The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1915-08-13

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course crops are looking very good
there. We returned home via Free
mont, Nebraska, arriving here Friday
July 23rd. about noon, and we were
mighty glad to get back we can as
sure you.
On thisdong trip we visited eleven
states and travelled nearly 5000 miles
by land and sea ,.by auto, trolley, train
and boat. We can truthfully say that
in all our travels we did not find a
place that looked better to us than
does Mellette county, South Dakota,
we did not find "A place where the peo
pie appeared to be more prosperous
than they are right here.
In Nebraska crops are looking good,
but corn is late, and SO is the harvest
on account OF the UNUSUAL wet season
farmers are unable to get in their
fields, and some of the grain will be a
total loss. some of the corn is drown
ed out and under water. The same
conditions prevail in Kansas and Mis-
souri,. We saw hundreds of acres of
corn wheat and potatoes under water,
while we heard of other sections where
the crops were destroyed by hail and
violent storms. In the irrigated Sec
tions of Colorado, potatoes, alfalfa
and vegetables all look good, but are
backward, but in the great fruit grow
ing section in and around Grand June
tion, it does not look very prosperous,
The fruit crop appears to be almost
total failure, and we thought the
country was going backward to what
it was three years ago when we last
visited that section. There seems to
be very little activity i'm the mining
industry and we heard much COM
plaint of dull business conditions.
There is little or no farming in the
sections of New Mexico that we trav-
ersed in day light and what little we
did see was under irrigation, and
seemed to be in good condition.
In Southern California. from San
Barnardino to Los iAngeles and
from Los Angeles to San Diego,
is vertible garden spot and the or
chards, the truck gardens and farms
seem to be producing good crops.
1t is beautiful country to travel
through, but were it not for irrigation
that whole section would be nothing
but barren waste.
The country from Seattle to Port
land, seemed to us to be the best Of
the coast country, as they do grow
some magnificent crops there without
the aid of irrigation. There are Sec
tions in Idaho where they are raising
good crops by irrigation, and the ir-
rigated sections of Utah also seemed
to be quite prosperous. Perhaps the
irrigated section between Ogden and
Salt Lake is as prosperous looking ir-
rigated section as we passed through.
However if the same amount of mon
ey and energy were expended on the
fertile soil of Mellette county as is
expended on any one Of these great
irrigated sections, we could lay any
of them in the shade with our wheat,
our oats, our corn, our potatoes, our
vegetables, our beef, dairy and poultry
products, and when it comes to wild
hay. why these other states are Simp-
ly not i'm it with Mellette county.
One thing that impressed us very
much on this trip was the number of
good roads, vertible baulevards, that
California Colorado and several Of
the other western states are building,
and at an enormous expense. Colofa-
do is now building road through the
Grand Canyon of the Colorado, where
they have to tunnel and blast a road
bed out of solid rock. If we had a
good road such as these western states
are building, between Wood and Win
ner, Wood and White River and Mur-
do, by the use of auto trucks we
should be enabled to reduce our over
land freight rates materially. These
western states are finding that money
expended on properly constructed
highways is money well spent. /;
The greatest set of boosters in the
land we believe live in the coast coun
try, and they also are the most royal
of entertainers. They put forth every
effort to make the stranger feel at
home among them-to have him gain
a favorable impression Of their country
California is no place for the poor
man or the laboring man to go. There
are ten chances here in Mellette coun
ty for the hard working industrious
poor man, or the man of moderate
means, to make good, where he would
find one chance i'm the Golden State.
Were We burdened with riches and
looking for place to live i'm comfort
and ease, surrounded by large num-
.ber of play grounds, we would choose
Southern California hut for all rouud