Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-09-07

supply the Bitterroot valley farmers are
now combining capital and strength. and
building bitches from five to fifteen miles
long.
THE PICTURE CHANGES.
When the traveller steps off the train at
Missoula he sees flowing through the little
city beautiful clear stream of water.
That this stream is broad and shallow, and
ripples along upon the surface with banked
up sides, adds to the charm. AT almost
any point the removal of spade of dirt
from the banks will let out a portion of
the stream into side ditch. Woouen
troughs pierce these banks, and a slide
controls the supply. A furrow turned in
the turf is sufficient to lead the water to a
place hundreds of yards away. The site
of MiSSoula is not exactly dead level.
but the grades are so slight that the water
can be conducted in all directions. The
broad supply ditch is under perfect con
troll. Where it is a little too low 4 board
thrown across, edgewise, dams the water
few inches, and turns the desired quantity
into the side ditch.
Large yards, lawns ana gardens are the
rule in Missoula. The well-to-do citizen
has lot back Of his barn into which he
turns his horse and COW. His private ditch
runs through the lot, and at the same time
both waters his live stock and keeps the
grass growing. 1t leads into the garden.
where the blackberries are ripeniug and
the currants hang in great clusters: where
the apple trees are bending under the bur
den OF fruit, grapes are swelling on the
vines, and the last of the plums are
purPling. You follow the ditch and its
branches through vegetable garden that
contains all that is possible in the temper
ate zone, not brown and withered as is
usual in mid-August where the natural
rainfall is depended upon, but deep green. |
crisp and luXuriant. Beyond the garden
IS the lava cnt up into square rods by
bitches so small that the grass hides them, |
but through which the water flows and
reaches every tree and shrub and root. |
Roses are in bloom. Flower-beds are
masses of bright color And finally on
the street in front the shade trees have a
tiny stream trickling along beneath them
WITH AND WITHOUT WATER.
No rain has fallen at Missoula for |
weeks. The dust in the hard, gravelly |
roadway is three inches deep. The com !
mons are as brown and barren as a desert, !
with narrow fringes of bright green to !
show where the bitches run. Yet in the !
yards and gardens everything in the fruit |
and vegetable, form to be found in the |
temperate zone is growing and ripenng {; |
the foliage is that OF June, and the flowers |
are only limited in extent and variety by !
the taste fthe lady of the house. This is !
what irrigation does. When you sit down |
to the table at the hotel and see before |
you lettuce, radishes, young onions toma- |
toes and other vegetables, and all the |
fruits, not two hours from the garden, you
realize by taste what has already been |
discovered by the eye-the blessings of
irrigation. This artificial water supply !
makes perpetual spring Of six months in I
the year. 1t preserves June in these |
mountain valleys until September
Walk down the main street of Missoula |
and you will marvel still more at the Won
ders of irrigation. Workmen are exca- !
waiting a cellar for new building. They |
have removed six or eight inches of loose |
brown soil, which looks as though it might |
have washed down from the mountain side !
in the course of ages. Then comes gravel. /
coarser and cOarser, until from round |
pebbles as large as the hand the limit is |
reached in bowlders as large as a man |
cares to roll. Out of this cellar excavation |
is taken enough rock almost to make the |
foundation walls. This is the kind of soil |
upon which irrigation accomplishes so
much. How is it possible to keep the
water in the bitches Why don't it soak
through the thin soil of the surface and
waste itself in the underlying gravel and
bowlders? These are questions hard to
answer. After one has seen the thinness
of the soil, and the underlying strata it
seems as if water would disappear as if the
whole valley was a great sponge. But it
doesn't 1t ripples along the bitches for
miles, and when led out and allowed to
spread over the surface of the ground it
soaks through slowly, and does its work so
well that after one thorough wetting
nothing more is needed for days, and per-
haps weeks. Captain Higgins says the
soil at Missoula and in the adjacent valleys
is the very best for irrigation. He thinks
it all the better for the underlying gravel.
AMOUNT OF WATER NEEDED.
"a season like this" said Pioneer Hig-
gins, as he sat on a pile of lumber and
watched the workmen on his new bank
building, sit requires about four irriga-