PRAIRIE GEM RANCH, SMITHWICK'S.D, <> >>~ 
February 25,1949 J w% ys, . “wey 
GREETINGS: We have been snowbound. Now after d 
of our rolling terrain hold the white stuff, the upper Be fpee and the outloo 
is better. Warmth has been more effective than even the coon ths that rescue 
us, for the second time, just Monday of last week. The garde ong noll of 
snow, captured by the windbreak lilacs and pines at the west, up to touleht 
should give the plants a wonderful springtime. 


SM aciens the “aeprésdions, 




The great blizzard, beginning Jan. 2nd, brought novelty for a brief time, then no fun 
at all, activities being quickly reduced to the primitive and man power and endurance 
becoming saving resources in trying to care for ourselves and ninety head of cattle— 
Prairie Gem is, firstly, a cattle ranch. With about 5 percent loss in cattle and horses 
we feel we are still on top. 
It is incidental that a spring plant catalog, some weeks past due, has not been 
written. May we ask you to make up your order from the latest copy at hand? It 
will have our-appreciative attention. With reduced advertising ‘and a curtailed mailing 
dist we will be able to give the cattle extra care, repair the miles of fence slackened 
and broken by the drifts, and get your plants out at the preferred date. 
Thank you, and may the air be soft and the rain fall gently on your garden in ’49. 
CLAUDE A. BARR. 
