270 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



to many grevious inconveniences which could be over- 

 come by augmenting his "pile" before leaving tne east. 

 There could not, by any possibility, be a better invest- 

 ment than an expenditure of $1,000 in the upbuilding 

 of a home tinder this project. Success is assured 

 wherever the individual settler is industrious and thrifty. 



The land embraced within the irrigated territory of 

 the Belle Fourche project is mainly what is known as 

 gumbo, of a fertile character. Along the river bottoms 

 soil is quite light and sometimes fairly sandy. Again 

 it is a heavy clay loam, lightened somewhat by the 

 slicken and silt deposits of the river during overflow 

 time. The river bottom land is exceedingly rich, but 

 has the disadvantage of being difficult to drain and the 

 farmer who does not clearly understand the application 

 of water to the soil is likely to over-irrigate. There 

 seems to be no diffi- 

 culty at all, so far as 

 the writer has been 

 able to determine, in 

 the matter of alkali. 

 There is possibly a 

 trace but there is 

 nothing to indicate 

 that settlers have 

 anything to fear from 

 that source. 



There is no doubt 

 in the mind of the 

 writer that land and 

 water which may be 

 secured now under 

 the Belle Fourche 

 project at $30 per 

 acre, or a little in ex- 

 cess of that, will 

 easily command $100 

 per acre at the end 

 of five years, and if 

 put out in fruit and 

 other good paying 

 crops it is likely to 

 exceed that sum. 



I noticed on the 

 way from Belle 

 Fourche to Vale a 

 farm owned by a Mr. 

 H. M. Stearns. This 

 is a beautifully situ- 

 ated farm and has 



been worked by Mr. Stearns for many years, 

 acreage is three hundred and twenty. 



He has on the home place an artesian well which 

 has force enough to operate a motor, which in turn sup- 

 plies power for a dynamo, and from that he is able to 

 light all of his barns and sheep pens as well as his 

 home with electricity. It is somewhat surprising to go 

 into a long line of barns and pens for sheep and find 

 them nicely wired and lighted by electricity. Mr. 

 Stearns has recently sunk another artesian well on his 

 land which has a flow sufficient, with proper care, to 

 irrigate one hundred and sixty acres of land. This is 

 an unusually strong flow, and his experience in the art 

 of sinking artesian wells has demonstrated to the 

 other property owners in the valley near Snoma the 

 possibility of securing a steady flow of water which 

 has sufficient force to produce power for lighting their 



No. 1. 

 No. 2. 

 No. 3. 



property. Mrs. Steams informed me that her washing 

 machine and other household machinery were operated 

 by electricity, thereby saving much time and labor. We 

 are presenting to our readers an illustration of an 

 apiary located in the orchard near the Stearns home. 

 This is a thriving colony as may be seen from the pho- 

 tograph and is a large money producer. The bees make 

 great quantities of honey from the blossoms of the 

 alfalfa, of which there are hundreds of acres in that 

 vicinity. In fact, alfalfa seems to do remarkably well 

 in the Belle Fourche country. 



Other farmers throughout the Belle Fourche dis- 

 trict are going in for fruit, and those who have gone 

 about it intelligently and have taken care of their 

 orchards have been very successful along that line. 

 Their ready market which has been mentioned in the 



preceding pages, with 

 high prices for fresh 

 and e a rl y fruit, 

 makes this class of 

 farming particularly 

 profitable. 



In our illustrations 

 of the large earthen 

 dam it will be seen 

 that this work is 

 about one-half com- 

 pleted, and it is dif- 

 ficult at that stage of 

 the operations to se- 

 cure a photograph 

 which is comprehen- 

 sive and clear enough 

 to fully define the 

 outlines and finished 

 appearance of the 

 work. A few months 

 later we hope to se- 

 cure photographs of 

 the completed dam, 

 and they will be re- 

 produced in the col- 

 umns of THE IRRIGA- 

 TION AGE for the 

 benefit of our read- 

 ers who are interest- 

 ed in this particular 

 project. 



We are showing in 

 this issue a photo- 

 graph of the screening apparatus and crusher which 

 produces the material used in the construction of the 

 siphon at the Siphon Camp in the Belle Fourche project. 

 The engineers were particularly fortunate in locating a 

 deep pit of gravel near this camp and by the purchase 

 and construction of the apparatus illustrated have 

 saved large sums in the cost of construction of this 

 part of the work. In fact, it would appear that splen- 

 did judgment has been exercised in developing such 

 equipment whereby money is saved and work facili- 

 tated. 



In reply to an inquiry made of Mr. Walter, engineer 

 in charge, concerning the matter of crops, etc., and 

 other information which would be valuable to prospec- 

 tive colonists, he furnishes us the following replies : 



"The crops that can be profitably grown are all 

 kinds of grain, potatoes, sugar beets, alfalfa, hardy fruits 



View of east portal of the tunnel ready 'for concrete lining. 

 View showing forms in place for lining big tunnel with concrete. 

 Interior of 10x9^-foot tunnel, 1,310 feet long. Driven for $1.60 per cubic 

 yard, or $8.00 per foot. 



His total 





