomers Of the
Pierre stripe cannot equal a 1.-THE of
the money, labor and effort expended
by the Santa Fe railroad in western
Kansas and the Union Pacific in west
ern Nebraska to populate those Sec
tions, and yet what came of it? A
million curses heaped upon both
states without reference to locality
by the thousands upon thousands OF
misguided immigrants who lost their
all under the mistaken notion that
these western states were like Ohio,
or Illinois, and other eastern states,
the sane in one part as another sc
far as climatic conditions 20.
The press dispatches tell US of hig
irrigation project onaathe part Of the
government in the vicinity of Belle
Fourche in Butte county. At best
this project if successful can only
bring under cultivation but the small
est fraction of one county and that
county almost equal in area to Brown
Grant, Roberts, Day, Spink, Coding-
ton and Marshall combined. Is the
editor of the Herald willing to 60 or
record as maintaining that the north.
! west corner Of the state although
| most One-quarter of it's area-can un.
der any possible conditions equal the
section covered by the counties
named? The comparison between
the vast section west of Pierre ant
the southeast corner Of the state is
even in greater contrast. Brother
Bennett knows that every mile yol
go west of the east line Of the state
the rainfall gradually decreases unit
a point is reached where the moisture
is wholly lacking to produce a crol
except by accident. This is gospe
truth and we will prove our every as
sertion By republishing an excerpt
from Tuesdays Herald If we were
| the author Of the following Brothe
Bennett would accuse US or "knock
ing the state:
Riley Smith and son arrived il