Judith Gap journal. [volume] (Judith Gap, Mont.) 1908-19??, 1910-01-14
An ERA OF WEALTH FOR MONTANA.
Yeas 1909 One Of Unsurpassed Prosperity
; for People Of Treasure State.

year ivy Une Of U0SufpaSSe0 prosperity
for People Of Treasure State.
The passing Of 1909 will mark the
ending of one Of the most prosperous
wears Montana agriculture has ever
known, says the Rocky Mountain
Husbandman. Times have been al
most as good as during the golden
era. The year of 1908 showed pro-
gress and prosperity, and we wrote
hopefully Of the new year, when the
old year went out, but in our fondest
dreams of progress it never occurred
to us that anything could happen as
it has. We have made pen pictures
Of better days than prevailed at the
time, have pictured in our mind great
things for the state, but it never oc-
Cured to us that anything could
happen to compare with what our
eyes behold. The rush of people to
the state has been unprecedent. The
excitement i'll locating 320-acre dry
homesteads has gone mad, and we
are assured that by June 18TH, 1910,
there will be no more public domain.
The great west has never known any
thing like the rush in all the history
OF the country. The land is being
filed upon by the thousands of persons
every month. More than this there
is great influx of people who are
buying lands. Farm lands have
doubled in value within a very few
wears and prices are still going up,
and the happy part of the situation is
that high as the lands are, OH great
deal of the lands of the state single
crop will pay for the land. In all the
years that the Rocky Mountain Hus-
bandman has gone out to cheer the
country homes OF Montana, it has
never before been able to carry them
the splendid message it bears for
them today. Dressed pigs are actual
ly bringing II ~ cents in our mar
kets. Eggs are worth nickle
piece and fowls y l-2 cents per
pound. And Prof. Shaw, travelling
through the state in his dry land
talks, tells the people that they can
count OH = l-2 cents live weight for
their beef steers in Chicago for some
years to come. Every farm crop of
any note is high. The Washington
state papers insist that S1.W wheat
will be here the coming year. Any
how, wheat brings a fair price and
the majority of farm crops are remu-
nerative. Every industry in the state
is inviting and the end is not yet.
The incoming year will probably be
better than the year that is closing.
Anyhow, this seems to be the opin-
ion Of the wiseacres who hold them
selves up AS readers of the future.
The rush for homes is only just
starting in. Next year will double
discount the past year. The activity
in settlement, in building homes and
in farming will redouble and the de-
mand will increase. We have been
in the habit of saying CHEEKY things
OF the incoming year, but we have
never been able to say before that the
agricultural activity would prombly
double in the next year or eighteen
months. 1t will, anyhow, in the next
three years. TO the men who read
our paper and trust us to forecast the
future, we say the outlook was never
SO good before. Just what effect the
building OF so many dry land homes
may have on Montana remains to be
seen, but there is nothing to interpose
that can prevent great summer next
year. This is not condition peculiar
to part Of the state. The same rush
prevails in every quarter, and the
only thing we can say is that the west
is being possessed. Montana's COM
plexion will be decidedly agricultural
from this day forward. To our twen-
ty thousand ten, twenty, thirty and
forty year old homes are to be added
twenty thousand new dry land habi-
tatiOns and five thousand new irri.
gated homes. TO be able to send forth
this message to our friends is more
than surprise to us, but such is the
outlook as the old year passes into
history, and the new one, light-heart
ell and gay, comes tripping happily
laughingly in.
AT THE BABCOCK.