286 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



June 



age wheat and potato yields are 28 and 

 176 bushels per acre, respectively, or 

 more than double the average for the 

 United States. As a matter of fact, 

 many Montana farms run 40 and 50 

 bushels of wheat and 350 and 400 

 bushels of potatoes to the acre. 



When Senator Gibson first moved 

 into Montana agriculture was unheard 

 of, nor was it ever thought there could 

 be such a thing in that country. Last 

 year Cascade county in which he re- 

 sides, took the prize at the State Ag- 

 ricultural Fair with an exhibit which 

 might have won the prize if it had 

 been in competition with the entire 

 United States. The State Fair at 

 Helena last year contained one of the 

 most wonderful and varied exhibits 

 of grains, forage crops, vegetables, 

 and fruits which has been witnessed 

 in any State. 



The agricultural resources of Mon- 

 tana have hardly been prospected, and 

 the magnificent showing made at the 

 county and State expositions is but 

 an earnest of what is to follow. The 

 vast bench lands of the State aggre- 

 gate millions of acres, with soil of 

 inky blackness, the grjst of the moun- 

 tains, capable of producing great 

 crops. Irrigation carried on by pri- 

 vate enterprise has brought under a 

 high state of cultivation more than a 

 million acres. The 10,000 farmers in 

 the State who are artificially watering 

 their crops have invested nearly $6,- 

 000,00 in ditches traversing nearly 

 9,000 miles of desert. 



The National Government, working 

 under the provisions of the Reclama- 

 tion Act of June 17, 1902, has already 

 projected a plan of reclamation in the 

 State which, in the near future, prom- 

 ises to bring under intensive cultiva- 

 tion an area of desert almost equal 

 to the present irrigated acreage. 



MONTANA'S WATER SUPPLY. 



The great rivers of the Northwest 

 which make up the flow of the Mis- 

 souri and the Columbia come out of 

 the Rocky Mountains in this State, and 

 furnish a water supply sufficient for 

 an empire. The Government engi- 



neers are working on big irrigation 

 schemes on the Milk River, Yellow- 

 stone, the Sun, Marias, Madison, and 

 other streams, the completion of which 

 will add tens of millions of dollars 

 annually to the value of farm products 

 of the State. Four of these projects 

 are already decided upon, and will cost 

 between five and six million dollars. 



SUN RIVER PROJECT. 



One of the most promising of these 

 which Senator Gibson has been work- 

 ing to further, is on the Sun River, 

 an important tributary of the Mis- 

 souri, which empties into that river at 

 Great Falls. Flowing out of steep 

 canyons cut deeply into the main chain 

 of the Rockies, where grey granite and 

 white limestone pierce the clouds, and 

 eastward from the continental divide, 

 the Sun River rushes downward, a 

 crystal icy torrent, leaping over pre- 

 cipitous heights and surging through 

 narrow and impassable gorges, to join 

 the Missouri. 



Uncle Sam's engineers propose to 

 bridle and harness this wild stream 

 and make it do plebian duty on the 

 agricultural plains and valleys which it 

 crosses. Three hundred thousand 

 acres with fertile desert loam await 

 only the touch of the waters of 

 this stream to spring into green, 

 instinct with life and productiveness. 

 At one point in its course, where this 

 river cuts deep through the heart of 

 the mountains, it clashes through a 

 narrow gorge, a mere slit with walls 

 a thousand feet high and but four feet 

 apart at the bottom. Here it is pro- 

 posed to erect a diversion dam which 

 will be 125 feet high, 4 feet wide at 

 the base, and only 15 feet wide on 

 top. The water held in check by this 

 dam will be diverted through a tun- 

 nel 500 feet or more in length, piercing! 

 the hard limestone and connecting 

 with a distributory system which will 

 carry it out upon a compact of land 

 miles and miles in extent. 



A cow PUNCHER ENGINEER. 



The genius of this scheme is Samue 

 B. Robbins, a swarthy giant, engineei 



