According to the report of the State Auditor for 1888 there were in that year 143,700 horses and mules valued at $4,900,000; 488,500 cattle valued at $9,060,000; 1,153,000 sheep valued at $2,165,000; 3,741,000 acres of improved lands, valued inclusive of improvements at $12,300,000; 55,000 town lots valued with improvements at $14,940,000; and including all kinds of personal and real property a total assessment for the State of $67,500,000.
There were raised in the State during the same year 770,000 bushels of wheat on 26,000 acres, an average yield of about 30 bushels per acre; 3,000,000 bushels of oats on 85,000 acres, an average yield of over 35 bushels per acre; 843,000 bushels of potatoes on 3700 acres, or 230 bushels per acre; and 6,000,000 lbs. of all other vegetables on 450 acres; 235,000 tons of hay were cut, and 7,500 bushels of apples and other fruits were raised, while 4,500,000 lbs. of wool were sheared.
The gross receipt of the quartz mills were $20,300,000, the value of the product of the reduction furnaces was $15,900,000 in bullion, and the coal mines produced 500,000 bushels of coal.
The wool product for the present year, 1889, exceeded in amount that of any other State west of the Missouri River, and its quality was such that it brought a higher price per pound than that of any other western State, the price paid in California ranging from 15 to 17 cents per pound against 20 to 23 cents paid in Montana.
The accompanying table will show the relative value of the production of precious metals in the three leading States during 1887, from which it will be seen that Montana led Colorado by $4,200,000, and California by $15,580,000.
| 1887. | Montana. | Colorado. | California. |
| Silver | $15,500,000 | $15,000,000 | $1,500,000 |
| Gold | 5,230,000 | 4,000,000 | 13,000,000 |
| Copper | 8,970,000 | 400,000 | 180,000 |
| Lead | 630,000 | 6,730,000 | 70,000 |
| Totals | $30,330,000 | $26,130,000 | $14,750,000 |
Since 1887 Montana has been rapidly gaining in its lead, especially in the production of copper, and it now leads not only in the total value of the precious metals produced, but also in the values of the silver and copper products separately, and is only surpassed by California in the production of gold.
While as shown above Montana produces large quantities of vegetables and grain, its heavy mining population and vast herds of live stock furnish a home market for all of its present product, in fact, during this year many hundreds of tons of hay and carloads of grain are being imported from the eastern States to feed the range stock during the coming winter.
TOPOGRAPHY.
The topography of Montana is very different from what is generally supposed by those who are not familiar with it, and this erroneous impression is largely due to the fact that the country is very mountainous in the older inhabited and better known portion of the State, which lies in its southern corner near the Idaho and Wyoming lines; this region was first inhabited by those pioneers of western civilization, the prospector and miner, and in consequence of this and of the wild grandeur of the Yellowstone National Park, the generally preconceived notions of the topography and resources of the State are of forests and streams teeming with game and fish, and rugged mountains occupied by a few isolated mining camps and cattle ranches.