THE IRRIGATION PROBLEMS AND 



POSSIBILITIES OF NORTHERN 



WYOMING. 



SOME OF THE AGRICULTURAL PROBLEMS AND 

 POSSIBILITIES OF NORTHERN WYOMING- 

 IMPRESSIONS OF A CAMPING TRIP. 



BY PROF. ELWOOD MEAD. 



(Concluded.) 

 IRRIGATION ALONG THE GREY BULL RIVER. 



After crossing the Big Horn river we passed through fifteen 

 miles of a section that is doomed to perpetual aridity before we 

 reached the Grey Bull river which it was our purpose to ascend. We 

 spent an entire week in this valley in part because there was much to 

 study and in part because the hospitality of the settlers made our 

 stay exceedingly pleasant. 



The progress of irrigation in this valley has a special interest 

 because it affords an answer" to a question often asked whether or 

 not farming can be made a success in sections of the state remote 

 from railways and where there is no local market for farm products. 

 It is a hundred miles to a railroad station from the nearest point in 

 this valley and a mountain range has to be crossed to reach it. The 

 growing of farm products for shipment outside cannot, therefore, be 

 conducted with profit and the prediction has been made every year 

 since settlement began that it would only require another season or 

 two until the surplus would become so great that farm products would 

 have no value. Thus far these forbodings have not been realized as- 

 the demand has continued to grow more rapidly than the supply and 

 the price of oats along this river has averaged higher than in 

 Chicago. 



From the mouth of the river to the head of the highest ditch is 

 86 miles and it is 14 miles farther to the end of irrigation on Wood 

 river, the principal tributary. The irrigable lands are confined to the 

 valleys of the stream which are bordered on both sides by high and 

 broken bad land ridges across which it is impossible to build ditches 

 and whose surface is too broken to permit of the distribution of water. 

 Wherever these ridges approach the stream the extent of irrigation is 

 restricted and where they recede it is increased, but. the bottoms 

 which can be watered are continuous, varving in width from a few 



