VOL. XXIV.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., FEBRUARY 23,1889.
NO. 8
MONTANA.
The Great.Reservation Lands, Olimate,
Productions, eto.
By j. b. c.
In accordance with the request of many
correspondents of the Farmer to learn
more aoont the general characteristics of
the lately opened great reservation in the
Missouri and Milk river valleys of northern Montana, we will give in this, and in
another article next week, some facts obtained on our trip during the early part of
February, having returned last week.
THE GREAT RESERVATION.
The reservation, as it Is called, was long
occupied by the remnants of several Indian tribes, who made terms with the
government last year for ita release and
for reservations elsewhere. By act of
Congress these lands, 18,000,000 acres, were
set apart exclusively for homestead settle-
ment,under tho homestead,mineral claims
and town site;iaws. For about 300 miles
through the center of these lands runs one
railway, that of the St. Paul, Minneapolis
<& Manitoba line, completed last year, and
running from St. Paul, Minn., to Helena,
Montana, with its,connections to the Pacific ocean. But no railway company
owns a foot of these iands,and only barely
right of way throngh them. They are absolutely free lands, held byjthe government for actual settlement in tracts of
only 160 acres'aa stated.
ttte'cmmate.
It will be remembered that we made a
trip to.this.section last June, and wrote of
it under the'.favorable circumstances of
that season of the year. We had a great
desire to see that country i^in the winter
season, and so made the trip'as stated.
Without an understanding of the causes,
whioh we shall give in next week's Farmer, it is hard to understand why it Is that
inso.brief a time one may pass by rail
from one climate to another. Bat facts
are very palpable things.'and on this topic
we now only allude to the fact. Retiring
for rest in a sleeping car at 10 o'clock at
night in northern Dakota, where snow
drifts and zero weather prevailed, and
awakening next morning at daylight
without any snow in sight, and the mercury bo higu that there could not be, was
a revelation. We were curious to see the
comparisons^ temperature of the Milk
river valley, Montana, with that of other
localities at the same hour, and on the
same day, and here it is, from the'govern-
ment signal stations, Assinniboine being
in that valley:
February.
Places              7th.    8th.    Oth.    10th. llth. l_tb.
Assinniboine... 33       42       JO         41 in _o
Chicago 23         26        32          38 il 18
Cleveland 18         34        30          32 32 18
St. Louis  36        48         40          43 31 34
These.figures'are all above zero, on dates
named. There is the remarkable fact, as
strange as it may seem. It is given for a
series of 6 consecutive days, and not in
isolated days, as the temperature" might
be accounted for in such case on any given
day. It is seen that for six days the temperature was higher at Assiniboine at the
same hour,'than even at St. Louis which
is 600 miles south of that place. While
this is true,"_Jt must also be stated that
there are occasional days in winter when
it is colder in that valley than at any of
the other places named,_but these periods
are but brief,and those residing there state
that the air is so dry at such times that the
cold weather is not noticeable. The winters begin in November.or December, and
do not last more than about six to eight
weeks, and during this time there are
only occasional days with the temperature
down to zero or .below. \.While our cold
weather comes from the northwest, the
cold temperatures in Montana are the currents from the northeast, from the Hud-
Bon Bay _country, unobstructed by any
range of mountains.   The warm temper
atures are from the west and southwest,
influenced by the Japan currents of the
Pacific ocean, to be more fully alluded to
next week.
LIVE STOCK.
When in Montana in June last we were
told that cattle, sheep and horses subsisted
on the dried and cured grasses of the
lands. On this trip we saw that in reality.
We saw large herds of cattle grazing upon
these apparently dead and worthless
grasses, as fat as our June and July beeves,
and the same was true of horses and sheep.
Not a pound of grain fed to them all winter, and yet fat. The grass grows luxuriantly during the spring months and early
summer, during the rain season, and then
cures on the ground without cutting, for
fall and winter grazing. There are no
rains to wash out and destroy its substance. And so here are the herds, flocks
and horses eating it with the relish of our
stock on the June bluegrass of Indiana.
Near Assinniboine in the Milk river valley
is a large herd on this grass alone, from
which one beef per day is taken and
slaughtered for the government forces at
the Fort. The [beef looks fat and juicy,
and tastes equally well.
