SOUTH EASTERN MONTANA 49 



Spring wheat, corn, rye and flax are tlie principal crops in the non-irrigated 

 districts, and hay, corn, oats and wheat in the irrigated districts. Corn has done 

 well on both the irrigated and non-irrigated farms. Besides stimulating the 

 swine industry it is directing attention to the po.ssibilities of fattening sheep 

 and cattle, thus expanding the winter feeding operations which have been exten- 

 sively carried on in the alfalfa districts of the Yellowstone valley. Diversification 

 in other lines is taking place. Considerable alfalfa seed is raised along creek 

 bottoms in some of the non-irrigated districts. The throwing of watermelons 

 which reach the market when there is little competition from otlier regions is 

 another development in the non-irrigated districts. In 1923 a small acreage was 

 contracted in the irrigated districts for watermelon and cucumber seed, 25,000 

 pounds of which were exported to Holland and France. Northern-grown melon 

 seed is reported to be in good demand in the states to the south. 



The opportunity presented in Rosebud county for strip mining coal will re- 

 sult in the establishment of a new industry. According to the report of the 

 Northern Pacific to the Interstate Commerce Commission, geoh)- 

 Large Coal gists examined 940 square miles of land in Rosebud county and 

 Measures reported the existence of 11,550,000,000 tons of coal, with indi- 



cations that the coal extended southward over a much greater 

 area. The report stated the Northern Pacific coal mining operations would cover 

 an area of 15 square miles and it was expected to produce an output of 1,400,000 

 tons of coal a year, to be used on its system between Maudan and Missoula. While 

 the coal is of lower grade than that now used, it can be mined for 65 cents a 

 ton, and test runs indicate it to be a satisfactory locomotive fuel. Soapstone and 

 brick clay are also found in the coiuity. Drilling has been done for oil on the 

 Porcupine Dome, one of the largest potential oil domes in the state, which starts 

 foiu- miles north of Yananda. 



The main lines of the Northern Pacific and of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. 

 Paul Railway traverse the county through the Yellowstone valley, the ^Milwaukee 

 swinging through the northwestern quarter. The Northern Pacific branch to 

 the new coal mines follows Armells Creelis south from the Y'ellowstone. 



Forsyth, near the geographical center, is the county seat and the largest 

 town. It has all modern municipal improvements. Rosebud, in the eastern 

 half of the county, is the second largest community and in the center of a good 

 agricultural district. Vananda, Ingomar and Sumatra, on the Milwaukee, are 

 shipping points. There is a shearing plant at Ingomar with a capacity of 6.000 

 sheep daily. Vananda serves an extensive corn district. 



Rosebud county lies in the heart of the old buffalo and Indian I'egion. It is 

 reported that 75,000 buffalo were killed in this part of the Yellowstone valley in 

 1881. The council of war held June 21, 1876, by Generals Custer, Terry and 

 Gilibons on the steamer Far "West at the confluence of the Yellowstone and the 

 Rosebud, in what is now this county, broke the Indian power in the northwest. 

 The following day Custer's command rode to its death up the Rosebud. General 

 Miles fought the Indians at Lame Deer, and on the Rosebud occurred the fight 

 with Crazy Hor.se. The Tongue River trail, first used by Indians and fur traders 

 and then by soldiers, became a memory with the passing of the southern trail 

 herds. 



ROSEBUD COUNTY — Ranks twenty-fifth in population (8,002); sixtli in area 

 (3,195,520 acres); nineteenth in combined 1922 crop and livestoclv value; twenty-third 

 in bank deposits, 1922; fourteenth in assessed valuation, 1922. Acres public land, 

 129,292: acres state land, 167,224; acres national forests, 96,759; acres Indian reserva- 

 tions (all unallotted), 232,243. 



WEALTH PRODUCTION — Estimated 1922 crop value, $1,431,300; estimated live- 

 stock value, January, 1923. .$2,340,000; 1921 lumber cut, 444 M feet; total bank deposits, 

 September 15, 1922. $1,426,988. 



