366 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



August 



GREAT AGRICULTURAL WEALTH. 



" The next ten years," said a prom- 

 inent official of the Government Recla- 

 mation Service, in speaking of the great 

 present and coming development of the 

 far northwest, "will see Montana lead 

 all the Western States in the area of her 

 irrigated land. Its agricultural future 

 is assured and brilliant. It has the land 

 and it has the water all that are needed 

 in the arid region to produce fabulous 

 wealth." 



out of their mountain fastnesses the 

 Absaroka, the Snowy, the Big Horn, 

 and the Wind River ranges where, at 

 elevations of eight and ten and eleven 

 thousand feet, the snows are perpetual, 

 melting under the summer suns and 

 furnishing a constant water supply, 

 especially in the late summer, when it 

 is most needed for irrigation. 



Much has already been accomplished 

 by cooperative effort in irrigation among 

 farmers. The irrigated area, according 

 to the census figures, has increased 



A FRUIT FARM IN THE BITTER ROOT VAI^EY, MONTANA ; THE RESUI/T OF IRRIGATION. 



Montana has an area equal to that of 

 France. It has often been stated by 

 various authorities, with all its great 

 water supply conserved and made to 

 irrigate its rich lands, within its bound- 

 aries there will be room for as dense a 

 population as that of France. 



Over three-fifths of this great state is 

 drained by the Missouri Rive-r and its 

 tributaries, the Yellowstone, the Jeffer- 

 son, Milk River, and other branches. 

 Strong rivers these are, rushing down 



during the past two years at the rate 

 of about 100,000 acres a year, and now 

 aggregates 1,140,000 acres. This has 

 been accomplished by the cooperation 

 of small communities, and some of the 

 most successful examples are seen at 

 such places as Hinsdale and Chinook, 

 in the Great Milk River Valley, where 

 farmers have combined, taking up land 

 under the five-year homestead law and 

 constructing their own irrigation works, 

 thus owning the land and the water 



