THE CHICAGO 'BANK.E'R
Founded in 1898
Number 6
CHICAGO, AUGUST 7, 1909
Volume xxvii
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The Resources of Montana by A. L. Stone

the digging of sapphires. This industry is also in its intancy, and the extent to which precious stones will be produced in the future, like that of our mineral products, can only be conjectured.
We have 32,000 sq. miles of coal beds,—the greatest in extent of any state in the Union, and still, last year, we produced less than half the coal we burned.
The live stock interests of our state are among those of first importance. Our nutritious grasses, favorable climate, and abundance of pure water combine to give us conditions under which we raise the most perfect types of animals. We claim for our horses the best eyes, the cleanest limbs, and the most enduring qualities; for our cattle the heaviest weight; for our sheep the best wool; and for all the greatest freedom from disease of those raised anywhere.
In 1907 we marketed 26,000 horses, valued at $1,300,000; 274,642 head of cattle, valued at $11,000,000; 2,500,000 sheep, valued at $8,-750,000, and 38,006,6x3 pounds of wool, valued at $8,000,000, which increased by the return from our mules, goats and hogs gives a total from our live stock interests of $30,000,000.
A large proportion of our cattle and sheep go to the market direct from the ranges. Of late years, a continually increasing number of them are . being winter fattened. Gallatin Valley and some other valleys are using grain and hay, while Billings uses beet pulp and hay.
Recently we have developed a phase of the live stock industry which a few years ago would have been regarded as impossible,— the fattening of steers on wild hay. This beef ranks with the best grain-fed in both the Eastern and coast markets. In Beaverhead county alone 20,000 were thus fattened during the past winter, and sold for 5 cents a pound on cars at the shipping points. Big Hole Basin steers have the reputation of killing out with less shrink and hanging up nicer looking and better meat than those fattened on grain.
We do not claim that our state will produce successfully all of the vegetables and fruits raised in a latitude ten or fifteen degrees farther south. We have not a tropical or subtropical climate, and vegetation requiring it we will have to leave to other sections of the country. But we have a climate which is exactly suited to a certain line of staple farm products, and this in connection with a soil of unsurpassed fertility, places us in the very forefront of producers of wheat, oats, barley, rye, potatoes, and hay. We cannot yet compete with other states in quantity of agricultural products, as we do in mining and stock raising, for in farming we have scarcely passed the experimental stage, but what we have done and are doing shows our capability, and forecasts our greatness as an agricultural state.
According to the report of the U. S. Dept, of Agriculture, we raised in 1907:
4,003,000 bu. of spring wheat on 139,000 acres ; 11,760,000 bu. of oats on 140,000 acres; 646,000 bu. of barley on 17,000 acres; 47,000 bu. of rye on 2,100 acres; 436,000 bu. of flax seed on 34,-
The Dillon banker deals entertainingly with the interests of his state at the Missoula convention
unexcelled. With uniformly bright skies, no hot or muggy oppressive weather, no tornadoes or cyclones, no blizzards, and but few violent storms, it is well nigh ideal. The cold snaps of winter give little discomfort, the bright, crisp air seeming to quicken the circulation and stimulate the energies both mental and physical. One has but to experience it in order to mark the difference between a like temperature in Montana and at sea level, or near large bodies of water. The only season open to criticism by the most exacting climate hunter is spring. As a rule, “Winter lingers in her lap” a little too long, and the rains and snows accompanying this parting, while the making of the vegetation, are not always appreciated by the inhabitants.
There are no diseases peculiar to the state, no malaria or fevers, and residence here is most a certain cure for affections of the lungs, throat and nose. Thermal and medicinal springs abound, and when, in later years, we cast about and begin to utilize our lesser and overlooked resources, we will be known as the “Switzerland of America” and, following in the wake of our thrifty California neighbors, be advertising our climate, scenery and natural curative waters as a panacea for all the ills to which human flesh is heir.
The 26,000,000 acres of land listed as mountainous must not be regarded as waste, for in these hills are hidden, perhaps, the richest mineral deposits on earth. In the year 1907, there was taken from them 220,108,792 pounds of copper, worth $44,021,758, and this was only 75 per cent of the yield of the former years, the producers curtailing the output on account of the low price of copper and the large surplus on hand. In the same year there was produced of silver 9,317,605 ounces, valued at $6,149,619; gold, 158,959 ounces, valued at $3,186,212; lead, 3,748,304 pounds, valued at $198,606; zinc, 243,-100 pounds, valued at $14,343, making a total production in value $53,600,592.
The production of coal was 2,030,564 tons, having a minimum value of $5,076,410.
It must not be assumed that we have reached the maximum output of our mines, for there are new known districts to be opened up as soon as they have railroad facilities, and other districts which are yet virgin soil to be prospected. The Elkhorn district in Beaverhead county we believe will some day rival Butte in the production of copper, and there are mines of iron, graphite, tungsten and the rarer metals awaiting development as the country shall fill up, and transportation and labor become cheaper. So far, we have merely scratched the surface, and seized what was most accessible.
In Fergus county we have an industry which belongs almost exclusively to this state—
When your secretary assigned me a place on the program, and suggested that I take for my subject “The Resources of Montana,” I do not know whether it was with the thought that I could, within the bounds of an address, squeeze in enough of the salient points to give a bird’s-eye view of the subject, or because he knew that the field was large enough so that, no matter how I floundered around, I would get out with something.
While we, who have taken pains to inform ourselves of our surroundings and upon what is going on, are staggered by the extent of our undeveloped resources and the possibilities of the future, I doubt whether there is a portion of the United States which has been as little exploited, or about which the people generally know less.
The idea of the ordinary outside man is summed up in a dozen words,—an immense state, •—■ mountains, — mines, — cow-boys,—-Indians,—cold winters and deep snows. The thought that there are millions of acres of the best agricultural land on earth, and practically unlimited power now going to waste, that will some day be used for industrial purposes, has never been suggested to him, for we have never taken the trouble to make it known.
Florida, the South, Kansas, Nebraska, Cal-fornia, Washington, and Idaho have all been advertised and their advantages heralded to the world, and a wave of homeseekers has swept across Montana and filled the three latter states, but has left hardly enough straggling settlers among us to indicate; that there has been any migration. Fostered by judicious advertising and cheap railroad rates, this influx has continued until, because of sheer filling up of the territory, the back wave has receded into our own state, and we are beginning to get some of it, in spite of ourselves.
I have wondered whether the dearth of information regarding Montana and our indifference as to whether we have more people, was not to be attributed largely to our environment and the influence it has upon us. There is something inspiring in our sunny skies and mountain air, something that makes a man independent, self-centered and buoyant,—satisfied with his health and prosperity,—with his communion with God and nature, to the extent that he does not miss the companionship of his fellow man, to the extent that, in some cases, he does not want to be crowded by him.
The state of Montana is practically 500 miles long and 300 miles wide,—as large as the combined area of New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Maryland and Connecticut,—of nearly the size of Sweden. It has one county, Chouteau, larger than Denmark, and Custer county is larger than the state of Maryland. Montana comprises about 94,000,000 acres of land which, in a rough way, are divided into 26,000,000 acres mountainous, 30,000,000 farming and 38,000,000 grazing land.
The large extent of territory modified by mountain ranges makes quite considerable difference of temperature and rainfall in the different localities. However, the climate is