83

ONE MORE HOPEFUL LETTER

Mr. Peattie's Course Is Not Entirely
Through Lands of
Destination and Woe.

He Finds' Some Sections Where the
People Are Able to Take Care
of Their Own Poor.

The Lesson of the Futility of Trying to Farm
on Stock Ranges Taught—Irrigation
Means Prosperity.

(Still another letter filled with hope and
chronicling good cheer is the seventh of
Mr. Peattie s communications. Mrs.
Peattie writes from Cheyenne and Kimball
counties, where things are in happy
contrast to the situation elsewhere)

Sidney, Cheyenne County, Neb, Dec
19—This county has but one person in
the poor house, and is taking care of six
families, by issuing warrants to them
for $4 or $5 per month, But few have
left the county within the past year, as
the vote of November showed about the
same number as was cast at the previous
election. The relief work already
done among the farmers and
reachers who needed it has been distributed
largely by the Rev. Mr. Albin, the
Lutheran minister, who was made a relief
agent here by Chairman Ludden
He was greatly assisted by the ladies of
Sidney, principally members of the
Ladies' guild, the Good Samaritans, on
the Woman's Relief corps, Mr. Albin
said

"I have received no supplies from Mr.
Ludden yet, but I am advised that
they have been shipped. We are taking
care of about fifteen families. They
have received some clothing a little
provisions and so forth, and, I believe
are fairly comfortable There is really
not much distress in Cheyenne county
and I have no doubt that we will be
able to amply take care of our poor."

NOT SO BADLY FIXED

The Rev. George A Bcecher of the
Episcopal church, who has just returned
from one of his extended tours
as far north as the Burlington road and
as far west as Gering, in Scotts Bluffs
county, reports that the settlers in the
region he traversed appear not to be
as bad off as they were a year ago.

Mr Atkins, one of the county commissioners,
said

"But few applications have been
made for aid to the board We are giving
from $4 to $5 per month, instead of
putting them into the poor house, which
would be a very expensive thing for the
county We have been allowing some
relief, principally previsions, to some
others But ranching is so extensively
practiced in Cheyenne county that there
is not so much destitution as there
would be if we had more farmers. Of
course up on the Belmont ditch farming
is done on a large scale. Splendid
crops have been raised on the land under
the ditch and all other irrigating
plants up there. The divide which is
unavailable for successful farming purposes
is good grazing ground and between
the two we count ourselves fortunate.
Of course we have some isolated
cases of destitution, and pretty
bad ones, too, but there is no general
distress.

SEED IS ALL THAT S NEEDED

Cheyenne county is in good financial
condition. and if sed is furnished in
the spring it is probable that no other
relief need come from the state.

Mr. F. C. Condon of Omaha, who is
associated with G I Hunt and John A
McShane in the celebrated Belmont
ditch, passed through here Sunday on
his way to the property. He said

"The Belmont ditch is one of the most
successful example of irrigation in the
west. It is about forty miles long and
irrigates about 40,000 acres. Some wonders
in the way of the production of
vegetables and grain were accomplished
this year, and the products brought the
highest prices Large quantities of hay
were ground, and the country along the
ditch produced the only crops this
county had. There are some smaller
ditches, and the land under them also
produces good crops Irrigation is the
only salvation of Western Nebraska
and the sooner this fact is recognized
the better."

STOCK IS THEIR SALVATION.

Kimball county does not appear to be
in danger of immediate distress. Its
financial condition is good, but it has no
funds which the law allows it to distribute
to destitute persons. But of
these there appears to be no great number
in spite of the fact that about
three fair crops in nine years is the
record. The people are poor—poor to a
degree hardly equaled in Omaha, but
they have this in their favor—they
each have a little stock which can be
exchanged for money or provisions.
Five only have applied for aid. The
Danes of Kimball, Banner and Cheyenne
received a carload of goods from
their fellow-countrymen near Fremont,
containing among other things a large
quantity of four and provisions, and
about ninety bundles of clothing. The
Dances of Kimball county got about
half of this relief.

Kimball county has suffered dreadfully
in the last few years as regards
crops, and were it not for its excellence
as a grazing country, it would now be
of little worth Some patches of land,
especially In the northeastern corner
and the adjoining corner of Banner
county produced splendid crops this
year. The soil is a black loam and the
region enjoyed several local rains during
the growing season. Corn produced
there brings 60 cents of the farmers
and wheat the same figure and 10 cents
more at the stores. The stores of Kimball
are doing well, and in the face of
the hard times a splendid stone building,
the lower floor of which is to be
occupied as a general store, has been
erected during the past season by one
of Kimball's merchants.

HELPED BY A GOOD MAN

The Bank of Kimball in the hands of
a man who has grown up with the place
for the last ten years, and who is a practical
cattleman and farmer, has been
a potent factor in holding the community
from the depression which has seized
the state.

In my haste to get to the extreme
southwest counties I did not go either
to Banner or Scotts Bluffs The former
will need some relief, but every
one tells me that the latter is one of
the most prosperous in the state, owing
to the extent of the irrigation practiced
there A traveling man return from
Gering says it is a sight for sore eyes
to see the difference between that and
other sections of Western Nebraska. I
saw pictures of potato and cabbage
fields under cultivation last summer,
and for extent and vigor of growth they
resembled the best California vegetable
gardens Every one out West
gives Scotts Bluffs county a great reputation
for its achievements by irrigation,
and it undoubtedly deserves all
the good things which are said of it

IRRIGATION MEANS PROSPERITY

The people are gradually admitting
that with irrigation this country can be
made to yield regular and abundant
crops of everything which grows in
the temperate zone, and that those portions
which cannot be irrigated should
be abandoned for farming and given
over to stock raising, for which they are
pre-eminently fitted. More economical
farming methods will undoubtedly prevail
in the future, for the producers
have been taught a terrible lesson of
late years, and it is not improbable
that even the character of the men engaged
in agricultural pursuits will itself
be changed for the better

R. B. PEATTIE.