New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-07-07
THE NEW STATES.
XIV.
IRRIGATION.
w.xrSG DESERT LANDS FERTILE BY ARTI-
FICIAL WATERING.

FORKS OF THE MISsOUH-A PROBLEM
FOR THE GOVERNMENT.
,yRow srArr CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBuSk')
copyrsghtiss9 By the Tew-f York 1T'o""s'
Bozeman, Montana, June "a.
When Lewis and Clarke. the great Missouri
piver exnlorers whom President Jefferson in s03
sent ont IN examine his new Louisiana purchase,
had followed the Missouri from ST. Louis to
mint about thirty miles northwest Of this city,
thew found themselves confronted by diff
chit problem. The main river spread In three
different directions, forming three forks equal in
width. in depth. in force Of current. and in flow
of water. Which was the real Missouri they were
wholly unable to say, though many days were
spent in tracing each fork and no effort spared to
reach sound conclusion. 1t was plain that all
three were pure mountain streams, deriving their
waters from the SHOWS and springs of the Rockies.
They flowed swiftly over shallow, pebbly bottoms
through valley country Of surprising beauty and
fertility To the west of the westernmost fork
rose the mighty peaks of the main Rocky range.
To the east of the easternmost fork rose collat-
eral chain crowned with SHOWS that have never
disappeared. And between each fork ran other
hills, lower than the bounding ones, but forraid-
able still giving to each its separate valley and it's
separate mountain sources. The explorers could
see but one possible way out of their difficulty.
They decided that any of these forks was as
much entitled as the others to be called the Mis-
souri,, and that they were equally the source of
that splendid river. So they named the west fork
after the President the middle one after the Secre
tary Of State, Mr. Madison, and the east fork after
the Secretary of the Treasury. Mr.. Galatn.
As usual, the explorers were correct in their
Judgment 1t is remarkable how sagacious and
accurate were the conclusions Of these men who
first gave actual form to the map of the North
west They travelled through 5000 miles OF
territory known, so far as the white race was con-
cerned, to scarcely more than dozen traders and
hunters. They endured Undesirable hardships,
but they never lost heart or purpose. Their de-
scription of the country is almost as clear and
correct If it had been written in the light of all
that is known to-day, and scarcely any essential
correction has needed to be made in the chart they
drew
In many respects the little area drained by the
three forks has proved the richest and most valua-
BILE portion of the entire region that came under
their observation. 1t contains the gulch from
which the first teaspoonful of golden particles
ever found in Montana was washed, and the far
more famous gulch that added sixty millions in
other mineral lands that have been and are yet
Of vast importance TO the country, supplying i'm
mense quantities of silver, iron lead and copper
Its eastern section along the Gallatn River, from
which now write, has been quite fifty styled the
granary of Montana. The Gallatin Valley is
thirty-fve miles long and twelve wide, and is
devoted to agriculture more generally and with
more system than any other valley in the Terri
BpinO nv fha lining 70
which everything that was eaten had to be sup
piled, it was afforded sure market for all it
could produce and farmers undertook to redeem
the land at early period. Their success was
phenomenal from the start. 1t has been phenom-
email ever since. The Gallatin itself and all it's
tribu'n'y creeks and branches came scampering
down 'lc mountains with such force that the task
of irrigatng the valley reduced to simple pro-
portions. 1t was necessary only to run plough
furrow from the river the bench lands into
the valley anywhere you chose. and the water
would get there as soon as the plough. There rs
claimed to be difference in the soil here from
that along the Yellowstone, the Missoula or the
Milk rivers, and certainly more closely than the
soil elsewhere it resembles the black loan
of the Dakotas. But it has been suffi-
GENTLY proved that the valley lands any
where in Montana are susceptible of satisfactory
cultivation, If only they can be irrigated There
is no physical difficulty that cannot be easily over
come. The whole State is cut up into valleys
each distinct, each with its Owl streams But
to get water from these streams wherever farming
could be profitably employed would require so
extensive an artificial waterway that no private
firm corporation could possibly within the
present generation construct it. 1t is generally
estimated that two-iifths Of the surface of Mon
&c lint
twentieth be handled to any profit by such a
diversion of mountain creeks as the ordinary
rancher can himself undertake, and even if he
were able to turn the water wherever he wanted
it, the flow is insufficient during the irrigating
season, which continues only about ninety DAYS
during the year, TO supply any considerable part
Of the country. The water begins to flow about
March /, and it runs till late in December but
from May till August. while irrigation is needed,
not more than a tenth of the annual supply is
flowing.
The difficulties in the way of general irriga-
lion, then, are these: First the water cannot be
got by ordinary methods and contrivances such
IS farmers of limited means can apply, upon at
least nine tenths of the good land; and, second
wen if it could be got there. the flow during the
rrigating season is insufficient TO supply the
requisite moisture. And yet there are means by
which the water could be got there and means
~ which the flow could be made adequate. What
S needed is general system of canals and
eservoirS The agricultural possibilities of the
ands have seen can scarcely be comprehended,
much less reduced to figures if only such
udicious system OF storage TO hold in reserve the
ull annual flow and of canals to pour it through
Turing the irrigatng season were in operation.
Local funds have been to a considerable ex-
ent employed in the construction of such canals.
told you Of one that encrcles the Yellowstone
Valley at Billings. Another is being completed
lere, and will be in use next year. But the
when applied TO the entire territory
! so huge and costly that even if there were
eople with sufficient courage and capital 10 put
t through, its completion would necessarily be