THE CALL OF THE WEST 



415 



Indian reservations will make available 

 for development a hundred thousand 

 acres of choice land in the future. 



On the Milk River project, in this 

 state, the government is at work on a 

 large dam at Dodson, while the farmers 

 themselves have undertaken and are suc- 

 cessfully building the largest irrigation 

 canal in the United States. On the Saint 

 Marys project, the water supply of 

 which has been made the subject of a 

 treaty not yet ratified, the work of canal 

 building is being done largely by Indian 

 labor. The Indians will be employed to 

 build their own ditches on the Flathead 

 and Fort Peck reservations as soon as 

 plans are decided upon. 



Preliminary surveys have been made 

 on this project and an irrigation system 

 designed to supply 130,000 acres of land 

 on the Flathead Indian reservation, in 

 Flathead, Sanders, and Missoula coun- 

 ties. Work will be carried on during 

 the season of 1909 on four units — the 

 Jocko unit covering 6,000 acres ; the Mis- 

 sion, 4,500 acres ; the Poison, 3,000, and 

 the Mud Creek, 6,000 acres. The In- 

 dian allotments amount to 80 acres of 

 irrigable land for each individual. The 

 lands remaining after all the allotments 

 are made will be opened to the public 

 after due notice has been given by the 

 Secretary of the Interior through the 

 public press. 



The lands lie about 2,800 feet above 

 sea level, and the temperature ranges 

 from 20 0 below to ioo° above zero. The 

 soil is clay, forest loam, and gravelly 

 loam, and the products are alfalfa, grain, 

 vegetables, apples, and small fruits. The 

 project is located between the Great 

 Northern and the Northern Pacific rail- 

 roads. 



the; national irrigation projects of 

 washington 



In the minds of most Easterners the 

 northwest boundaries of our country are 

 usually associated with blizzards and a 

 temperature that puts the average ther- 

 mometer out of business. There are 

 places along the border where the winds 

 blow and 50 degrees below zero is not 



uncommon. Again there are places 

 where the seasons are so genial, the tem- 

 perature so favorable, that delicate fruits 

 like apricots and peaches are grown suc- 

 cessfully. Close to the Canadian line, in 

 Washington, is a remarkable valley, shut 

 in by sheltering hills and mountains and 

 favored with the kindly Chinook winds. 

 It is known as the Okanogan Valley, 

 sometimes called the California of the 

 Northwest. 



It richly deserves the name, for it is 

 the boast of its early settlers that no 

 killing frost has ever destroyed the 

 orchards in that valley. The reclamation 

 project here is the most expensive per 

 acre of any of those now in process of 

 construction. So abundant are the yields 

 and so profitable and varied are the crops 

 that the land-owners very cheerfully en- 

 tered into a contract with the government 

 to pay a charge of $65 per acre for a 

 water right. The assurance of a con- 

 stant and sufficient supply of water for 

 irrigation has increased land values tre- 

 mendously. Prices here to the Easterner 

 seem very high until the earning capacity 

 of the lands is demonstrated. The Oka- 

 nogan Valley sent an exhibit of fruits 

 to the Industrial Fair at Spokane last 

 fall. Out of 23 plate exhibits the county 

 drew 19 prizes. 



Eight years ago James O'Herin, a 

 shrewd Yankee from Portland, Maine, 

 came to the valley seeking a home. He 

 had $500, and filed upon a homestead 

 which he commuted, and in 1905 sold 

 it for $10,000. This sum he immediately 

 invested in another ranch, which in three 

 years' time he has so improved as to be 

 worth more than $20,000. From a tenant 

 farmer in the East to a land-owner worth 

 $20,000 in eight years may be taken to 

 indicate the possibilities which await the 

 industrious and intelligent home-seeker 

 in the arid West. 



in the; vale; op plenty 



Southward and near the line dividing 

 Oregon and Washington is the great 

 Yakima Valley, beyond question the most 

 widely advertised and best known agri- 

 cultural region in the Northwest. It is 



