The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1916-12-01

NO more remarkable TRANSFORMED
: ton has taken place in Montana in
recent years than in Dawson county,
formerly part of the great range
country, now a westward continual
ton of the great Dakota wheat belt
and the center of the so-called "dry
land" agriculture. In soil reputed
by the herdsmen of the eighties to be
sterile, vast crops of wheat, oats,
rye, barley, flax and alfalfa are now
grown. Such yields as the following
have been reported, not once but
many times, in the last year or SO:
Oats, 100 bushels to the acre; flax,
"a bushels; barley, AZ to 60 bushels;
wheat, SO bushels, and corn, As BUSH
els. 1t may be readily concluded
that "dry" is scarcely applicable to
land that gives such phenomenal
yields, comparable with the best fig
ures of irrigated districts. AS mat
ter of fact the rainfall may be &C
counted high when consideration is
taken of the fact that most of it
comes at the most opportune time
during the growing season.
The cattlemen were positive that
this land was no good at all, but
the figures of recent yields are proof
positive that it is of the best. Why
this discrepancy between former opin-
ion and present fact? The cattlemen
were deceived by the peculiar color
of the soil, say the scientists, but the
mildly superstitious aver, "There's
reason" and the reason they give
is quite different from that given by
the scientists. These wise ones will
shake their heads significantly and
remark: ''There's something in a
name after all"
Born Where Scotch and
English Often Met in Battle.
Those who have witnessed the Won
derful changes that have taken place
within the last decade or two readily
recall that Major Andrew Dawson,
for whom the county was named, was
credited by the Indians and half
breeds with being magician. Daw-
son was a canny Scotchman who was
born at Dalkeith, a favorite resort
of the early Scotch kings and the
scene of many battle between the
Scotch and the English in the days
of Wallace and Robert the Bruce. He
grew to be six feet in height and he
was we'll built. He received an ex-
cellent education, for after he COM
pleted his schooling, he obtained the
equivalent of a postgraduate course
while serving as an apprentice with
an uncle at Edinburgh who was
famous lawyer and accountant. Be-
sides learning what his uncle could
teach him, he studied law, logic,
chemistry and natural philosophy I'M
der the university professors while
he was at Edinburgh.
Soon after he had completed his
apprenticeship he determined to try
his fortunes in the new world. He
took passage to New Orleans and
thence to St. Louis, where he landed
with rs cents-50 cents Of which
went to the cabman and 25 cents to
the locksmith, as he had lost the
key to his trunk. Because of his
agreeable ways his landlady trusted
him. She did not ask him for a
cent for whole month, or until he
received his pay from the firm that
employed him.
Morgan Takes Fright
And Skips With Horses.
During the year or more that he
lived in St. Louis he learned from
some Scotchmen of his acquaintance
much of the free and adventurous
life of the fur trader of the far
northwest on the Missouri river, and
he decided himself to adopt that life.
With friend, by the name of Rob-
ert Morgan, who also had come from
Edinburgh, he set out with the neces-
sary outfit in 1874.
All went we'll until they arrived in
the country of unfriendly Indians
when Morgan began to display mis-
givings. One evening when Dawson
returned to camp after days hunt.
he found that Morgan had skipped
with the horses, leaving a note saying
he had turned back as he was afraid
to go any farther and that Dawson
could do what he pleased. AS he
had been entrusted with valuable dis
patches, Dawson determined to keep
on. For six weeks he travelled alone.
subsisting on wild roseberries and
rocks until he arrived at Fort Pierre
and delivered his packet. From here
he went on to Fort Clarke, where he