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Show 'VAST mineral stores FOUND WITHIN BORDERS OF THE GEM STATE Resources Are Diversified, Giving Great Possibilities Possi-bilities for Mining, Lumbering, Agriculture, Stockraising and Horticulture. Special to The Tribune. BOISE, Idaho, Dot-. 2D. Idaho has no reason to feel other than proud of 1he year's accomplishments. As a whole the. state prospered in 19.17. Its main industries agriculture, mining, horticulture, stockraising and lumbering were operated to maxi-mum maxi-mum capacity. Through these, five, and other channels millions of dollars in wealth poured into the state, much of which is being spent, or is to be spent, in brinS'ing about, an increased production m 191 S War prices sent quotations for everything that could raised or mined to unprecedented figures. W hile oftset by a pro-A, portionate increase in labor and material, the final annual account-in" account-in" left a handsome surplus with the producer. It was a year ol intensified production along all lines and one that marked a period of advancement. In closing the year's record Idaho does so gratified grati-fied but not entirely satisfied, with its accomplishments. It gives promise of greater' accomplishments in the twelvemonth period ahead of it. MOVED STEADILY ALONG. There were no crop failures. There, were no statewide disasters. disas-ters. The state moved steadily along, increased its crop acreage, opened up and developed more of its vast mineral stores, harness,! additional waterpower for electrical energy, expanded along muu;i-facturing muu;i-facturing lines, saw to internal improvements and increased its population. Where the mortgage hung over the farm m 1916, last vear saw it lifted; where the span of horses earned the rancher lo town, the automobile took their places. Paved streets took ti.e place of dirt roads. Modern business houses replaced the old but unsightly landmarks. In these and numerous other ways the o-vn-ivine- nrosOeritv of the state was silently told. Financially the state could not be in better condition after a year's effort. The deposits in national and state bank3 increased fully twenty millions of dollars, dol-lars, the grand total in cash and gilt-edire gilt-edire securities reposing in vaults being eightv-five millions, individual bank account's ac-count's increased in surprising numbers. It was a year of thrift in that respect. There are more people in Idaho today with comfortable bank accounts than ever before in the state's history. From every section trainload after trainload of' produce moved away to the waiting markets. Only the car shortage that existed in the fall of the year prevented pre-vented a greater movement. Grains, seed, beans, hay, potatoes, in vast quantities, were grown and turned into cash. The agricultural produce not disposed of is warehoused, awaiting even better prices. The higeest of apple crops was grown. So heavy was the yield in many places that the apples could not be all picked. Sugar beets were turned into billions of pounds of sugar, the crop being so profitable prof-itable that the manufacturers paid a bonus to the growers. Every head of stock raised on the range or- the farm and there were thousands thou-sands of them brought to the owner , prices that lie never realized before. Fat stock moved to eastern and western mar- : ,kets steadily from one year's end to the ' 'other. Regardless )f the heavy shipments, ship-ments, there is more "stock in Idaho today to-day than ever before. With the demand heavy, breeders have gone more extn-sively extn-sively into the business. The sheepmen sold their wool clips for ! as high as 55 cents a pound, and, while i this was the maximum, the minimum was well around 30 cents or over, wrhile mut- P-ton P-ton soared. It was one of the best . tweive months the flock owner has ex- perienced. The year 1916 was a. record breaker, but it, even, was exceeded by 1917. ... Impetus to Lumber. No industry was given greater Impetus than that of lumber. The heavy foreign demand for finished and unfinished lumber lum-ber brought abotit great activity in the j forests, where sawmills operated steadily. stead-ily. Labor troubles earfy In the year dis- ; appeared later, leaving the way clear for 1 extensive operations. The net result was j the manufacture of 800,000,000 feet of lumber, valued at twenty-five millions of dollars. To accomplish this feat one of i the largest and most modern mills in the j west was put into operation. j The mineral output alone had an aji- ; proximate valuation of fifty millions of dollars. While prices for metals were I scaled down during the latter part of the I year, for the greater portion they re- i mained high. As important as is the valuation of ore mined is the fact that many new prospects were successfully explored ex-plored to an extent that they became good "payers," and numerous locations of other ore deposits were made. If the mining industry is allowed a working i profit in the future, there will be greater ! mining development in this state than j there has been In the past. Internal Improvements. i But the progressive record of Idaho in 1M7 was not entirely confined to its industries. in-dustries. The internal improvements, i which include the building that took place 1 in every city, town, village and hamlet, i ran into the millions of dollars. Public j service utilities. Including the railroads, j added to the total. The state highway system came In for its portion. Fulls' two millions of dollars were spent cn this system in new construction and j maintenance. As much more was spent by the counties on. their highwavs. Irri- 1 gation systems were improved and tAe ! maintenance ran into heavy expend!- 1 tures. 1 The assessed property Valuations for the k state advanced twenty millions of dollars over the previous year and the gubpel fluent tax rolls that will be reported ' this winter will add over that much more. The endowment funds were raised lo eight and one-half millions of dollars, i' while every fund carried in the treasury V shows a comfortable balance. P-tate land sales were greater in 1917 than during the four previous years, over a million and ; a half dollars being received from them. I This demand for land, the bulk of which I is in the agricultural class, gives some 1 indication of the rapid agricultural de- j velopment within the state. 170 New Laws. I A session of the legislature left in it ! wake 170 new laws, nianv of far-rMCli- mg Importance, such as the workmen's compensation act. It was a Democratic ! legislature, the first in the state's hlf- I tory. A state agricultural hoard ' created, which made possible the flrft state fair, held at Boise during the fall It created four new counties, Increasing the total to forty-one. and added three district Judges to care for the rapid increase in-crease in the business of the legal pro-iession. pro-iession. Important changes took place in tt" slate's educational department, a n"' slate commissioner assuming his dunes, together with practically a new state board of education. Appropriations were niade to care for the needs of the state institutions, one of which in the month of the year sustained a loss W f:re of JIOO.UOO in the' burning of the main building of the State Normal ' i.ewiston. The above are but a few of the stat'f accomplishments for the vear. They re told more in detail in that which I'oll.ws 1 ne story 01" the progress made is v' worth the reading. It Is a record m which Idaho may well he justlv proud-In proud-In these days of strenuous war activity' tec citizens of the Gem state have n forgotten lher dutv to the nation. Martf 01 her tavored sons shouldered the mus-t mus-t kc-t and left f0r ovp,. mere" lo dctVU'1 tne country's honor. Jl.nnv ihoiisaii'1 more are prepared to follow. Those a1 i home have taken up the tusk of shoti - 1 "Oi-lng the war duties that He as heavily on them or should thev do 011 ihf 1 bovs at ,hr. fl.onl wiille Idaho will -'l,'''f tinuc to show progress at home In th' car oii-mn before it. the citizens of ll' . state will not forget It has n sacred im' to perform in the t'lRhl for the ptesna-tion ptesna-tion of civilization. |
