308 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 





MONTANA'S HOPE IS IRRIGATION. 



United States Senator Thomas H. Carter Talks About His 

 State and Its Prospects. 



Throughout the entire Northwest, as well as in 

 the country at large, few men are better known than is 

 Senator Thomas H. Carter, of Helena, Mont. His 

 services as United States senator have done much for 

 Montana, for his knowledge of conditions there was 

 gained after years of closest observations. As com- 

 missioner of the general land office his experience and 

 knowledge for a number of years identified him with 

 public land matters upon which can be based an intel- 

 ligent estimate of the situation in this State. In speak- 

 ing of conditions in Montana, Senator Carter said : 



"It appears to me that conditions here could not be 

 better, in a general sense. Our copper production leads 



occurs that the bottom lands contiguous to small streams 

 were taken up by settlers and these embrace the mil- 

 lion acres now tributary to the ditches. 



"The second bench lands, requiring large canals, ex- 

 pensive head gates and dams on the streams beyond reach 

 of individual capital, remain unreclaimed, and the recent 

 movement by the Government for the reclamation of its 

 lands in this arid region contemplates the construction 

 of the large dams, canals and reservoirs necessary to re- 

 claim these high benches. The Government now has 

 three large projects in course of development within this 

 State. The first embraces that vast empire known as the 

 Milk River district, along the northern boundary of the 

 State. Through this valley the Great Northern Railway 

 extends for about 400 miles. The two remaining 

 projects are in the Yellowstone Valley, along the line 

 of the Northern Pacific Railway. The project east of 

 Billings is intended to reclaim about 60,000 acres of 



Fig. 10. Wheel on Yakima River, Washington. 



the world, for we produce from $50,000,000 to $60,000,- 

 000 worth of copper a year. Our gold production is 

 $5,000,000 and our silver output amounts to twenty 

 million ounces annually. The lumber interest of the 

 western part of the State supplies our mines and leaves 

 us a supply to ship to Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, the two 

 Dakotas, Wisconsin and Minnesota. I can not state 

 the exact value of the lumber output, but it is of large 

 proportions. The State has about 7,000,000 head of 

 sheep and 500,000 head of cattle. It has an area of 

 146,000 square miles, being the third State in its area. 

 Of this vast amount of land about 10,000,000 acres can 

 be placed under irrigation, leaving 84,000,000 acres of 

 free range land. 



MILLION ACRES UNDER IRRIGATION. 



"There are at the present time about 1,000,000 acres 

 of land, in different sections of the State, watered by 

 artificial irrigation. Individual settlers have located 

 upon lands where the water from the streams can be 

 diverted and made available by individual effort ; thus, it 



land recently ceded by the Crow Indians to the United 

 States. This body of land of unsurpassed fertility slopes 

 gently from the foothills in a northerly direction to 

 the Yellowstone River, from a point a short distance 

 east of Billings to the town of Porsyth, the county seat 

 of Rosebud County. The second project in the Yellow- 

 stone Valley will reclaim about the same amount of land 

 between Glendive, on the Yellowstone River, and Fort 

 Buford on the Missouri River. 



PROFIT ON ALFALFA IS $20 AN ACRE. 



"Under the proposed Government canals, the soil is 

 free and consists of an alluvial deposit ranging from 

 five to forty feet in depth. The fertility of this soil 

 as demonstrated by the small part reclaimed, surpasses 

 belief. The alfalfa hay yield is three crops a year, with 

 an average of one and one-half tons an acre moderately 

 estimated, at each cutting. In many localities the pro- 

 duction is from six to eight tons, and I believe that 

 possibly the average yield would reach five tons per 

 acre. In the fall this hay in the stack brings $5.00 a 



