The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1904-05-13
KlMBALLG GRAPHIC
cLATE T1NAN
Paper Of the City and County
A MAN WITH r

A MAN WITH NERVE
That's the Arlington Sun man. And
he is a resourceful man, too-very.
We challenged him to republish what
Peterson's new atlas Of the state has
to say of the lands west Of Pierre.
Didn't faZe him a bit. He not only
publishes it verbatim but smacks his
lip and says it's good. All without a
blush or a tremor. He's certainly en-
titled to the money. What else can
you do with Il man like that? Here's
what he publishes from Peterson's
atlas:
1.-The Pierre shales and clays cover
the region west OF the Missouri river
not included in the Black Hills, the
the Larmie (formation) in the north
west part of the state. ITs SOIL Is
THIN, devoid of sand or grit and when
moist the well known "gumbo" of the
range country. IT IS HARD TO WORK
AND IMPERVIOUs TO MOISTURE and
cannot therefore withstand long
drouths. Its color is dark brown or
black. After rains it CRACKS OR
CAKES and becomes very hard. 1t
supports a Scanty growth of graSs. con.
sisting of buffalo and wheat or alkali.
With more sand and more moisture it
would form a rich SOIL"
This is Peterson's description of
about $4,000, 600 acres of lands contigu.
Gus to the present capital of South
Dakota.
But, the Sun finds, further on that
"The bottom lands in the valley of
this, as we'll as in other parts of the
state. are composed Of rich loamy Slit
and like a. drowning man clutching at
a root it grabs this sentence and hugs
it to its very soul. From it the Sun
draws a picture of the"fertile Valleys
that would make a cowboy eat his
horse. If you'd give Keene elbow
room he'd make the Bad Lands farther
west back off the dump the finest
Dutch garden in Pennsylvania. These
bottom lands and "fertile Valleys
bear then about the same relation to
the whole as a bolt in the deck of a
man of war. And the richest ssllt''
on earth isn't worth a tinker's dam
unless you get water on lt-whether
in bottom land or on top of a hill.
The Sun then goes m to tell about
the rest of the country west of the
river-as told in Peterson's atlas
with all the sang-froid imaginable.
It's like taking candy from a baby, the
way he handles it. But when you
have read the descriptions of the three
grand divisions west of the river,
you've got this to take home with
you:
1. "With more sand and moisture
it would form rich SOIL"
2 "With sufficient rainfall 1t
would produce abundant vegetation"
3. "When the rainfall is not de-
ficient the soil produces unusually
WE'LL"
"If it had sufficient rainfall" That
little word 'slf" is as big as Il noun
tain. When somebody described a
certain country to "Bob" Ingersoll as
being a second paradise-if it only had
wood and water, "Boo'' replied:
"Humph! that's all hell lacks"
But deficiency of moisture isn't
all that forbid the same agricultural
possibilities in the west half Of the
state and the attendant population.
Not only is the soil over the greater
part of it less adapted to the pillow
compared with that east of the river
as P%eterson;s atlas fully explains
but the topography Of the country is
vastly different. The altitude runs
from 1000 to 1000 feet above sea level,
while the average of the state east of
the river averages below 1900 feet.
Can the Sun, or anybody else, name
a n agricultural section on the Amerl-
can continent of the same altitude as
most Of the state west Of the Missouri
where the soil and rainfall will
mature crops?
Those lily informed hope much
from irrigation in the course Of the
next hundred years without stopping
to think that there isn't enough water
in sight to reclaim one-hundreth part
of the plains country. The altitude
prevents artesian wells, even we're
that system practical. The govern
ment spent S25, 900 at Pine Ridge in a
yam attempt to obtain a flowing we'll.
The Suns theory that the rainfall
is increasing and in time will be SUI
ficlent to bestow its blessings upon