ONE MORE HOPEFUL LETTER
——————
Mr. Peattie's Course Is Not En-
tirely Through Lands of
Destitution 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. Mr.
Peattie writes from Cheyenne and Kim-
ball 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 home, 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 note November showed about the
same number as was cast at the pre-
vious election. The relief work al-
ready done among the farmers and
ranchers who needed it has been distrib-
uted largely by the Rev. Bir. Albin, the
Lutheran minister, who was made a re-
lief agent here by Chairman Ludden.
He was greatly assisted by the ladies of
Sidney, principally members of the
Ladies' guild, the Good Samaritans, or
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 tak-
ing 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. Beacher of the
Episcopal church, who was just re-
turned from one of his extended tours
as far north as the Burlington road and
as far west as Burlington road and as
far west as Gering, in Scott's Bluffs
county, reports that the settler in the
region he traversed appear not to be
as bad off as they were a year ago.
Mr. Atkins, one of the county commis-
sioners, said:,
"But few applications have been
made for aid to the board. We are giv-
ing from $4 to $5 per month, instead of
putting them into the poorhouse, which
would be a very expensive thing for the
county. We have been allowing some
relief, principally provisions, 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 un-
der the ditch and all other irrigating
plants up there. There divide which is
unavailable for successful farming pur-
poses is good grazing ground, and be-
tween the two we count ourselves for-
tunate. Of course we have some iso-
lated cases of destitution, and pretty-
bad ones, too, but there is no general
distress.
SEED IS ALL THATS NEEDED.
Cheyenne county is in good financial
condition, and if seed is furnished in
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 they property. He said:
"The Belmont dtich is one of the most
successful examples of irrigation in the
west. It is about forty miles long and
irrigates about 40,000 acres. Some won-
ders 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 grown, 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 facials 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 dis-
tribute to destitute persons. But of
these there appears to be no great num-
ber in spite of the fact that about
three fair crops in nine years in 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 Chey-
enne received a carload of goods from
their fellow-countrymen near Fremont,
containing among other things a large
quantity of flour and provisions, and
about ninety bundles of clothing. The
Danes Kimball county got about
half of this relief.
Kimball county has suffered dread-
fully in the last few years as regards
crops, and were it not for its excellence
as a grazing county, it would now be
o little worth, Some patches of land,
especially in the northeastern corner
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 dur-
ing 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 Kim-
ball are doing well, and in the face of
the hard times a splendid stone build-
ing, 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 prac-
tical cattleman and farmer, has been
a potent factor in holding the communi-
ty from the depression which has seized
the state.
In my haste to get to the extreme
southwest counties I did not go either
to Banne or Scotts Bluffs. The for-
mer 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 returned 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 lasts summer,
and for extent and vigor of growth
they resembled the best California vege-
table gardens, everyone out west
gives Scotts Bluffs county a great repu-
tation for its achievements by irriga-
tion, 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 por-
tions 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 pre-
farming methods will undoubtedly pre-
vail 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 en-
gaged in agricultural pursuits will it-
self be changed for the better,
R. B. PEATTIE.
