The Irrigation Problem in Montana. 213 
That irrigation enterprises will have great and rapid develop- 
ment in Montana in the near future will be readily perceived from 
the facts shown later on in this article, while I am fully convinced 
that it is now entering on that period. The histories of both 
California and Colorado have shown that great mining activity 
have brought to them a large population who were enabled to 
gain a livelihood by mining pursuits, while the demand for farm 
products created by the miners, caused these people to turn their 
attention to agriculture, which is now rapidly surpassing in money 
value the output of the mines. 
In California in the “ fifties ” mining was the supreme and only 
occupation, to-day agriculture is her mainstay; in the early 
“seventies” the same was true of Colorado, and now agriculture 
is rapidly becoming her most important industry. While Mon- 
tana is to-day in the van in mining resources and output, the 
time for the supremacy of agriculture within her borders has 
received an increased impetus by her recent accession to State- 
hood. 
In Montana the irrigation problem presents some features which 
are scarcely encountered in any other country. 
Usually irrigation is practiced in semi-tropic and desert regions 
where though water is scarce, the climate is such that a great 
variety of agricultural products usually of the better paying 
varieties can be raised, in consequence of which enormous sums 
may be spent in irrigation works, thus imposing a heavy tax per 
acre on the land for their construction, and still, such is the pro- 
ductiveness of these regions, that the lands will yield fair profits. 
In Montana the reverse is the case, water is generally abundant 
though sufficiently inaccessible in the larger streams to require 
extensive works in order to render it available, while the land 
though equally abundant also, will owing to the climate admit of 
the cultivation only of the less profitable crops, mainly hay, grain 
and potatoes, in consequence of which the cost of construction of 
the irrigation works becomes a question of vital moment, since a 
tax of a few cents per acre one way or the other will render the 
pursuit of agriculture a success or a failure, and decide the fate 
of the irrigation enterprises. 
It is probable that $10.00 per acre for a water right in per- 
petuity, or $2.00 per acre per annum for the use of water is the 
maximum charge which the crops will bear. 
