1068 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



CORRESPONDENCE 



INFORMATION WANTED ABOUT FISH SCREENS. 



THE IRRIGATION ACE, Chicago, 111. 



I received your notice of the 25th reference to my 

 subscription. I will inclose $2.00 to apply on old and re- 

 newal for 1912. I would like to know of any device used 

 to keep fish out of irrigating ditches and canals, and if it 

 is compulsory for the ditch company to keep them out. 

 The fish commissioner for this state claims we have to 

 keep them out by having a ^-inch mesh screen in the 

 ditch or canal, and they have approved of a fish screen, 

 and are recommending it to all ditch and canal owners; 

 the cost is outrageous, $75.00; freight and installation will 

 exceed $25.00, so we are up against a hundred-dollar deal 

 that has never been tried out and the life of it is guess- 

 work. If you know of any devices working in other dis- 

 tricts that are satisfactory and reasonable, you would 

 confer a favor to irrigationists by letting us know about 

 it. Your paper is better than ever, and as irrigation is 

 growing so fast in the western states, the more use there 

 is for facts about this great work. Reliable information 

 is what we want and are willing to pay for. There are 

 about 50 irrigating ditches and canals in the Methow Val- 

 ley. If they don't get THE IRRIGATION AGE let me know, 

 and I will send you their addresses. Very respectfully 

 yours, WM. A. SEXSMITH. 



[Can some one of our readers give Mr. Sexsmith the 

 desired information? It would seem that $100 is a high 

 price to pay for fish screens. EDITOR.] 



ENCOURAGING REPORTS FROM MONTANA. 



LOGAN, MONTANA. August 10, 1911. 

 Mr. D. H. Anderson, 



Care THE IRRIGATION AGE, 

 Chicago, Illinois. 



In answer to your inquiry as to the crop conditions in 

 the state of Montana, we are very glad to give you the 

 following information: Practically all of our small grain 

 crops have been harvested, and so far the returns have 

 been far beyond the expectation of the farmers. Many of 

 our crops upon dry land are making as high as fifty bush- 

 els of hard wheat to the acre, and due to the shortage of 

 wheat throughout the country, the price has gone higher 

 than we figured it would go. We are now getting eighty- 

 five cents per bushel f. o. b. cars along the railroad points 

 in this county. 



We have had all the rainfall that has been required, 

 and the only exception to successful crops are due entirely 

 to the poor farming and poor judgment of the farmer. 

 In every instance where the farming has been properly 

 carried on, the wheat makes fully forty to fifty bushels to 

 the acre. Oats would easily make an average of seventy 

 bushels, and the hay is beyond any one's belief, making 

 from four to five tons to the acre, with the clover ant! 

 alfalfa crops the largest we have known for years. Po- 

 tatoes, while of course not fully grown, have all the indi- 

 cations of an exceptionally large crop, and should be very 

 large in size. 



The prices of land through this country range for 

 the non-irrigated land, from $17.50 to $22.50 per acre, 

 and it is fast being taken up at those prices. Irrigated 

 lands are governed largely by the amount of improve- 

 ments, and are priced from $40.00 to $75.00 per acre. 



We have been in the cattle business for some twenty 

 years, but due to the fact that the country is largely be- 

 ing converted into an agricultural district, we find that 

 the running of cattle in large herds is not profitable, and 

 so we have gone out of the cattle business, and are now 

 offering our lands at the above prices. 



Any of your friends that may wish to come to Logan 

 and investigate our lands, we will be only too pleased to 

 show them to them, and will guarantee every statement 

 in this letter to be true, to the extent that if they are 



not, we will gladly pay the railway expense of any one 

 who comes to investigate. 



Our church, school and social relations are of the 

 highest standard, while tuberculosis and other of the 

 dreaded diseases are practically unknown in this country. 

 Our altitude is 4,000 feet, and owing to the prevailing 

 Chinook winds, the weather during the winter season as a 

 rule is very pleasant. 



We have the main line of the Northern Pacific through 

 Logan, and the Milwaukee is only five miles distant. At 

 the present time the Burlington is running over the 

 Xprthern Pacific tracks, giving us three transcontinental 

 railways, and located as we are at the headwaters of the 

 Missouri river, which is formed by the confluence of the 

 Gallatin, Madison and Jefferson rivers, makes it one of 

 the most beautiful spots in the Northwest. 



Thanking you very much for your inquiry, and hop- 

 ing to see some of your friends in Logan, we are, 



Yours very truly, 



W. E. CROWLEY 



A NEW MEASURING BOX FOR WATER. 



BOZEMAN, MONT., July 14, 1911. 

 THE IRRIGATION AGE, Chicago, 111. 



Seeing the interest you take in all things pertaining 

 to the farmers' interest, thought you would be interested 

 in the combination headgate and water measuring device 

 which I am mailing you for your inspection and crit- 

 icism. 



We have gone to great expense and trouble to have 

 this box calibrated by the Montana State Agricultural 

 College and the card enclosed is the result. Now this 

 card of course is for Montana miners' inches. Other states 

 differ. We have, however, the correct calibration for any 

 state. We have manufactured these headgates this sea- 

 son onb', but the 700 farmers who have put them in are 



all very much pleased with them, as they can see and un- 

 derstand for themselves whether they are getting the wa- 

 ter they are entitled to or not, which with a weir or cur- 

 rent meter is hard to understand. 



This box has been adopted as the official device for 

 measuring water at Big Timber for all of Sweet Grass 

 county. It is approved by the judges of the court and 

 commerce clubs and leading cities of this state. Its mer- 

 its are: First, it is accurate in measurement; second, it is 

 easily understood, a ten-year-old boy can measure water 

 accurately with it; third, it does away with the extra ex- 

 pense of building a weir, which costs much more if built 

 so as to accurately measure water; fourth, all farmers 

 having the same device, enables a dissatisfied water user 

 to know whether his neighbor is using or stealing his 

 water or not; fifth, it is locked at the proper height for 

 the maximum for the farmer and he can not raise it; 

 sixth, the farmer controls the upper gate and can shut off 

 the water and lock it off and no one can flood him. 



I am sending you some data as to this which you may 

 use if you see fit to use and return it to me when you 

 get through. IVY PARK. 



[The half-tone shown herewith gives a perspective 

 view of this measuring box and the rating curve, which is 



