INFORMATION FOR EMIGRANTS. J 



means of protection against the clima-te, which is very severe. There 

 are heavy snows and heavy winds, and it is very cold. The country 

 west of the Missouri to the Yellowstone is much better in every respect, 

 more arable land, more timber, more drinkable water, and I found in 

 my trip across the country large deposits of coal or lignite, still I would 

 not recommend it as a good country to settle in, and large portions of 

 it never can be inhabited, not even by Indians. — Written from Fort Van- 

 couver, June 1 8, 1874. 



The following are short extracts taken promiscuously from letters 

 quoted by Gen. S. Hazen : 



It is a monstrous fraud and a great wrong for interested parties to 

 induce immigration to this territory, under the plea that it is a good 

 farming country. A residence of nearly nine years in Montana and 

 Dakota has afforded me some knowledge of the agricultural resources 

 of these Territories; and I fearlessly assert that, without irrigation, suc- 

 cessful farming is an impossibility; nor can irrigation be 



successfully employed, except in a few places in Montana, and not at 

 all in Dak'ota. 



Mr, Meeker, founder of the Greeley Colony, writes : 



Agriculture without irrigation, in the countries lying between the one 

 hundredth meridian and the Rocky M ountains, is an impossibility. . . 

 In Dakota, stock must be kept during the winter, and very frequently 

 the hay is of so inferior quality that stock fed on it alone can hardly 

 live throughout the long- severe winters, even when well housed and 

 sheltered. 



Gen. Hazen continues : 



It is of vast importance that the true character of this country be 

 made known. Every wet season, like the last two, brings great numbers 

 of immigrants west of the productive line, who finally have to return 

 with great loss and discouragement, as has been seen in Kansas during 

 the present season Professor Blodgett says, as does all tra- 

 dition, that this Upper Missouri country is too dry for agriculture. 

 Experience, in the majority of cases, still confirms it; meteorological 

 measurements confirm it ; correspondents with the Black Hills' expedi- 

 tion confirm it; and the boundary commission confirms it In 



this region there are many years of famine, and none of plenty; so 

 that provision for the future can never be made. Among the evils which 

 visit it, is that of the plague of insects. Even to-day, as these words 

 are written, there are many thousands of men, women, and children 

 suffering from drouth and the devouring locusts. In their great poverty 

 they ask the people of the productive States to send them help.. 



Maj. W. J. Twining, Chief Astronomer and Surveyor of the North- 

 ern Boundary Survey, writes:* 



* Survey of the Northern Boundary, published by the Department of State, Washing- 

 ton, 1878, page 49. 



