THE PLAINS DISTRICT 



27 



An Irrigated Potato Field 



There is more irrigated land in this region than in either the Pacific slope or 

 eastern plains regions. It is well adapted to general farming and stockraising. 

 Dairying is growing. 



The Gallatin valley in this district has long been one of the most famous 

 agricultural districts of the northwest. Wheat, oats, peas, barley and forage are 

 the leading crops and the livestock industry, in both range and pure-bred herds, is 

 well developed. The Judith Basin region of central Montana, whose topography 

 and other features natui-ally place it in the eastern slopes district, for many years 

 has been one of the leading non-irrigated farming sections of the state. In this 

 same district are included many fine lands along the Missouri river, from Great 

 Falls southward to the headwaters of the Gallatin, the Madison and the Jef- 

 ferson ; and along the Yellowstone where it flows from the Yellowstone Park, 

 eastward to Carbon county, where it receives the waters of the Clark's Fork. 

 Many other fertitle irrigated and non-irrigated sections of this district might be 

 enumerated — the Sun river, the Shield's river, the Smith river, the Prickly Pear 

 and the Clark's Fork valleys. 



The climate of the plains region, which comprises, roughly, the eatsern three- 

 fifths of Montana, is similar to that of the eastern slope of the mountains. 

 The extremes of temperatiu-e are more pronounced, both in 

 The Plains winter and summer, the growing season averages longer and 

 Region hotter, the snowfall is lighter and the climate drier on the 



whole. The growing season averages from 125 to 150 days. 

 While the annual rainfall is two and a half inches less than in the eastern slopes 

 region, the annual rainfall during the growing season is only one and two-tenths 

 inches less, and about seven-tenths of an inch less in May and June. 



Broadly speaking, this region, which mostly lies at an elevation under ."i.OOO 

 feet to less than 2,000 feet, has a broader crop range than the eastern slopes 

 region. It is well adapted to general farming and stockraising in which promi- 

 nence is given to crops that require a consistent heat, such as corn and beans, 

 rather than to crops which do better where the nights are relatively cooler than 

 the days. It will probalily always be an important wheat district. More than 

 half of the present production of wheat in Montana comes from the plains district 

 and as large areas of tillable Iniul now lying idle are brought into cultivation 



