Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1889-11-06

acres. OF this vast area only abou
1000, 600 acres are returned for taxation
inclusive OF surveyed railroad lands
showing that eight-nfnths OF the Gu
tivable area OF Montana are still uno,
cupied lands.
Montana is still so new that very a,
curate statistics are not obtainable; but
give q few figures from the best availabl
sources:
Area or Montana. 81, 0OO, 600 acre
Area of cultivated lands, esti-
Lands on which crops were
Lands aD1Sed assessed in sssS for taxation in SSl'SSz acre
Number Of farms in 1880 ....
On 2 6,155 acres were raised 77O,2OO bushels Q
wheat.
On g. 7s acres were raised s.O20. 572 bushels o
oats.
These figures show that the agriculture o
Montana is still in it's infancy. Over one
half OF the total amount Of grain produced
is raised in two valleys-those of the Gala
tin and Bitter Root. Nineteen-twentieths O
the total amount is raised in the western, O,
mountainous third OF the estate. This is du,
to several reasons. The mines have af
forded thu best local market, and Therefore
those valleys lying contiguous to the min
ing regions are most thickly populated anG
have been settled longer than the counties
lying east OF the mountains. The mountain
valleys are most easily irrigated.
How far these $1,000, 900 acres nov
vacant will be brought under cultivation
depends, almost altogether, on the water
question, There are some sections ofMon
tana, where crops may be raised success
fully without irrigation. This is especially
the case with the fertile bench lands, lyint
along the foot of the mountain ranges
where the n lies deep in the winter, and
where sufficient moisture is stored away in
the soil to mature magnificent crops o.
winter wheat, rye and barley. even in such
exceptionally dry seasons as the present
one. In some OF the northern valleys also,
the soil may be sufficiently moist to war.
rant cultivation without irrigation. But
mains, that over by far the greater portion
OF Montana the question OF the amount o.
land which may be utilized for farmin,
depends solely on the quantity OF water
available for irrigation.
Montana is by far the best watered o.
any Of the Rocky Mountain states and ter
~ritories. Clark's Fork of the Columbis
drains that portion Of it lying on the Pacific
slope, and so abundant are the streams OF
ti,at section that l believe there can be no
question that there is sufficient water. when
prQprrly utilized, to water every foot o.
tillable an in that section. East OF the
Rocky mountains the Missouri and Yellow
stone rivers with their various tributaries
lie almost entirely within the boundaries
OF Montana from their sources in the high
mountains to their junction on our eastern
border.
In our mountain valleys the fall of the
streams ia 80 great that it has been com
paratively easy to utilize their waters fol-
irrigation. No large canals were needed
where the natural slope OF the ground was
from rs to 100 feet per mile,
Each farmer tapped the stream with his
own ditch aud in that way nearly all our
present farms are cultivated. This, how.
ever, is an exceedingly wasteful system, and
it has been carried about as far as can be
done by the individual farmer. Corporate
wealth ia now beginning to take out large
canals from some OF the larger streams,
selling the water to the farmer; but the
main streams are hardly been touched as
yet, and yet the surveys now being prosec.
uted will show conclusively that the fall Of
both the Yellowstone and Missouri ia suff.
GENTLY great, and the elevation OF the con-
tigious fertile table lands sufficiently low to
make ev ry drop OF water in those streams
available for irrigation.
l cannot here 60 into details, and the re-
port OF the senate irrigation COMMITTEES will
pt obabiy make it needless that l should dc
So: but / cannot but emphasize the urgency
OF the adoption OF a comprehensive
scheme OF irrigation OF thenow waste lands
OF Montana. e.,
A storage; system as well as q system o.
large canals will be necessary. Almost all
of our str cams run, in their course, through
the mountains, through a series OF lakes or
old lake-basins, now drained, separated by
narrow canyons, offering admirable natural
sites for reservoirs and dams. By storing
| tn, food waters OF the streams here, an
abundance OF water would be had for the
irrigation OF all the upper valleys, and ever
though all the water be taken from the
stream beds for this purpose, the sepagt
from the irrigated lands would soon agar
| Eli the river beds for use over again IN the
lower valleys. ,
But such works are altogether too great
for private enterprise, and to carry tnen
| out, control over the water supply as wei
as over the unoecupied lands is necessary
1t will necessarily require cooperation De
! tween the reimbursement and thestate
and as many OF the private canal enter
prises, o being undertaken, would con
| fict with q more comprehensive system, u
h important that such q scheme should bt
| mapped out as soon as possible and lmme
date steps taken to carry it into effect:
Although the problem OF irrigation is 8
new one to the Anglo-Saxon race, 81
though the Montana farmer has q te
teach himself the very A B G OF this scienc'
by hard experience, the results are ALREADY
magnificent. a,
On well irrigated farms crops OF 40 to 81
bushels OF wheat and 90 to 100 bushels o
oats per acre are common, ana Wner'
water was abundant even this exception
aiIy drv season has had no effect in dimln
ishing the crops. When the traveller Owe
the s~un.scorched plains OF Western Dakots
| and the lower Yellowstone during the past
snmmer entered the Gallatin valley ane
saw richer crops of grain and hay than an!
In Illinois and Kansas, n then realizet
that not one drop OF rain had molstenet
those crops, he was taught by an oDlec'
iesson the value OF irrigation az not1lni
eIse can teach it; and yet there are to-day
many millions OF acres in Montana onlJ
waiting for the fructyiying application o
these great streams OF water which are nov
running to waste to produce cropse equal %
those Of any lands in the world. LIE iane
ia there: the water il there.
While they are kept separate Moneans
cannot feed her present population. brinl
them together aud you add another grea
grain producing state to the union'