The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1910-10-27


citation, regretting his inability to be
present, Jas. j. Hill of the Great
Northern Ry., gave expression to
the reasons for his faith in Montana,
and backed those reasons up with
figures and facts. Mr.. Hill says of
the state:
"No state outranks Montana in the
variety, amount and permanent value
of it's natural resources. None is
growing more rapidly. In none is
the outlook better for profitable ex-
pansion in all lines of industry. The
growth of population and the extern
. sion of settlement have contracted
the circle Of opportunity in some Of
cur older commonwealths. Here the
resources are so great and cOmpara-
lively so little utilized that you only
look forward to a long period of un-
broken progress.
Montana is the third largest in
area of all the states. She has at
this time the largest amount of un-
appropriated and unreserved land
that is available for tillage. Mon
tana's land is nearly all capable
of utilization. More than one-third
of it is good farming land. AS much
more is excellent for grazing and
pasture. And each year sees more
and more of that formerly regarded
as of inferior value for tillage added
to the richly productive area.
1t is not only that irrigation pro-
jects now under way and others still
to be completed, such as those that
are to reclaim 175, 900 acres in your
beautiful Flathead Valley, will null
tiply your lands of high fertility. In
addition to that, and to the great
quantity which is," in it's present
state, fit for the husbandman, recent
years have proved the farm value of
Immense areas formerly thought
suited only to the range. New agri-
cultural methods have done. more for
Montana than for almost any other
state. What is improperly called
dry farming, but is rather thorough
cultivation, has demonstrated that
splendid crops can be grown on lands
until lately supposed to be non-agri-
cultural without irrigation. These
are facts that have come within your
own observation; so that l need not
point out how this new and better
method of cultivation has been
equivalent to the bestowal of farm
and cash values upon large share
of the area of Montana hitherto re-
garded as of little promise.
Your land is good land. Montana
has the highest average wheat yield
per acre of all the states during the
past ten years. The other grain
crops show her equally prolific. Her
fruit industry is one of the oldest
and best established in the w est. and
yet it is yearly making new records
and conquering new markets. For
her products she has a home mark ct
in half a dozen of her own cities with
an aggregate population of more than
150, 900. and a growing market at the
east and abroad. Her mineral out
put is in the neighborhood of $780,
100000 year. Her coal deposits are
OF unknown extent and richness.
Her lumber supply is immense, her
mountains contain inexhaustible
water power, the Missouri River
falls 400 feet within a distance of
sixteen miles, her cattle and sheep
cover thousand hills. With re-
sources so great and so diversified,
with railway communication ample
for her needs and the assurance of
additions as her needs enlarge, with
an Industrious and intelligent popu-
lation and not dollar of debt, there
is scarcely any limit to the future
which her people, it they conserve
their heritage and listen to no false |
prophets, may hope for and realize.
These are not prophecies of future
and more or less uncertain prosperi-
ty. they are record of sober and &C.
complished facts. They are support
ed by all the evidences which you see
about you in this representative as
semblage of the fruits Of your toll.
And the best feature of your present
is that, though not unmindful of the
wealth to be won from the forest or
brought up from the mine or gath
cred from commerce. you are, year
by year, learning to place your main
on the richest asset, the on
" permanent support Of man. the
wonderfully productive soil of your
own state. There lies your treasure:I