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THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



proximately $1,000,000. Some 30,000 acres are re- 

 claimed by the project, divided into 633 farms, of 

 which two have been reserved from settlement for 

 "demonstration farms," which will be under the charge 

 of officers of the United States Experimental station 

 at Bozeman. Eight town sites, situated either on the 

 Northern Pacific or the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 

 railroads, have also been withdrawn from entry and no 

 farm in the project is more than three miles from a rail- 

 road station. The main canal is twenty-three and a 

 half miles in length according to present contract and 

 draws from the Yellowstone river at a point two miles 

 west of Huntley 400 cubic feet per second. There are 

 three tunnels, 600, 1,550 and 390 feet long respectively, 

 and the government-has installed a telephone line along 

 the main canal. The first charge for water will be in 

 1908, but it will be delivered free in 1907 in time 

 for fall plowing. 



The Editor of THE IRRIGATION AGE had 

 Big Horn occasion recently to visit the Big Horn 

 Basin. Basin in Wyoming, at which time an op- 



portunity was given him to look into some 

 of the work along irrigation lines under private control 

 in that rapidly .developing country. He visited the 

 new town of Worland, which has sprung into existence 

 during the past year, looked over the land of the Han- 

 over Canal Company, lying east of the Big Horn river, 

 and surrounding the town; he also saw the work of the 

 Big Horn Development Company on the west side of the 

 Big Horn River, and an illustrated article concerning 

 these various projects will appear in an early issue of 

 THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



The Big Horn Valley possesses a greater future, 

 perhaps, than any similar area in the entire west. Sur- 

 rounded by a high range of mountains, lying like a basin 

 with the mountains for a rim, it has an unequaled cli- 

 mate, and has long been known as a fine stock range 

 on account of its grasses and mild climate. 



The government is reclaiming many thousands of 

 acres of land near Cody, while what is known as the 

 Wiley Ditch will reclaim something like 200,000 acres 

 along the principal valleys in the basin. Capital is be- 

 ing attracted to this section, new towns are rapidly 

 springing up, and the Burlington Railway has built 

 within the past year from Frannie to Worland, and is 

 at present extending its line south through the basin, 

 the intention being to make a direct line between Den- 

 ver and Laural, a point on the Northern Pacific Rail- 

 way west of Billings, Mont. It may be readily deter- 

 mined what a great change a line like this will create 

 throughout a section which has heretofore been sev- 

 eral hundred miles from the nearest railway. The 

 Northwestern Railway is also building through Wyom- 

 ing, and it is stated that one of their objective points 

 is the Big Horn Basin, so there will be no lack of 



transportation when the lands now being reclaimed are 

 under a state of cultivation. 



Mr. Elwood Mead once stated that Wyoming is the 

 best watered state in arid America, and one can read- 

 ily verify this by a visit to the Big Horn Valley where 

 millions of dollars in value of water are going to waste. 

 It would be difficult to estimate the value of water 

 which pours down from the mountains forming the rim 

 of this basin and flows away unused to the sea. When 

 even a part of this water is saved and put out over 

 the land great results, in an agricultural way, are pos- 

 sible, and the men who are devoting their energies 

 to the development of the Big Horn Basin will stand 

 out prominently in the future as benefactors to their 

 race and particularly to the State of Wyoming. 



The Public Lands Congress which was 

 Public Land held in Denver recently, brought out many 

 Congress. strange features in connection with the 

 development of the West. It, in the first 

 place, emphasized the fact that the western people are 

 becoming alive to the possibility of a centralization of 

 power followed by such careful scrutiny of all attempts 

 of development in the West as to, in a way, seriously 

 retard the growth of that attractive field, and at the 

 same time create such a feeling that capital will hesi- 

 tate to reach in and aid in this work. 



Owing to an unusual amount of work, it was im- 

 possible for the editor of THE IRRIGATION AGE to at- 

 tend this congress, but the tone of the western press 

 would indicate that a very firm stand has been decided 

 upon by the strong men of that section against inter- 

 ference bv the heads of bureaus in Washington. One 

 good result of this meeting which may be looked for 

 is a clear exploitation of the fact that the President's 

 advisers are frequently in error and it is safe to say 

 that President Roosevelt, who, it is our impression, de- 

 sires to be fair, will reach out for suggestions from 

 prominent men of the West rather than take the word 

 of a few of the hired representatives of the Govern- 

 ment, who have been placing data before him, a good 

 part of which has resulted in creating a feeling which 

 made necessary a meeting of this character and a pub- 

 lic expression of disapproval. 



It has always been the impression of THE IRRIGA- 

 TION AGE that President Roosevelt would do much bet- 

 ter to accept statements and facts presented to him 

 from such men as Senator Heyburn of Idaho, Carter of 

 Montana, and other leading lights throughout the West, 

 than to base his actions on information furnished by 

 men whose acquaintance with the West and western 

 conditions is so limited as to make them incompetent 

 judges of the needs of that section. 



In studying the situation one is almost inclined 

 to believe that President Roosevelt is narrow in his 

 reasoning. Some of his recent moves, such as the segre- 



