THE PROSPERITY OF MONTANA 



very similar to those which wo observed in Wyoming. 

 Of the total population of about two hundred thousand, 

 the farmers are a small minority. Nevertheless, irriga- 

 tion is recognized as one of the most important interests 

 of the State, and the field open to settlement offers many 

 attractions. 



The first ditches in Montana were made for the pur- 

 pose of washing gold-bearing gravel along the bars and 

 gulches. When their usefulness in this direction was 

 exhausted they were turned into irrigation canals by the 

 farmers who came close upon the heels of the early miners. 

 For many years development was limited to works of this 

 humble character. Farmers had their own individual 

 ditches, or combined their labor in making canals suffi- 

 cient to water small districts. In this manner most of 

 the mountain streams capable of easy diversion were util- 

 ized. As in Wyoming, irrigation was largely used as 

 only an adjunct to stock-raising. In recent years le- 

 gitimate agriculture has begun to make rapid progress. 

 Large capital has been invested in a few comprehensive 

 irrigation systems, notably in the valleys of the Dearborn 

 and the Sun rivers, north of Helena. 



Montana is divided into three natural drainage areas 

 those of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers on the east 

 of the main range of the Kockies, and that of the waters 

 tributary to the Columbia on the western slope of the 

 mountains. The eastern slope embraces the fertile val- 

 leys of the Yellowstone, the Gallatin, the Madison, the 

 Jefferson, the Beaverhead, the Prickly, and the long val- 

 ley of the Missouri, with the Milk-river system in the 

 extreme north, on the border of Canada. The western 

 slope is mountainous and heavily timbered, with corn- 



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