We met a gentleman by the name of
Chas. E. Severance, to the south of this in
Montana, who has been*|in the sheep bnsiness there for ten year-., and who went
there from New.^England. He has 32,000
head in his flocks, and',[gave us these facts,
viz: "I used Merino bucks on long wooled
ewes, and have Merino grades. We thin
out our flocks generally in October, though
sheep can be bought any time almost, as
the flocks get too large to handle well.
Esves sell for $2 50 to $3 per head. My
flocks of 32,000 grown sheep averaged me
75i pounds of wool per head, and I sold it
last season for 17 to 19 cents per'pound. I
feed my sheep nothing; they run on the
range the year round,',though I generally
put up some wild grass hay in case of
emergency, should it come, which is rare.
I have sheds made of logs and poles covered with grass for shelter jin bad weather.
I save 80 per cent of my lambs..The green
grass starts well from April 5th to 10 th,
and usually by the middle of April there
is the greatest abundance of green grass.
One man and a shepherd dog cares for
2,500 sheep, and I pay my herders $40 per
month and furnish provisions, though the
men do their own housekeeping, etc.,
houses furnished by me. My family are
healthy and happy,_and though we have
not the society and privileges of the older
States, we are well satisfied in Montana."
If our readers will use their pencils a
little they can see why, aside from the
good climate we. have described, he is
pleased with the country. This gentleman stated that the snow, rarely laid on
the ground more^than.a1 day at a time.
Tho warm Chinook winds^f rom the Pacific soon melts it off. Wealso.met a gentleman farther west, in^Montana, Mr. W. H.
Clark, of Sun Elver valley, who has for
years been;engaged.in^breeding and growing horses. He said. that.the faults of the
business were in.attempting to "cover the
whole country" as it were, and do too
much. He stated that a farmer may take
50 to 60 head of good grade! mares, with a
pure bloodbdraf t stallion and do well, saving 90 per cent of his.colts, growing them
entirely on the range without grain, and
sell the colts at four and.five years old on
the ranohfor__$150per head. Mr. Clark
was on._his.way to Chicago with 65 head,
where he expected_.t<*f get at Jeast $200 for
each. He remarked that he Intended on
his return to come down to the Milk river
valley, in the vicinity of the Bearpaw
mountains, just south of Chinook (formerly called Dawes) and secure a claimand remove here, as he regarded, this.as better
than where he was loeated.
GREAT CHANGES OOINQ ON.
Ripid.changea are Bure to take place in
this valley early the coming spring. The
town of Daws has been changed only this
month to Chinook, taking the name of the
warm Pacifio winds. xThe town site is situated on the railroad,and extending,down
to Milk river over one mile, on a pretty
high piece of ground in the valley. Just
across the river on the south bank is old
Fort Belknap,i where , we were shown
three acres of land which last year grew
600 bushels of Irish potatoes to the acre,
by weight, and the potatoes were there to
show for themselves for quality, which is
as fine as are grown,chiefly Early Rose and
Burbank varieties.'*-The bench lands to
the south toward Bearpaw [mountains are
very rich and productive, as well as the
table lands to the north, while equally
rich valley lands extend farther than the
eye can reach, both east and west.
NEW.TOWN AND COAL.
The new town of Chinook is geographically well situated to be the center of a new
county, and it is the purpose to make it
the seat of justice of such. A hotel is to
be built at once on the new town site, and
the railway people^intend to erect a handsome depot building here. Just north of
Chinook (formerly Dawes) three miles.we
had the sensation of visiting and going
into a coal.n-ine 175 .feet, which crops out
on a stream, and,"though not'to the depth
of it, the vein thus far is found to be 22
feet in thickness. It is a good bituminous
coal, and burns up to a white ask, making
a good fuel coal, and is thought to be valuable for smelting purposes. The Bearpaw range, 25 miles south/have much fine
pine timber f >r building purposes, and
under the very favorable government regulation of giving the timber to be sawed,
for sale to the settlers only, (none of it can
be shipped away and sold) oilers a splen
did chance for some enterprising man
with a portable saw mill to make some
money, as it would require little logging
for such a mill. But more of our trip etc.,
next week.
<£jetue*a% Utaxrs.
