The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1904-01-01
TINAN
Official Papsro Of the City and County
THERE IS

the Missouri river, but the man who
talks of going west Of the river is
told that he is a fool. Ten years from
nov farming operations will extend to
the western most boundaries Of the
state, and these facts would now be adj
mitted all over the state IL it YER not
for selfish reasons on the part of a
portion OF the population of the state
to prevent settlement and develop
that 1t is their duty to knock two
thirds of the state as hard as they
know how all the time.-Pierre Capt.
tai Journal.
Thirteen wears ago one of the argu-
ments advanced by Pierre in the CAPT.
tai campaign was-to use the exact
w0rding-because:
Pierre is a city Of more promise to-
day than was Kansas City in 1862 OF
i Sioux City in 1873. The opening to
/ settlement of eleven million acres Of
I rich land will induce at least 200, 600
people to settle upon these lands In
side Of two years.
In two years! In the ten years i'm
mediateIy following this statement
and marking the beginning Of the
foolishness in locating the capital so
! far away from the center of popula-
tfon, that parton the eleven million
acres directly contributory to Pierre,
comprising the county of Stanley, an
area nearly as large as ten of the
counties in the eastern part OF the
state, gained just 3l3 people-and
part of those, Indians; while the CAPT.
tai city itself fell short nearly a
Thousand people-in exact figures,
1929, and its county as a whole, 1850.
The theory that the location OF a
states seat of government on a cattle
range would draw immigration that
way and thus develop the state as a
whole, fell fiat, as all such visionary
ideas must. 1t exemplified the old
saying: you can lead a horse to water,
but you can't make him drink. Follow.
Ing the location of the capital at
Pierre immigration turned eastward
rather than westward-and why:
The subjoined extract from a recent
issue of the Live Stock World and re.
produced in the Fort Pierre Stock
Journal Of December 10 last explains
the trouble in a few words:
Nearly one-third of the area of the
United States has insufficient rainfall
for the best culture OF the ordinary
crop plant. Considerable tracts OF
land are already irrigated and much
more will be artifcially watered in the
II fRyfrl H0s hut fharo raapck - ~ =, - -
remain enormous areas-dOubtless
nearly a fourth of the entire land sur.
face OF this cOuntry-which are doom.
ed to remain perpetually in Their
present arid or semi-arid condition
for the want of an adequate supply
OF water for irrigation. The total
rainfall over the lands lying between
the Tooth and 10th principal meridlans
Is inadequate to irrigate more than a
small fraction OF arabic lands, nc
matter how careful conserved anC
used. Dry farming is then a necessity,
in order to utilize such lands where
irrigation can never be practiced.
The Live Stock World then goes on
to show how the grazing capacity Of
such lands cal be increased by intelli
gent management: and it was this par,
OF the article of course which prompt
ed the Fort Pierre paper to reproduce
it for the benefit OF the ranchmer
west Of tin whose interests the
Stock Journal appears to be working
rather than giving its time to deceiv
ing the public for the benefit of the
town Of Pierre across the river.
The Tooth meridian passes through
the center of Nebraska, cuts off the
west third of Kansas, and comes ur
Through South Dakota thirty miles
west Of Chamberlain and fifteer
miles east of Pierre. The meridians
are fifty miles apart. Nothing il
raised without irrigation in Texas
Kansas, Nebraska or North Dakota a.
far west as the lOlst meridian ant
precious little, if anything, anywhere
west Of the Tooth except in exception
ably favored localities. 1t remains
for somebody to explain how South
Dakota is better favored than these
other states.
Pressed by the irresistible impulse
behind it, it is true that settlement
and subjugation Of the western land.
has been gradually crowded west
ward during the last decade, but the
PASTORAL hegira which set in in 1873:
passed the humid limit in many case.
under the mistaken theory that thu
settlement and filling Of the sol
would bring the required rainfall
There is limit beyond which the
husbandman cannot 60. But We be
lieye that there isn'ta foot Of gras!
land anywhere in this state that isn't
cheap at so cents an acre, and those
who are filing on lands west OF Pierre
because they can get160 acres of lane
) for less than 800 are wise in their time
This does not, however, Indicate that
there will be n considerable change
between the relative percentage Of
population between the east half and