Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1912 — RETURNS FROM WESTERN TRIP [ARTICLE]

RETURNS FROM WESTERN TRIP

V\. 11. Ritchey Writes Interestingly ot North Dakota, Montana and , Wyoming. W. H. Ritchey returned Monday morning from a month’s visit with relatives and old friends in North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming, and the following interesting letter from him, written while in Wyoming but received too late by The Democrat for publication in its Wednesday issue, gives Mr. Ritchey’s impressions of the country visited. A’l the people mentioned by Mr. Ritceby were former residents of Jasper county:

Mr. Editor:—Left Rensselaer on June 18th and took train from Chicago over the’ C. B. & Q. to St. Paul. Saw nothing unusual on this route but a man plowing with dust following him, and too much Mississippi. Corn was very small,' a little being plowed the first time’ l Took the G. N. at St. Paul at 9.30. Daylight found me looking upon one of the prettiest agricultural states in the Union. As far as the eye could see on either side was one grand view of surrounding green wheat, oats, flax and' barley. A stop-over at Larimore took me to Bert Welsh’s for dinner. He took me around to see the country, and with the exception 'of rivers and creeks, it was just the same as above described. The largest ispring wheat was about a foot high. Saw some fall sown that looked light. Oats, barley and flax looked well, except where a dust storm, a few days before, had badly damaged it. These storms visit only in spots where it is sandy. Bert’s crop was not hurt. Hfe had out 270 acres of wheat, 50 in oats, 50 in flax and 150 in barley. This was put in with two teams, five horses being a team. Three-fourths of this had to be broken up. Bert and Arb Bullis put in this crop. On Thursday Bert had Wagner’s, Antcilff’s Beaver’s, Dunn’s and Jim Bullis there all day to visit with me. With two violins, croquet, horse-shoes and euchre, we spent a most pleasant, day. It does one good to meet such a ..clever bunch, and they were all neighbors in Indiana. All seemed" to be doing well and have prospects of good crops this year. Hail and rust is all that will hurt them. Hail comes in streaks of about a mile wide. It will strike one year and then skip for several years.

Jake Wagner gave S4O for his land and has a standing offer of S6O, with no improvements added since he got it: A gra-fjtfjfcW groceries and dry goods is iTreValent here. For candy - beans and tablets, 20c; ginghams, 15c and prints Bc. Can get mopey at 8 per cent., would make the interest up on sugar alone with a large family. .the train for Nihill, Mont.

The Crops looked less good as the border was reached. At the Montana line, at Gary, 1 think it was. there was about a dozen buildings, and two of them, on one side of the street, were saloons. Arrived at Nihill, with mercury at 90 degrees in shade and 120 degrees in the sun. The oldest inhabitant- said it was new weather to them. it has been dry for some time. . ■ ■■ My son-in-law took me out in the country to view the crops and see the land. The one-room house is to be seen often. The soil is a rocky limestone, 4 to 6 inches deep, with a clay subsoil of seven feet. The limestone composes about one-half of the upper soil. It is quite productive. Some fall wheat was seen, which the man on the place said if the draught did not hurt it, would make 40 bushels to the acre. Other wheat not so good. Oats and flax look well but are small. Now this is dry farming. In the foot-hills of the mountains, where they have private irrigation, the best oats and wheat yield was 103 bushels of oats and 60 bushels of wheat per acre, and to show you the difference in farmers, two had their flax in bloom, while another was putting his in. Soil is productive, except gumbo and alkali. The alkali is low land and is covered with a coat, which Idoks much like a light' snow in Indiana. It is great for beets.* The. gumbo soil is good for nothing. We saw where a buggy had been pulled out of it. and also where a horste had mired down and they were unable to get it out and it had died. There is comparatively littlfe of either in Montana. Those that have taken claims have a government permit to go to the mountains to get posts to fence their claims and get 800 feet of lumber a month for building purposes as long as needed. This land is easily worth 525 per acre. The railroad land is selling for $lB to $25.

Mr. Gray, my son-in-law. has taken steps to file on 320 acres. It would be difficult to find a prettier, or more productive half-section in the state. One quarter of this is desert land. Under ttye Gary act, if there is no water on it, or no steps taken to glet it there, by some time this month, it will revert to the government. This was once a, cattle and horse country. The old settlers in the mountain foothills. or their agents, run all of it then. But now the fences have taken them off the range and they are no more. Herds and herds .of sheep are here, belonging to some company, Which has a permit for water along the many little streams; 2,000 to 3,000 are the size of these herds. We saw a shearing outfit. Would like to mention it, but I’m afraid the editor might kick. (They sheared about 150 head per day to the man. There is a set of shearers who will not let a man join them unless he can clip 200 head: With

the machine about 275 to 300 head is a days work. I doubt whethei they could shear jhat many of Jim ! Amsler’s sheep. The fleece runs I about seven pounds to the sheep. P I left Nihill for Burlington. Wyo., on the ;>th of July. Around Bill--1 ings alfalfa is supreme. Owing to , a late spring they, were just “making hay. Sugar beets were much in evidence, wheat is good, oats also, but little of it. 3 his is irrigated country and some of it is just as pretty as one would want to see. A narrow, valley thirty to forty miles long from Billings is vert iproductiye. My opinion of the rest of the country to Basin, I think would be just as well to say nothing. Arriving at Burlington, saw John Michaels, Geo. and Frank Nicholson and others. John has some very good land in alfalfa and oats. And running through his land, 240 acres, the Grey Bull rises, one of the most treacherous and incomparable streams I ever saw. It has 85 feet fall to the mile and in one day its channel will sometimes change twice. Sunday John took me to Geo. Nicholson’s. His quarter, take it all through, was the best in appearance seen around Burlington. Alfalfa. wheat and oats are the principal crops; Looked well, excepting where hail struck it and they said some of the hail stones were as large as hen eggs. Nicholson claimed to have raised 50 bushels of corn per acre. Saw Frank Nicholson and family, and Mrs. Spangler, who is a sister of Sterns Iliff. She is eightv-three ;years of age. At Burlington saw samples of everything raised in Wyoming—oats 48, wheat 64, a pea vine, laden with peas, 8 feet long; an alfalfa stalk that measured seven feet in height. I wonder what Pullins thinks of that. Two cabbages weighed 63 pounds. There are 'very few stables and when the horses are through the harness is piled on the ground, all the year. There’s but little dew or snow. Wagon tires are never set here. A railroad and beet factory are expected here, so they say. Everyone is extremely clever and try to make my trip an enjoyable one, and will say they all have done it, too. Besides the link thht binds my daughter, her husband and that dot of childhood, my granddaughter, to me. Will leave Nihill next Friday for home. ’ . Very respectfully, ’ ’ W. H. RITCHEY.