30 



7 HE IRRIGATION AGE 



is being used as a part of the reservoir, to 

 which has been added as reservoir site 

 fully as much ground. The reservoir has 

 * contour or circumference of 43 miles and 

 <;overs 8,600 acres of land. For the reser- 

 voir a canal 23 feet wide and three feet 

 <deep is taken down upon and over lands 

 lying in the valley of Beaver creek and 

 lying east of the reservoir, for a distance 

 of about 12 miles. The canal commences 

 its work of irrigating within two miles of 

 the head gate and runs through the lands 

 which are to be irrigated from it the full 

 distance. 



The reservoir has a capacity of irrigat- 

 ing 26,250 acres of land, which acreage 

 can be increased if necessary to double 

 that amount by lowering the canal at its 

 intake. In perfecting the reservoir an 

 arth dam 4,900 feet long, four feet high, 

 10 feet in width at the top and 30 feet in 

 width at the bottom, was constructed last 

 fall across the outlet of this immense nat- 

 ural basin, and a ditch 20 feet wide and 

 three and a half feet deep was excavated 

 for a distance of 5,650 feet between the 

 large lake first mentioned and what is 

 knowQ as the lower lake, connecting the 

 two and allowing the water from the large 

 lake to be drawn down to the lower lake. 



The reservoir has within its confines two 

 islands, aside from a couple in the big 

 lake. One of these islands contains an 

 area of about 800 acres and the other of 

 about 100 acres. This reservoir is fed and 

 filled annually by the waters of Beaver 

 creek, which takes its source in the Little 

 Rocky mountains, and flows for a distance 

 of 100 miles before discharging into the 

 lake after draining an immense territory 

 of mountainous country and bench lands, 

 and after receiving the waters of a large 

 number of smaller streams. 



It is the intention of the promoters to 

 establish upon this irrigated land a large 

 bay and cattle ranch. The proximity of 

 the Great Northern station at Ashville 

 will enable them to ship hay at a small ex. 



pense to Great Falls and Butte, and the 

 summer range for stock cattle in that 

 neighborhood being very extensive they 

 will be enabled to carry a large band of 

 cattle on their lands and properly care for 

 them in winter. 



The lands subject to irrigation from this 

 canal are wonderfully productive and 

 within the next two or three years this 

 locality, which has for so many years been 

 merely a grazing land for roaming cattle, 

 will be one of the handsomest and most 

 productive fields in the state. 



GOVERNMENT TO CONTROL ALL 

 IRRIGATION IN INDIA. 



Lord Curzori has telegraphed to London 

 that the monsoon rains in India this sum- 

 mer are very unequally distributed, the 

 rice districts, which need large water sup- 

 plies for irrigation, being deficient in rain, 

 while excessive rains in the northern and 

 central regions have damaged the millet 

 crops. He does not intimate that as yet 

 there are serious prospects of another peri- 

 od of food scarcity. There is no other part 

 of the world where the distribution and 

 quality of the annual precipitation is 

 watched with such intense anxiety as in 

 India. Tn that overcrowded region the 

 land is so minutely subdivided that each 

 holding scarcely provided more than a 

 bare subsistence for one family. If the 

 vagaries of the monsoon rains deprive any 

 districts of the usual quantity of moisture 

 so that the crops are below the average 

 the direst poverty and sometimes the hor- 

 rors of famine ensue. 



For several years private and state irri- 

 gation works have been established in In- 

 dia and for the last few years they have 

 been augmented to such an extent, and 

 their work has been so profitable that there 

 is now a scheme on hand for the India 

 government to exercise direct control over 

 all of them, with the idea of increasing 

 their usefulness. A' commission will 

 shortly be appointed, to be presided over 



