Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1907 — FROM THE BLIZZARD AND COAL FAMINE COUNTRY. [ARTICLE]

FROM THE BLIZZARD AND COAL FAMINE COUNTRY.

Surrey, N. Dak., Jan. 8, ’O7, F. E. Babcock, Rensselaer, Ind. Dear Sir:—Please find inclosed the proper “stuff” to put me on the right side of your books. We are having lots of snow this winter, I suppose about 24 inches on the level, and the weather has been quite cold and blustry. The coal famine and car famine are causing untold suffering in some parts of the state and I might say couny. As for our immediate county we are pretty well supplied with mines and one can easily make a trip in a day and get their coal by team from the mines, which is much cheaper and proves a great many times much surer to have coal. I still think a great deal of the northwest for a man to make money farming, and for the man that likes to be paid for his work I don’t believe could go any place and beat Ward county, N. D. Everything is on the boom. Minot, our county seat, is a wonder for its business and for its rapidity in growth, and yet they can’t build fast enough to accomidate the emigration. Our people contemplate building a new church to cost at least $30,000; expect to start building in early spring. While our crops last year were some short of the year before, I have no reason to complain. I raised about 6,000 bushels, 3,000 of it being wheat, and my threshing bill amounted to something over $451. Those large machines make short work of a large job but they waste an awful lot ot grain, lam satisfied the on my farm would seed it very easily. One man here got a small gasoline rig of his own and if it wasn’t for the gasoline being so unreliable as a power I think it would be the only way to thresh. Next year I expect to farm about 340 acres and I feel most sure of a good crop because, you know, we elected a democratic governor last fall. Wishing you and all my friends of Jasper county a Happy New Year, I remain Yours Respectfully, Geo. J. Nichols.