Rocky Mountain Husbandman

Scarcely a day passes but we hear some discontented individual inquiring what the great mass of immigrants seeking Montana this summer are to do. We have answered this plain, simple question time and again, and will answer it once more: Do? Why, do as they did in the land from whence they came, only a great deal better; do as others do here—engage in the various pursuits by which our people prosper. Those who are more venturesome will find an ample field in the mines; those with capital at their command will find remunerative investment in pastoral pursuits, while those with less means will find ample room for farming and most excellent facilities for building up comfortable and happy homes.

"But," says one, "we admit all this—that there is plenty of land, and good opportunities, but something else is necessary. Farming is already overdone. What is to be done with the product when it is garnered?" Such an individual is about as short-sighted as those who, five years ago, proclaimed that the cattle business in Montana had played out for want of a market, and derided the idea when the HUSBANDMAN pointed out the solution of the beef problem.

They are ready to-day, to hoot at us when we say that five years hence will see ships freighted with Montana grain whitening either ocean. Why not? Colorado grain finds its way from the foot of the Rockies to the busy marts of the world. May not Montana grain do likewise?

But a few weeks ago the merchantman Ivy sailed from San Francisco with a cargo of 1,905 tons of Utah wheat, bound for Cork. If Colorado and Utah can produce grain for ocean trade, Montana will also. Already we enjoy better facilities for cheap transportation than Utah, and in a few years they will exceed those of Colorado, and as a grain-growing region neither can compete with Montana.

Myriads of mountain brooks course their way across our fertile valleys, watering thousands of acres of as fine wheat lands as were ever tilled; and with two grand transcontinental railways penetrating our valleys—the Union Pacific, via the Utah and Northern branch, and the Northern Pacific—with our present great water highway, the majestic Missouri, to hold them in check, is there any doubt that we can compete with Utah in transportation?

With these bright prospects in the near future does the Montana immigrant take any chances in making a home in our valleys? It will most probably be several years before the home demand is supplied, since so many of our farmers find it most profitable to give their attention to stock-growing, and only grow little more than enough for home consumption; besides, the demand must necessarily increase rapidly.

Looking at it in any light we will, we can but regard the outlook as most encouraging.