The Aberdeen Democrat. (Aberdeen, South Dakota) 1???-1909, 1905-11-24
FRUIT Raising
near SpEAPFISH
A Beautiful Valley in Our Own State Which Produces Luscious
Frut-Some Examples of What Has Been Done and a Hint
as to the Future-Other %Irrigable Districts
(By FRED G. HUNTINGDON

HUNTINGDON
What he has done, however, can be
done again and by any n with the
will and the intelligence. Professor
Cook was one of the first to appreciate
what might be done on irrigable land
and his efforts to prove himself right
have not only made him a lot of good
money but have been ar inspiration
to many others. In 1902 he sold, from
81 acres, $1,000 quarts of strawberries
at a net of practically I cents a quart.
The Lead and Deadwood market took
them all. He got 1926 a crate for
them and after paying for picking
and boxing, realized, as 1 said, a little
.. better than I cents a quart on the
yield. The same year he sold $4,000
quarts of raspberries from 81 acre at
81 a crate; 5000 quarts of currants
from II acres at 81 a crate; 1000
quarts of gooseberries from ] an acre
at $3.50 a crate and 1900 quarts Of
duberries from a fraction of an acre
at 50 a crate. While I haven't fgur-
ed it up exactly 1 think he said that
he netted about $4,000 from about 81
acres, in one year.
A SPLENDID HOME MARKET
One feature of the fruit business
often overlooked is the nearness Of a
remarkably good market for all that,
thus far, has been raised or likely to
be raised for come time, either. The
Black Hills are the home of a steadily
growing population. They raise moth
ing in the line of eatables outside of
the Spearfsh valley. Furthermore.
they have money there to spend and
they 90 spend it. 1t is not too much
to say that the entire product of the
Belle Fourche valley too, after it shall
have been reclaimed and irrigated,
will go to the Black Hills. The
people in the Hills tell visitors that
they are on the eve of a wonderful
growth in population. They say that
dozens of Jew ore bodies will be
worked within a few years that are,
as yet. untouched and more or less
inaccessible. They are all boomers in
the Hills and I don't much blame
them. 1t is a wonderful district but
the place where all sorts of things
grow interested me the more.
ONLY A BEGINNING
1t is safe to say that there are
practically 500, 600 acres of land west
of the Missouri river, in South Dakota,
which will be irrigated, and which will
be reclaimed under the Reclamation
Act. We know what has been done
in the Spearfsh valley and there is no
reason on earth why as much or more
should not be accomplished in the
other localities. With proper rail-
road facilities it may be said that
most of this country will, in a CON
mercial sense, be in Aberdeen's terri
tory. Add thereto the richness of
almost inexhaustable Ignite beds, the
stretch of ranch and farm
ing country, the growing district in
the Black Hills and, last of all, the
country still further west which I
not mentioned at all, and we get
some idea of what Aberdeen's COM
mercial district may yet be. 1t
means, within fifteen years or less,
half a million of people west of the
river, in South Dakota. 1t means a
net work of railroads where now there
are only trails. 1t means ten head of
where now there is one. It
means towns where today the bones
Of the buffalo yet lie, nndisturbed.
NO PLACE TO GET RICH QUICK
The west country is no place to 90
get rich in a hurry. Many people
are filing on quarter sections west of
and Pierre and east of
City in expectation of making
. small fortune in a year or so. The
experiences Of the SOS on this side Of
the river will be gone through again
much injury will result. The
whole trouble lies in the commuta-
zion privilege in the Homestead law
and 1t is a shame, too. An illustra-
ton of this was shown, plainly
enough, in Pierre the other day.
When the jury was called for Hughes
county nearly every one on the panel
had to be excused as they all claimed
residence on their claims west of the
Now, any n with a grain of
sense knows that those people have no
other intention than of getting what
they can out of their land as soon as
they can commute. Women are going
out there and filing on land, living
maybe q week or two at a time in
their shanties. They could no more
wrest a living from the soil In that,
country than they could tame a
coyote. Instead Of being developed
the country is going to be set back.
Another year will see all the gond