58 MONTANA: INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES 



test were made on roughage alone on irrigated lands at Huntley, and one cow's 

 production was larger when fed roughage alone at Huntley than it was at the 

 government farm in Maryland when she was fed roughage and grain. The use of 

 irrigated pastures is stimulating dairying. Around Billings there is considerable 

 truck gardening. Near Huntley in 1J)22 one farmer grew white hurley tobacco ex- 

 perimentally. It produced at the rate of 2,500 pounds to the acre. The tobacco 

 was five feet tall and the leaves 17 inches across. Yellowstone is one of the lead- 

 ing counties in honey production. Because diversified farming has been further 

 developed in this district than in most other parts of the state, the irrigated farms 

 will average smaller in size, there being many 40, GO and 80 acre units. Bulletin 

 No. 144 of the Agricultui-al Experiment Station at Bozeman gives a survey of 

 farming in the irrigated district around Billings. 



Coal, brick clay and sandstone are the principal minerals. The Bull Mountain 

 coal field, which extends into Yellowstone from jNIusselshell county, is one of the 

 largest undeveloped fields in the state, according to the United States Geological 

 Survey. 



Rail facilities are excellent and they have made Billings one of the most im- 

 portant jobbing and distributing centers in the state. The main line of the 

 Northern Pacific, east and west, passes through the county. 

 Billings Serves One line of the Burlington from Alliance, Nebraska, and Sheri- 

 Blg Territory dan, Wyoming, and another from Denver, Cheyenne and Cody, 

 both have their northern terminus at Billings. The Billings- 

 Great Falls-Shelby line of the Great Northern, comes in from the northwest, and 

 is used by Burlington trains to the coast, as is also the Northern Pacific. Twenty 

 passenger trains pass through Billings daily, of which ten are through trains, four 

 are locals and six are branch lines. The most Important branch lines are those 

 of the Northern Pacific tapping the coal mining and agricultural districts of 

 Carbon county, and the agricultural district in the Lake Basin region of Yellow- 

 stone and Stillwater counties. The interchange of traffic between the three 

 railroads entering Billings totals 50,000.000 tons a year. 



The sixth largest sugar beet plant in the world is located at Billings. It 

 also has flour mills, a meat packing plant, creameries, a pickle factory, brick 

 yards, seed houses, wood and metal working establishments, and many other in- 

 dustries. It is the most important point in the state for the distribution of farm 

 machinery and is also one of the principal jobbing centers, not only serving a 

 large territory in Montana, but much of northern "Wyoming. While there are no 

 commercial oil wells in the county, many of the larger companies maintain head- 

 quarters at Billings, from which the Montana and Wyoming fields are easily 

 reached. 



Billings is a well built, thoroughly modern city, as attractive in a residential 

 way as its location has made it important in a business way. It is supplied with 

 natural gas from the Elk Basin field, 72 miles to the south. The Billings 

 Polytechnic Institute, an institution of higher learning, draws students from a wide 

 area. Laurel, west of Billings, is an important railroad town, and the trade center 

 of a well developed agricultural district. Huntley is the chief town on the gov- 

 ernment reclamation project. Broadview, on the Great Northern, is a shipping 

 point for the non-irrigated district in the northwestern part of the county. 

 There are many smaller communities. 



Billings is the gateway from the main lines of travel to the Beartooth region 

 of Carbon county, noted for its scenery, hunting and fishing. The main east and 

 west highways intersect at Billings with the Custer Battlefield highway. 



YELLOWSTONE COUNTY — Ranks tliird in population (29,600); twenty-second in 

 area (1,733,120 aci-es) ; eighth in combined 1922 crop and livestock value: fourth in bank 

 depo.sits, 1922: tliird in assessed valuation, 1922. Acres public land, 4,082; acres state 

 land, 68,653; acres Indian reservations (most of it allotted), 225,920. 



