1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



229 



ooo acres, near Billings, Mont. This 

 company is now placing its lands upon 

 the market. The construction of a 

 large sugar beet factory is now as- 

 sured and a large irrigated area has 

 been proven to be splendidly adapted 

 to the growing of sugar beets. 



On the table lands immediately east 

 of Spokane several canals have been 

 and are now being constructed, utiliz- 

 ing the numerous lakes in that district 

 for storage purposes. Under these 



States Department of Agriculture and 

 the State Experiment Station of Mon- 

 tana for conducting a number of ex- 

 periments in dry-land farming this 

 year in eastern Montana. These ex- 

 periments will be started within a 

 short time, and it is confidently ex- 

 pected that the results will show that 

 millions of acres of Montana lands 

 heretofore assumed to be valuable for 

 grazing only, are adapted to agricul- 

 ture. This is predicated upon the fact 



Grand Canyon, North Platte River, Looking Downstream 

 at Site of Proposed Dam, Pathfinder Reservoir, Wyoming. 



canals irrigated lands can be pur- 

 chased at very reasonable terms. 



There is still a large area of irri- 

 gated land under the constructed ca- 

 nals in the famous Yakima Valley in 

 Washington. An extension of the 

 Sunnyside canal, now one of the larg- 

 est in the United States, is contem- 

 plated this year. This will water 200,- 

 ooo acres additional. 



The Northern Pacific Railway has 

 made arrangements with the I "uited 



that the minimum rainfall in eastern 

 Montana is about fourteen inches, that 

 the soil is generally good, and that 

 this method of farming is being pro- 

 ritnblv conducted in eastern \Yashing- 

 ton. California, western Kansas, Ne- 

 braska and Colorado in districts where 

 the annual rainfall is from nine to ten 

 inches. It is also known that in that 

 portion of Xorth Dakota west of the 

 Missouri River where the rainfall is 

 from fourteen to sixteen inches the 