The cost of the Paris Exposition will be
$10,000,000.
There is great excitement over gold
discoveries in Indian Territory.
Fifteen boys in the Pittsburg cooking
school have taken prizes for efficiency in
cooking.
Henry Peper living near Nokomis, 111.,
had his skull crushed by a falling tree last
Thursday.
The total number of American citizens
residing in China is 1,022 of whom 506 are
missionaires.
Windows along the route of procession
at the Inauguration are selling at from $5
to $75 and roof seats $1.
While drunk, Joseph Schmelke, of
Glenville, Mich., killed his mother, two
sisters-in-law and himself.
Mrs Phineas Jenkins, died recently at
Winnimac, aged 96, and five generations
were represented at tho funeral.
It is believed that the present session of
Congress will admit Dakota, Montana and
Washington Territories as States.
It has been observed that the Eiffel tower,
now over 670 feet high has been frequently
enveloped in a cloud at a hight of 520 feet.
The grand jury of Boone county, 111.,
has indicted every^liquor-seller in the
conty—60 in all—for selling to minors and
habitual drunkards.
A terrible fire in Montreal, on the 16th,
destroyed Ogelvie's elevator and Peck,
Benny it Co.'s rolling mills, loss'estimated at more than $1,000,000.
The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Norman J, (_V)lman aa Commissioner
of Agriculture and Carroll D. W
Boston, to be Commissioner of Lj
The rise of the Seine has flooded
urbs of Paris and greatly imped<j
The grounds of the exhibition!
with several of the buildings, h
slightly damaged by the overflo
An explosion  occurred early
day morning in the Park Centre
Hartford.   The whole building
crash,  burying in its ruins  the
Thirty-five lives are known to
lost. !
On San day morning a larg
Chicago building, in process of!
tion, collapsed. The 10 lower I
in,leaving the walls and four np
standing, but in a shaky cone"
one was hurt.
Advices from Shanghai, stal
famine in Anhui and Kiangsu
In one province, 300 families at
and altogether several millions
ing from famine caused by d
years in succession. j
Manual training has been so I
ly introduced in Hoboken thai
trial Elucational Association
Jersey has been asked to assisj
lishing the system in the publj/.,i f.ooia \,.'
Union Hill and the northern part of Hudson county.
John Elsmer, a prosperous farmer, and
formerly a local preacher, of Wirt county,-
W. V., went home drunk and beat his
wife because his supper was not ready.
He then worked himself into a frenzy of
rage, and, seizing a heavy poker, brained
his wife, two daughters, and the hired
girl.
Fourteen thousand tons of beets were
crushed in the beet sugar factory of Claus
Spreckles, in California, lost season. The
sugar from these bae.s weighed 1,640 tons.
The farmers who entered upon beet culture netted an average of $35 per acre.
Next season the production of beet sugar
will be much larger.
Forty-two persons were killed and 57
injured at grade crossings in New York
State during 18S7, and dining last year 28
were killed and 34 injured. In Philadelphia alone in the three years ending with
1887, 133 persons were killed. For the
same period of time in Chicago the number of deaths at grade crossings amounted
to 142.
At a depth of 300 feet the drill of the
Litchfield, 111., Natural-gas Company became fast. After three or four hours'
hard work it was brought to the surface
and the workmen were alarmed to find it
covered with blood and hair. They
couldn't account forthe mysterious circumstance until evening, when the owner
of a coal mine sent in a bill for $50, the
value of a mule killed by the drill. It
seems the gas company was unaware that
a branch of the Litchfield coal mine extended underneath the former's derrick.
Persons on State street Detroit,Saturday
morning were horror stricken to see a
large grayhound come tearing towards
them with bis mouth wide open and his
whole body wrapped in flames. His yelps
of pain sounded almost like human cries,
and every few yards he would stop and
bite at the flames. The crowd stood powerless until a man grabbed a blanket off a
horse and threw it over the suffering
brute, smothering the flames. Could the
crowd have caught the fiend who did it,
they would have given him rough treatment.
RinehartFarbrick,a young Adams county farmer, was horribly mangled on Saturday by a saw log which rolled from his
wagon while his horses were trying to
run away.   Death was instantaneous,       ,