Potato Field in Prickly Pear Valley. 



built the necessary structures. The acreage under this method is about 500,000. In 

 recent years this plan has been extended widely. The tendency in the state is 

 to place land, watered by other methods, under this plan and it is expected that 

 eventually all projects, including the projects of both the state and federal govern- 

 ment will be under the cooperative system. 



Smaller Enterprises. 



The commercial enterprises also furnish water for a large acreage. These are 

 the commercial companies of different kinds that have gone into the business of 

 furnishing a water supply and selling it to the irrigator. The commercial companies 

 are watering 80,895 acres. One of these companies is the Montana Reservoir and 

 Irrigation Company, which furnishes water for 9,500 acres in the Prickly Pear 

 Valley, near Helena. It uses 3680 horsepower to pump the water into the ditches 

 from Hauser Lake and has one of the largest high head pumping stations in the 

 country for purposes of irrigation. Other commercial projects of this kind are, 

 the Bitter Root Land and Irrigation Company of the Bitter Root valley and the Win- 

 nett Land and Investment Company of Fergus county. 



A smaller enterprise is the irrigation district method, which is a quasi- 

 municipal corporation. The acreage watered by this method is about 11,140. 



Federal Reclamation. 



The Federal Reclamation Act of 1902, was next to the Homestead laws, of 

 most importance to the development of Montana land. During the past sixteen 

 years this act, and the Carey Land Act instituted programs calling for the 



