Free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1888-1908, 1903-10-17

While corn is the second product in
total value, the 1903 crop shows an
increase of about thirteen and d half
million bushels over the crop of 1902.
At the rate corn is being increased in
acreage, the prediction that corn will
be king in South Dakota within a few
years, seems 10 be reasonable. The
total production of new wealth for
1902 was $119,949, coo. The increase
of nearly $27,000,G00 of this year is
sufficient answer to the derogatOry re-
ports about the state that have APP
peared within the last fortnight.
Perhaps a stronger argument in
favor of the state IS shown in an eX-
animation of the bank deposits. n
July, 1901, South Dakota banks had
deposits amounting to $4,000, 10000;
on July l, 1902, these amounted to
10000. 100000, and on July 1, 1903, to
S32,000,0 10000.
In addition to the money in corn,
wheat and the gold of the Black Hills,
which has been termed the richest
one hundred square miles in the
world, there is good money in South
Dakota cattle. Men who have come to
South Dakota without money, and
who now count their dollars with five
figures, say that raising cattle is the
only business in the world for which
d
1t is a fact that South Dakota banks
are glad to help any honest, industri-
Gus young man, who comes we'll recon-
mended for his commercial integrity,
in cattle business and accept his cat
tie as collateral. A banker of IpS-
witch told your correspondent that dur
ing twenty years of such loans he had
not lost one cent and he could name
by the score young men who had Sc
cured from South Dakota banks the
price Of their first herd of cattle.
A visit to the cattle ranch of Lee &
Prentis near Vermillion, S. D., was
one of the interesting features IF the
above mentioned trip. Lee & Prentis
are the largest cattle breeders in
south Dakota. They exhibit with some
pride, among their valuable short
horns, a twO-y ear-old heifer which re
Gently took sweepstakes over the win
ner of the sweepstakes at 1902 Inter
national Live Stock Exposition at Chi
cago. Other shorUhorns have just re-
turned from very victorious tour
among interstate and county fairs,
winning eight first prizes at Sioux
City, eight at YanktOn and six at
Huron. There are other stock farms
in the state that show blooded cattle
not far behind these prize winners.
A large number of the farmers and
stockmen, as well as majority of the
South Dakota editors have been in at
tendance at the Corn Palace at Mitch
ell during the last week. The South
Dakota Commission to the ST. Louis
Exposition has just decided to repro
duce the Mitchell Corn Palace as the
SOuJn Dakota exhibit, and visitors to
St. Louis will have an opportunity to
see building 140 by 100 feet, the ex-
terror of which will be entirely con-
structed of corn.
Like other South Dakota towns.
Mitchell is showing considerable pros
perity and enterprise this year. The
cornerstone of the $4,000 city hall
was laid last week; the walls of a
$4,000 hotel to be built of stone and
steel are up above the first floor; a
Carnegie library has been built at a
cost of $4,000, and a score of smaller
buildings are under construction, and
improY ements and pavement Of streets
are under way. AS an especial reason
for such a fine showing at this time,
the last legislature of South Dakota
agreed to submit to voters of the state
in November, 1904, the question of
moving the state capitol from Pierre
to Mitchell. The people of the latter
town, backed by a goodly number of
those in the most thickly populated
portions of the state east of the Mis-
souri, River, and in the Black Hills,
who will find Mitchell more accessible
than Pierre, have already under way
a lively campaign by which they OK
pect to secure the capital in Novem-
Der, 1904. The reproduction of the
Mitchell Corn Palace at the ST. Louis
Exposition is regarded as a big card
in their favor.
eritain,s ForeIon popuI,tio,.