Show IN WESTERN PART OF BOX wa wf ELDER continued from last issue on sunday the weather cleared up and our spirits rose in proportion we had had enough of storm and bad roads either would have been enough but both were a little too much we were sore and stiff and with more than ha halt if our journey ahead ot of us 13 but at the sunshine worked wonders we retraced our way to bridge then up behind the hills westward to almo this town used to be the headquarters tor for the raft river stake and we dont understand why they moved to malta tile the stake house at almo is a very fine looking building and the town is at least more hunched up than malta whether larger or not but they moved headquarters as stated and several sterling citizens followed we soon finished our business at A almo imo and moved on north over the low divide to elba this place was the only one on the trip not seen before that fulfilled our preconceived notions of what it would be like you remember that in the beginning of this story we spoke ot of surprise at finding holbrook a wide plateau rather than a canyon with wide spots in it that could be farmed well we thought the same about black pine and juniper and malta and almo but were mistaken elba however Is a picture as beautiful as we could have foreseen high up in the hills just a wide place between mountains as compact and cozy looking as an 1 1 pine valley a basin that you could shoot across with a high powered rifle dotted with good homes plowed fields many hay stacks and hundreds ut rt cattle in rich pastures our busi business nass there was over with all too soon nod and we crossed another divide into albion albion somewhere in the back of our poetical Un mind kept recurring some words presumably from a poem read in school days perfidious albion the impression lingered that the reference was to england probably a word from some continental language meaning england and expressing a grievance maybe some influential fluent ial early settler like england and tried to give it a bad name or perhaps the name was selected by some englishman who liked the sound of it why a name like that tor for a place like that it would also be interesting to know how the state normal school came to be located there in a valley like a cup uphill from everywhere and far removed from a railroad or any hopes of any these splendid buildings must hav davs cost somewhere around a quarter of a million dollars we have heard that some influential legislator sot got them as the price of his vote for some other state institution somewhere else but then you hear so many stories most blost likely perfidious albion juat I 1 stole them and ran away with them to his hiding place in the hills the roads from Snow snowville ville all along alon the zigzag zig zag route we travelled had been bad but from albion down into the great snake river valley to burley there was a splendid boulevard better than our paved roads in fac from albion to burley and from burley to pocatello and south via malad the roads were admirable even to a point one hundred yards thi this s side of the utah line we wonder how they manage it reports that have come coma to us from idaho during the past three or four years would indicate that they were having a hard time financially but the condition of their roads dom do int bear out that kind of a story this brings us back home asala after a week of travel in which wet we coy covered over miles our impression la Is that the people are somewhat discouraged cou raged but without the reasons reasons that they think they have the past season has of course been very dry the grass on the ranges has not put the cattle in the best of 0 condition and all thru the country there has b been een a panicky feeling stockmen Stoc kmen pur bened with debt and tearing fearing a hard winter inter have rushed their cattle to market with the result that prices pre are probably as low as they have ever been but it seems plain that this condition cannot last very long we ari are ar i afraid that too many stockmen stoc kmen will throw up their hands and go out of the business just when there is good reason to think that an advance and a very considerable one at that is 19 imminent imme nent hogs have gone up 30 or 40 clo in the last three or four months continued on page two conditions in western box elder county continued from first fuse sheep selow an increase in price by a smaller margin cattle are selling at ae and ac there could easily bo be ill an advance to sc or ac which would put the advance in hogs and sheep in the shade even an advance to sc would be an increase of there ire lots of cattle in western box bos eldir elder county and southern idaho we don dont it know how the number compares with days gone by from the stories ye ive have heard beard we judge that there are but few now by comparison and cattle constitute a considerable item in our vicinity it thinkable that a great industry like that should suddenly drop out of 0 sight beet growing has been a failure beyond question but our immediate vicinity I 1 Is no worse oft off than other parts ot of the country including the lower snake river valley tl we e dont know how they them are at blackfoot Black toot and north but from american falls and south they dont look any better than they do in this valley there is one marked improvement in the farming arming and ranch business that we noticed poultry Is coming to the front in a commercial way and more and more farms are maintaining a small band of sheep and a few hogs it seems to us that every farmer and rancher ought to have a few sheep and a few hogs he go eo into it on a large scale but he should always have a few we might say a whole lot abou roads but our county commissioners are harassed enough by the numerous interests of the county so we will lit bit them oft off easy without however trying to vindicate them or take up tha cudgels in their behalf A lack of funds has a very decided effect un road building and maintenance it seems to us that the building of the road through from mantua to cadiz cache valley might have been done to just ss as good advantage with only a traction fraction ct cf the money expended indeed the money used in building that roal road would have gravelled travelled gravel led the highway from Eri briham ham to the nevada line the road from here to cache valley Is of course a very splendid highway nut lut the tha road through that canyon has always s bi b i n on a good foundation with nha grades to speak of but then its built and the peole in the wet ern cm part of the county will just lia ha ve c to wait until there Is some more money accumulated accumulate d it if the good times promised really materialize we can all pay our taxes with a better grace and there will be money for the commissioners to tn ii hold ot of to do the work that in their opinion needs doing i |