| Show WP AGRICULTURE AND MINING ING M 10 IX liv 1 1 i 1 t the montana post in a recent has a leading art article icleon leleon on agriculture ilein in which the editor ranks that pursuit as n next e t in importance to quartz mining se he still says that the fact is patent today that we are more indebted to our farmers than to any other class of our cornmon community ity for bringing within the means of al all ali I 1 most of the comforts and luxuries of life ilfe 11 re potatoes have fallen from eighty cents to two and three cents per pound barley and wheat from thirty to six and other vegetables grains and esculents esculents have declined in in a corresponding ratio flour from prices ranging at from 50 to per undred hundred now reaches its maximum at 16 for best brands and the best is manufactured from our own wheat and in our own mills the article throughout awards high praise to agriculture and is encouraging to farmers it states that all bulbous vegetables grown there are greatly suj brior in size and quality to those produced in the states and that their crops of wheat are equal in quality and superior in quantity to those grown in western canada or southern michigan it Is not to be disguised the article states I 1 that during the past three years our farmers kave have have suffered greatly from the ravages of grasshoppers and early frosts the first is an evil incident to all new countries for the last aside from the introduction of winter wheat crops there is no remedy but submission and hope frost will appear earlier some years than others but it is a consolation to know that the chances ag as proved thus far are as favorable for esea escaping p ing lug as incurring them we regard the grasshopper scourge as temporary we like the cheerful sensible tone in which the editor speaks of the difficulties farmers have to contend with in that country but as to agriculture being second in importance to quartz mining in montana we feel convinced that if he continues to reside there and energetic men pay proper attention to farming it will not take many years to convince him as well as thousands of others that it is in every way a more important remunerative and ennobling pursuit than gold oid old mining of any kind quartz inc included ludd it is popular j now in the mining territories and in nevada to attach great importance to mining and to give it the preference over everything else this was the case for years in california A man who spouted treason would have been as popular a few years yeara ago in california as one who would speak disparagingly of mining the delusion has not liot entirely passed away there yet but that pursuit is not idolized as it once was men juen can ad mit that there are other labors that pay as well as gold digging and it is now freely stated that Cali fornias future prosperity must not be left to depend anthe on the products of her goldmints gold mines rich as they undoubtedly have been her people must developed dev elope her agricultural and manufacturing resources this Is the proper view in this territory we hava have proved most thoroughly that greater pros prosperity perit happiness and comfort are to be obtained from the judicious cultivation of the soil than the precarious pr earlous earious pursuit of mining if our people had allowed themselves to be diverted from their labors by thee the excitement about gold mines which has prevailed in our sister territories the condition of this territory would have been very dimm diff different merent lerent to what itis today but in this respect we have proved an example to surrounding communities and the wise counsel which has haa dictated the tho policy by which the people of utah have been guided will yet be fully rully vindicated and free freay acknowledged montana can do no better than to encourage the development of her n agrical tural tunal resources the editor admits this when he says that notwithstanding the many diacou rage ments arising from these causes and the usual consequences of abandoned ranche swe are fully satisfied patis fied that every farmer in the who has persisted in business has on the whole a large balance to show in favor of agriculture a we are happy to betig believe eve that there is no one pursuit in montana which offers greater inducements to new setters than that pta 11 ii i |
