Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-02-08
FORESIRY IND IKRlG 4TION.

Some Facts Brought Out IN the Report
of Hon. w. W. barrett.
The report Of the state superintend-
ent irrigation and forestry and the state
commissioner Of fish and game is out. It
consists of the third and the fourth an
nual report on irrigation and forestry,
and the first biennial report on fish and
game, all under one cover. making on
an average of 1876 pages of reading mat
ter to each report.
Involved in each of these reports are
subjects Of great importance, and which
concern some of the very best interests
of the state and the people, and each one
seems fully studied, and a vast amount
of facts pertaining to the same are clear
ly, %concisely and intelligently presented,
showing the commissioner has a thor
ough knowledge of his work.
The commissioner claims an increased
inquiry throughout the state in the mat.
ter of irrigation from those who propose
to make a practical application Of this
mode of raising crops.
In 1894 an experimental irrigation
plant was started at Bottineau, and the
result proved so favorable that two irri-
CATION districts, containing from 300 10
400 acres, have been organized in Bot
tlneau county, and one party III Pembina
contemplates taking action for the irriga-
ton Of 500 acres.
The sources of our underground
waters are clearly traced, and the CON
clusion reached is that they came mainly
from the west and northwest. But the
original source is from the rainfall, the
enormous quantity of which is made
plain in the report. The annual precip-
itation in North Dakota alone is 2 3,246.-
0S4,544 ,561 gallons.
Two arteslan basins of our state, the
Red river and the Dakota, are concisely
described. The latter is the most ex-
~tensive and has the longest fowage of
any such basin in the entire world.
Seemingly tie artesian deposits exist
under the entire state, for flowing arte-
sian wells are found from the eastern to
the 'western line, and from the southern
to the northern boundary. The flowing
artesian we'll at Medora, Billings county,
and the great flowing artesian we'll at
Deloraine (opened in 1894 just north Of
the Turtle mountains, in Manitoba,
proved the existence of artesian de.
posts in the west and northern part Of
our state. North Dakota has 672 flow
ing artesian wells. Some are deep
seated and some are shallow flowing
wells. Numerous artesian springs
abound in our state. Many Of these
wells and springs are mlnutely described.
One of the artesian springs which re-
ceives attention, is the "Minnehaha,"
located at the Turtle Mountains. It's
howage is 283 gallons per minute. The
annual howage from the artesian wells
and artesian Springs OF North Dakota is
given in the report as 4,432, 100000 gal
Ions, enough to successfully lrrigate
sixty-seven (67) ten-acre lots Of cult
waited corn in every organized and unor-
ganized county in the state.
The advantages and ~proftablepess OF
irrigation are c%onvincingly presented,
and carefully prepared matter is offered
on all points involved in the various de.
tails of irrigation of crops by means OF
artesian. phreatic and surface water.
The windmill irrigation 8, stem has for
many years occupied the attention OF the
veteran commissioner, aud the manner