14 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



immigrants begins. As the natural center for all of 

 this great undeveloped section, Billings is emerging, 

 from its frontier clothes and putting on the airs and 

 habiliments of a city. New industries are being ex- 

 ploited. A million-dollar beet sugar factory has been 

 successfully financed. It means that nearly a million 

 dollars a year will be distributed among the farmers 

 of the reservation and the valley. A "thousand-cow" 



what is known as the old ditch company. This ditch 

 was subsequently sold to the farmers under it and at 

 the present time supplies water for 120,000 acres of 

 land. 



Mr. King first broke four acres, which were plant- 

 ed to potatoes, corn and other garden truck. The first 

 crop was entirely destroyed by grasshoppers. The fol- 

 lowing year he was more successful and saved his crop 



Another Montana Scene. 



creamery is also in successful operation. An indus- 

 trial era is under way that will make this the center of 

 one of the great agricultural and manufacturing sec- 

 tions of the West. 



We are presenting in this issue an illustration 

 showing the home of Mr. Charles King, a prosperous 

 rancher in the Yellowstone Valley near Billings; Mr. 



as well as breaking twenty acres additional, which 

 were sowed to barley and oats. With additional irri- 

 gation he forced the native grass so as to produce fod- 

 der for his team and slowly added to his cultivated 

 tract until 1888, when he cut and baled 120 tons of 

 hay, which was sold at an average of $17 per ton, this 

 unusually high price being the result of a failure of 



Threshing Oats on Ranch oi W. W. Clark. Huntley Flats, near Billings. 

 Six months ago this land was a desert covered with sage brush. 



King settled in thai section in 1881, choosing a quar- 

 ter section of government land eighteen miles west of 

 that city. Mr. King had no money when he reached 

 Billings and worked by the day for a time, purchasing 

 4 team on credit. He secured water for the land from 



Scene at Ranch of Charles King, Laurel (near Billings) Montana. 



the Utah hay crop. Later on, owing to the fact that 

 the price of hay was going down, he plowed under his 

 meadow and sowed the land to oats and subsequently, 

 in 1901, had the good fortune to raise the champion 

 crop of oats. One particular acre, especially meas- 

 ured, raised 150 bushels, while the whole field averaged 

 100 bushels to the acre. Mr. King realized $40 net for 



