Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-04-20
WAR BOARD SAVED
MONTANA FARMERS
BY EDWARD G. LOWRY.

FARGO, N. D., Apri. 18.-It is an
experience to travel across Mon
tana. Persons who care for large,
unfinished states with wide out
looks and far horizons will like
Montana. The greater part of Mon
tana is out Of doors. 1t is state
much exposed to the weather and
climatic conditions and sometimes
IL shows it. 1t covers an amazing
area, and it takes even the most hur-
ried observer "a hours on train
to cross it. The eye encounters a
continuity of broken hills and noun
tains, interspersed with valleys.
An April snowfall made the coun-
try Christmas card scene, but it
was moisture" to these people out
here and they rejoiced in it. The
snow was sinking into the unfrozen
ground and more was lying on the
hills waiting for the summer sun to
bring it down to a soil long parched.
They have just come to the end Of a
began in 1917. 1t didn't do the
stock raisers and the farmers any
good. In fact, it nearly ruined them.
1t affecte deverybody.
The chief interest Of the state is
sheep and cattle, and, to a much
smaller degree, wheat and other
farm products. The LONG dry spell
put the state in a deep hole. They
were@ very hard up last autumn.
They made arrangements to get gov
eminent money to pull them
through. Since that time they have
got something more than $10,000,000
from the war finance corporation.
Even before they got the money the
circumstances that 1t was to be
made available restored confidence
and stopped the sale of breeding
herds. The farmers were selling
their cattle and sheep to pay their
debts in part and meet their current
obligations. The supply Of live stock
in the state was being rapidly de.
pleted.
This years higher level of prices
for cattle and sheep has been a
great help to the people of this state,
but they are still in debt and they
are trying to- pay out. They tell
stories out here of farmers paying
off their loans with one wheat crop
in a season when production was
plentiful and prices at a good level.
They are now hoping for two or
three such seasons in succession.
This looks as if it might be one Of
them. It is about time.
Montana, once a mining state, is
seeking to become a stoek-raising
and agricultural state. That means
a long process Of development. Cop
per is still the one big resource in
this country, copper and water pow
err. Butte is the largest mining camp
in the western hemisphere. The
Ana conda mines are the largest sim
gle interest in the state. About ST.
000, 100000 worth of copper has been
taken out of these hills. They have
made Butte and they support it..
They are the reason for it's exist.
ence. There are other mining inter-
ests in the state, but they are small
er and scattered.
Montana sprawls magnificently
over this northwestern country, but,
for one reason and another it is al
most an uninhabited empire. It con-
tains now only about $4,000 people.
One may travel for hours across it
and never see a person or a dwell
ing. It has been here as long as any
| other state, but has never become
crowded by the westward tide of i'm
migration. Pioneers have pushed on
beyond to the coast, or they have
gone toward the south, where the
climate and conditions Of living are
easier. 1t is in fact an undeveloped
state, except for it's mining inter
ests. Hardy men have combed these
hills to find gold and silver and cop
per, and whatever other hidden min
eral treasures they contained.
This phase is passed and the state
is now on it's second phase Of agri-
cultural development. It's real his
tory lies before it. Just now its
object is to pay the debts incurred
in four lean years of drouth. This
will take time, but how much time
is a matter of speculative opinion.
Copyright, 1922, by the Public
To5ooy CON