; THE TREASURE STATE 171 • 



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The industries are farming, fruit growing, stock raising, lumbering and mining. 

 The chief agricultural districts are in the Clark's Pork valley near the towns of 

 Plains, Paradise and Thompson Falls. Back from the valley on the benches on 

 both sides are farms and fruit tracts. In the Little Bitter Root and Flathead 

 valleys and on Camas Prairie, in the recently ceded Flathead reservation, great agri- 

 cultural development has taken place and this fertile section will produce great 

 quantities of grain when a railroad is built into it. 



Sanders county has a fertile soil, and any crop that grows anywhere in the 

 state makes large yields. The rainfall, about 18 inches annually, most of which 

 falls during the growing season, as a rule provides sufficient moisture for crops, 

 although Clark's Fork river and its tributaries provide an abundant water supply 

 for irrigating purposes. The area now under irrigation is being increased, and 

 excellent opportunities exist for capitalists to undertake large irrigation pro- 

 jects. To its fertile soil, Sanders county adds the advantages of a mild climate 

 and a low altitude, the elevation at Heron being only 2,256 feet. The mountains 

 surrounding the valleys afford protection; and because the springs come earlier 

 and the summers last longer than in other parts of the state, varieties of fruits 

 and vegetables thrive that do not succeed where conditions are different. 



The soil in the bottom lands is usually a fine, deep, sandy loam, while on the 

 bench lands a rich gravelly loam is found. Frequent yields per acre are from 2 

 to 4 tons of timothy, 4 to 5 tons of red clover and 3 to 6 of alfalfa; 40 to 50 

 bushels of wheat, 60 to 100 bushels of oats, 60 to 70 bushels of barley, 600 bushels 

 of potatoes, and vegetables and fruits in proportion. No finer strawberries are 

 grown anywhere, and they find a ready sale in the mining camps. The agricultural 

 products are sold in all the large cities of the state, but the principal market is in 

 the mining camps of the Coeur d'Alene country, lying immediately south, with 

 which there is a direct railroad connection by way of the Coeur d'Alene branch 

 of the Northern Pacific. 



Wheat, oats, barley, flax and hay are the principal crops and the yields per 

 acre are large. 



The fruit growing possibilities of numerous districts in this county are 

 almost limitless. Apples, peaches, pears, cherries, apricots and berries thrive in one 

 or more of them, and some of the best orchards in Montana are in the Plains 

 valley. 



The conditions of fruit growing are substantially similar to those in the 

 Bitter Root and Missoula valleys; the Northern Spy, the Baldwin, the Spitzenburg 

 apple grow to perfection; and no finer specimens of the famous Mcintosh Red 

 can be found anywhere than are produced in the Plains valley. All other kinds 

 of fruit grow in profusion in all the valleys of the county, and each succeeding 

 year sees new orchards started. Sanders county promises to become one of the 

 chief fruit producing counties of the northwest. , 



The county is well adapted to dairying and poultry raising, both of which bring 

 large and certain returns. 



The mountains, which cover about three fourths of the area of the county, are 

 covered with billions of feet of pine, fir, spruce, tamarack and cedar, and lumbering 

 has been a leading industry since the Northern Pacific railway was built through it 

 in 1883. There are many saw mills and the lumber companies pay out large sums for 

 wages. Much of the timbered land, when cleared, will make the finest kind 

 of farming land. 



Sanders county adjoins the famous Coeur d'Alene mineral district and has 

 a similar geological formation. Around Trout Creek and White Pine sufficient 

 work has been done to show the existence of rich deposits of lead, silver and 



