The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-05-19
WE NEED MORE NEIGHBORS

One of the many needs of Mellette
county is more honest -to-goodness
farmers and dairy men. Our county
could easily sustain five OF ten times
the population we now have One of
the reasons that we are not getting
new settlers as rapidly as we might
is the fact that this country is still
railroadless, and many people abso-
lutely refuse to venture SO far from
railroad, but we honestly believe
that within the next year or eighteen
months at most, this defect in our
scheme of life will be remedied. We
have Lere enc Of the best and most fer
tile count rieS that can be found any
where-it is preeminently q farming
country and the diversified farmer is
certain Of success. 1t is good corn,
alfalfa and hog country, and dairy
and poultry are branches OF farming
that yield big return, and small
grain and potatoes and garden veg
etables are most successfully grown.
But we need more population, we need
more farmers, more hog ranches, more
dairy herds. more poultry raisers, and
thousands Of acres more Of alfalfa.
Since the editor came here in 1912
we have travelled from the Atlantic
to the Pacific coast, and we have also
toured Canada from coast to coast,
and without prejudice we can honestly
say that in all our travels we failed to
find single locality, where to our
mind, the opportunities for a tiller
OF the soil are as good as they are
right here in Mellette county. True,
there are places where there is a
much dcnser population, where neigh
o0rs are more numerous, and where
land prices are many times greater
than they are here, but for real OPP
portunities for young man to make
good, we do not know where he could
go to better himself. A year or two
ago there was a land boom on in Neb
raska, Iowa, Minnesota, and many of
the other nearby states and much
land changed hands at really inflated
and fictitious values. Some Of the
land that was sold could not be made
to produce enough to pay the taxes
and interest. AS Yesult land prices
began to drop, then came the drop in
Eli sorts of farm products, and as a
r:sult many of these farmers were de-
clared bankrupt, while those and were
able 20 avoid the bankruptcy court
have a heavy load to carry. Land
prices in this county never have been
inflated, and the real farmers who fol
lowed diversified farming have no,
only been making money, even during
the period Of farm product depres-
sion, but they are building up good,
substantial homes that are increasing
in value all the time. We heard a
man say the other day, who is pretty
we'll posted on conditions in Iowa and
the older settled communities III
Nebraska, that there were hundreds
of farmers in those communities Who
we're absol Ltely bankrupt, but as YET
did rot realize their condition, and he
pred .ctcd that when these unfortunat2
farmers realized their true condition
that there would be considerable
migration to this county, where the
mos: fertile lands in the country can
vet be bought at very reasonable
figure, and where the opportunities
for making good for the industrious
and thrifty were so patent.
1t appears to us that if some sort
of an organization could be perfected
whereby every resident here now
would become a real booster for this
country who would pledge themselves
to always and at every opportunity
tell thc story of the opportunities of
fered here for the thrifty and indust-
rious, who would never allow letter
to 90 out to their friends in the east |