Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-09-07
AMOUNT OF WATER NEEDED.

AflCt-Ni VI NFAlEA NELDED.
"a season like this" said Pioneer Hig-
gins, as he sat on pile of lumber and
watched the workmen on his new bank
building, 'it requires about four irriga-
lions. 1t is the dryest we have had since
'69. Ordinarily one good soaking is enough
for q crop, and two will certainly do unless
you are raising grass. We get 500 bushels
of potatoes to the acre, forty bushels of
wheat and sixty bushels of oats Onions,
cabbages and all other vegetables grow in
proportionate profusion. We send our
products to Helena Butte and the mining
camps. Prices range about as in the States,
with perhaps little the advantage with
US. We sell our wheat for from 60 to IS
cents a bushel, our oats for cents a pound.
Our vegetables are sold by weight almost
entirely-cabbage and onions to q cents
a pound tomatoes, 3 to 6 cents pound.
For cherries we get from 10 to % cents
box. Berries Strawberries, raspberries
and blackberries-of which we send out
thousands of boxes-brings us 60 cents a
gallon. Cinnamon are doing most of the
market gardening about Missoula, and are
making good deal of money"
"a farmer" continued Captain Higgins.
W liO NVA4So 1lCtC IAbhA ObLItA part Vi
the country, has got to give up his old
ideas and learn the business over again.
The sooner he does this the greater his
success will be. He must learn that he
can't take care of so much land as where
he depended on natural rainfall. When he
irrigates he has to put on pair of rubber
boots, take shovel and go right into the
field and wade around all day. Turning
the water loose will not do the work. The
farmer must go in and see that it is dis
tributed as evenly as possible. He must
dam furrow here and open up passage
there. If he is experienced he may irri-
gate four acres in day. Some men get
over FIVE acres a day, but three acres is as
much as the most accomplish. This work
must be done from one to three times a
year. Fifty or sixty acres is enough for
any man with irrigation. Land with
water is worth now from $40 to S25 an
acre. l believe that it will 90 to $40 and
$50 in few years. Irrigation is abso-
lutely necessary in Montana. Without it
we can't raise so much as a sunfower."
DISPUTES OVER WATER RIGHTS.
When Captain Higgins came here he
staked out his land and squatted. There
had been no survey; and there were no
lines to go by. He tapped Rattlesnake
creek up the canyon and ran his wriggling
ditch to suit the lay of the land and his
purposes. The time came when there were
people enough in the country surrounding
for town. Still there had been no sur
vey. Captain Higgins measured off eighty
acres, transferred it to the Probate Judge
for town site and moved back the line of
his farm. All this was by common con-
sent, but it has stood as good as if founded
on the Constitution of the United States.
The principal is the same-the consent of
the governed. Missoula has grown into a
thrifty place of 1900 or 1000 people,
with possibilities as the country develops.
Captain Higgins still holds the ditch He
came first and appropriated the water. His
rights have remained inviolable, not under
law, but in the same way that the town
site was recognized-by common consent.
Captain Higgins ditch runs a volume of
1000 cubic inches of water. 1t is admit
ted that he is entitled to that much water
from Rattlesnake creek What the creek
furnishes above that amount others may
use in the order Of their priority of appro-
priation.