The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1906-04-06

ships yearly $4,0OO,0OO worth of cattle.
The choicest beef is produced without
care or feed, winter or summer, except
as nature has provided, the cattle graz
| ing all winter on the famous buffalo
| grass, and taken from this feed and
| placed on the market in competition
with the corn-fed article. The snowfall
! in winter is very light, and some win
| ters there is scarcely enough to make
| good sleighing.
Land is plentiful in South Dakota
| and prices are cheap. When the state
| was organized nearly 100000 acres
| were set apart for the school fund, and
| a great portion Of this has not yet been
| sold. Settlers can obtain this land
| with snail cash payment and fifteen
years time for the balance due. From
| $40 up is the prevailing price for land
| that in Iowa or Illinois would readily
bring $1OO. The influx of settlers is
| steadily encroaching on the big cattle
and sheep ranches, and it is only a
| matter of few years when these will
| have disappeared and the small farmer
will occupy them.
EARLY Obstacles to Progress.
1t is thirty years since the railroads
| began to come to South Dakota, and
| the mining discoveries in the Black
Hills country, with the great traffic
that this assured the roads, made their
extensions imperative But there were
obstacles to their advancement. For
one, the western bank of the Missouri
river was dotted with Indian reserva-
tons and across these the steel rails
| were not allowed to cross. Beyond
| these were the semi-arid regions Of the
bad Lands" and beyond these the
mines.
AS the railroads could not go
straight across the country to their OBJ
| jective point they were obliged to go
around Hence it followed that east
! ern South Dakota was occupied, but
not filled, while the Indians and the
! cowboys had an unobstructed range
between the river and the hills.
These Instructions to railroad devel-
opment had a retarding effect on South
Dakota's growth. while her sister on
the north, because free from them grew
| faster, although beginning later. But
conditions have changed in the past
few years. The Indians are now re-
ceiving their lands in severalty, and
the barriers which operated to hold
back the farmers and the railways are
fast being removed.
Time for Change.
Meanwhile the pioneer work has
been done with soil and climate. The
farmer no longer has to learn what to
raise and how by the failures of expe-
rience. The land is ready for more
| than pioneer occupation 1t is ready
| for its second planting with men and
| their homes in the spaces left untitled
| by the pioneers. For ten years it has
| prospered greatly, but it now needs
more men to perfect it's prosperity.
The intellectual leaders of South Da-
! kota see that the existing conditions
about them have become abnormal and
ripe for change They see. for in
stance, 1864 900 cows in the state that
have never known a milk pail, and that
while those cows were we'll enough at
one time, it is we'll to replace them
COWS. They see that their lands are
cheap compared with the farm lands of
/ Illinois, and that the only way to in
! crease their value is to get more peo-
pie on them. And to their call the peo-
pie are responding.
A movement full Of interest and ben
eft is this movement to fill up the va
cant SnacoS Of the Mort Invest SO inte
| ligently fostered by the common
| wealths interested It means much
for them and more for the country, for
+, it means more prosperity for the peo-
pie there already and larger opportuni-
| ties than they had Tor the people who
come. It means diversity of crops and
intensity Of cultivation. 1t means en-
largement of the production of wealth
! at first hand-Herbert Vanderhoof, in
Minneapolis Journal.
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