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34 



M O N T A N A - 1 9 1 6 



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Growing Sweet Peas for Seed. 



cultivating the soil at a certain time and in a certain way. Under this method win- 

 ter and spring wheat, winter and spring rye, speltz, barley, flax, oats and peas can be 

 very profitably grown without the hazard of failure even in a dry year, providing 

 they have been planted in season and in properly prepared land. In all parts of 

 Montana potatoes are especially prolific, and beans are a success below the middle 

 line of the state. In the eastern part of the state corn is rapidly coming into favor as 

 a profitable and certain crop. 



The climate of Montana, though comparatively dry in many parts, is temperate 

 and because of the comparative coolness of the nights in the harvest season is ex- 

 tremely favorable to the production of large yields of grain. This, more than any- 

 thing else, has given Montana first place in the Union for large grain yields. 



Intensive farming in Montana is to a large extent carried on on irrigated 

 lands, and in the matter of furnishing water for the supplying of moisture to growing 

 crops. Nature has again been bountiful to this state. Of the more than 35,000,000 

 acres of land, which will ultimately be cultivated in Montana, it has been conserva- 

 tively estimated that upwards of 6,000,000 will some day be irrigated. 



Already the federal government, through the reclamation service, has spent many 

 millions of dollars on irrigation projects in this state, and this work is still under 

 way. The last congress appropriated several millions of dollars for reclamation work 

 in Montana during the present year, and the reclamation service is now engaged in 

 completing some of the largest irrigation enterprises ever undertaken on the con- 

 tinent. 



The national reclamation act was one of the most important pieces of legislation 

 to the agricultural development of Montana since the passage of the homestead law, 

 and this act is now being utilized by the building of great irrigation projects in 



