Gallatin County Hihg School Bozeman, Montana Dear Red Cross Friends* I am writing you a letter on what our community and surrounding farms and towns are like. We live in the Gallatin Valley which is in the southern part of Montana. It is composed of rich farm land and forests. The farm land is very productive in wheat, With wheat you usually get between 55 or 65 bushels to the acre here. Logging and pulpwood cutting is another industry. We have large forests where selective cutting is done. We also fish for trout and when the season is right, we hunt for deer and elk. There is also a short season on game birds. We have a nice summer climate with tempature about 75 to 85 degree's F most of the time. In the winter it sometimes drops to 40 below zero. We also raise a commercial pea crop and at the pea ca¬nnery is where many of us high school boys work for wages. There are many ranchers and dairy men in the Gallatin Valley. Many of the ranchers raise Hereford cows. Skiing is one of the favorite sports in the winter. We have an excellent ski hill about seven miles from town. We have two ice skating rinks right in town. .Along with basketball and baseball it is my favorite sport. During the summer we often go mountain climbing. We have several peaks above 10 thousand feet high. Bozeman has about 12,000 people and the elevation is 4,793 feet. I will tell you a little about the farm where I live. Our farm is about two miles from town, on a good highway. We raise cattle, both beef and dairy. We also grow hay.. Our fifty-four acres are small compared to some of the ranchers that live near us. Faming is not my Dad's chief occupation; he is also a professer at the Montana State College. Much of our land is hill land and we have a little brush with a small creek running through it. In closing I might say I have spent many hours hunting and fishing here in Bozeman. Your friend John Buffhart