The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1925-01-08

w.
} The towns and mining camps tina
only a few decades ago were pro
pagating crimes and greed, and fill
ing the air with blasphemy, today
have well selected libraries and are
lavish in their expenditures to secure
the best class of educational anc
beneficent institutions. Where a few
decades ago there were but two
places of worship in what is now Mon
tana, st. Mary's and st. Ignatus
missions, where Fathers Giorda and
Hoecken were teaching christianity
to the red men of the forest, there
is now an aggregate membership OF
1886 among the principal chris
tan denominations. There are social
and benevolent organizations and
nearly every secret society is repre-
scented with well equipped lodges. To
day Montana has 1875 elementary
public schools with an enrolment of
1OO,274 pupils and 4,989 teachers in
1921-22; and 218 high schools with
an enrolment of 1920 pupils and
1,1O7 teachers. 1t has it's normal
schools and school of mines, state
university, agricultural college and
mechanics arts, besides a number of
private schools and other institutions
of higher learning.
Eastern writer's telling of the Ii
braries in some of the cities of the
West express their establishment at
the intellectual character of the
people. The facts are, so far as read
ing is concerned, that the people of
the West are a long ways ahead of
the people of the East. The brightest,
most energetic young men and wo-
men make up the leading element of
the West. There are more college
ducatd mn in the Western cities than
in cities Of the anne size of the East.
AS to the attractions and resources
Of the state of Montana, no one but
nature herself can lay claim to plac-
ing them where they are. The many
precipices where the mighty Missouri
plunges over one, and then another
with a force of several hundred
thousand horsepower, the mountains
of various minerals, the extensive
coal fields, the thousands of acres
Of rich pasture and farming land.
All these have been placed there by
Him who created all things; and it
seems to have been kept in reserve
for a permanent camping ground for
the advanced civilization of the West.
When asked why this remarkable
section of the country has been
named by some writer's Eden" it
is only necessary to reply by another
question: "Why," for instance, "was
it that tens of thousands of buffaloes
used to roar here from time imme-
mortal until they were killed off by
white people?" And why was it that
from fifteen to twenty thousand In
dams lived here without doing any
work or receiving a single ration
from the government?' Now the buff
faloes are extinct. Where they form
erlv roamed at will great flocks Of
sheep and herds Of cattle now Craze,
and the land which but a few years
ago was the red mems hunting
ground is now cultivated by thrifty
farmers. M~ontana's dairy products
for 1924 were worth nearly $1,000
600 and dairying is being rapidly de-
veloped, especially in the western
valleys. Montana's sheep and lambs
sold this same year for $9,000,0O0
and it's wool for $4,000 The
total value of live stock, except
poultry, on January 1st, 1924, was
placed at $88, O8O, 900; changes IN
numbers from previous years point
to the more general trend toward
diversified farming.
Is it any wonder that a satisfied
Great Falls farmer writes that a man
doesn't need anything here to get a
start-iust go to work. This same
farmer is himself the best proof OF
theorem and of the soundness OF
advice. He states that he started
IN a ranch as a chore boy, becoming
,oreman in one years time, and after
sight a was able to buy the home
ne now owns, consisting Of $50
,cres of land. This last year, which
vas rather dry, he raised as high as S
3 bushels of winter wheat to the y
.cre. He also raises almost any kind
vegetable that can be grown any I
,lace. tomatoes ripening every year.
lie planted apple trees three years I
go; has g~ooseberries, currants and !
trawberries by the bushel and po- l
atoes equal to or better than those $
.rown any other place. He developed
,rize winning White Dent corn last I
ear in 81 days, and sowed the land
o winter wheat in the fall, which is S
s good or better than summer fall
ow. This fall he won at the corn S
how at Great Falls $500 in the corn d
apartment for the best rs bushels n
nd the so bushels raised on land I
600 feet above sea-level. This same \