The Yellowstone journal., 1894-12-11
TtlL> THE STORY.
A Chicago Ne~spaper,nsn Tell. Abou,
Irrigation Ia Montana.

About two weeks ago Mr.. Busby the
associate editor of the Chicago Inter
Ocean. spent a day OF two in Miles City
and looked up our progress in irrigation.
His impressions are given to the readers
of his paper in a recent issue illustrated
by a view Of the dam Of the ditch com.
pany and one Of the vegetable exhibit
at the fair, both true to nature. Con
cerning the subject or irrigation in this
section Mr.. Busby writes as follows:
AT Miles City, where the Tongue rive
er pours into the Yellowstone, you lind
irrigation in its infancy. and there you
also lind anticipations the highest They
have only begun. and the product of
two years farming under the ditch"
makes prospective millionaires Of all the
little community. They eten talk about
sending watermelons and Strawberries
10 Chicago when Egypt and Michigan
fall under the curse OF the weather bur.
eau aud become arid plains. just as
few years ago the Marquis de Mores pro
posed to bankrupt the Union Stock
Yards by sending all the dressed beef
for the world from the bad lands Of
North Dakota. The westerner always
has a bright star Of pc. and while one
may set there is always another in the
sky To lead him on. His passion has
been cattle, horses and sheep. just
now it is gieclaiming the arid lands Of
eastern Montana by irrigation.
In the Tongue river valley they have
in less than four years placed 5000
acres under irrigating bitches. and they
propose to add several thousand acres
more in another year, and when old Fort
Keogh is abandoned there will be a
block ten miles square to go under the
ditch and blossom like rose garden.
Ten years ago an irrigation company
began the construction OF a big ditch
from the Tongue river but il failed. An
other company took hold Of the enter
prise few years later and also failed.
-Four years ago the enterprise was re-
vived and two years ago several thous-
and ,watered. The irrigating ditch FROM
the Tongue river is about ten miles
long and il has under il about 5000
acres OF rich land. that has produced
extraordinary crops. They have made
the level. sandy soil. covered with . 20
brush, to produce wheat, oats, barley,
corn, potatoes. beets, turnips, carrots,
parsnips, celery. tomatoes. wstermelons,
pumpkins. souashes, peanuts, blackber-
ries, raspberries, Strawberries, currants,
g0oseberries, and they have young or
chards under cultivation, confident that
they will be able to raise apples. pears
and plume. One farmer near Miles City
has q fine young orchard Of apple trees
that bore last year. and he claims that
the winters are not cold enough to kill
the trees or their fruit IL they are pro
tected by wind breaks. He has his or
chard inclosed by cottonwood trees.
The white and yellow dent corn made
an excellent crop last year, and this on
these lands; and where wheat was grown
it averaged from thirty to forty bushels
per acre. Alfalfa and oats were a big
crop. and Fort Keogh 10 now supplied
with the home product instead OF ship
ping these from Iowa and Nebraska.
Berries OF all kinds proved to be most
successful crops on this irrigated land,
while tomatoes were grown that we're a.
large Ne frrit jars. pumpkins almost as
large as -four barrels, and watermelons
that weighed from forty to sixty pounds
each.
The state reform scheol is located ut
Miles City and it has forty acre farm,
which is under the Tongue river ditch.
Last spring the farm was irrigated and
the boys raised eli the vegetables they