Excerpt from Flour and Wheat in the Montana Gold Camps, 1862-1870: A Chapter in Pioneer Experiences and a Brief Discussion of the Economy of Montana in the Mining Days To save the starving Flatheads from this life Father De Smet in 1842 brought seed wheat to St. Mary's and taught the natives to plant and harvest it. Major Ronan, an old Indian agent, tells the story. The following spring, 1842, the fathers sowed the first grain brought to the Bitter Root valley by Father De Smet from Fort Col ville, and planted some potatoes. The first year's crop of both yielded rich, to the great enjoyment and delight of the Indians, who learned for the first time how to till the soil and force it to yield a manifold crop. (4) The Indians now had wheat of their own but no mill in which to grind it. They boiled and served it in various unpalatable ways. Having trouble in obtaining sacra mental bread and wishing to help the Indians Father Ravalli in 1845 got a pair of millstones from Belgium and set up a mill at St. Mary's. The Indians by increasing their wheat cr0p became less dependent on game and their lives became less precarious. (5) About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.