The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-10-28
SPREADS ITS
FAME WIDELY
IRRIGATION MOVEMENT GIVES
BILLINGS GREAT PUBLICITY.
CENTER OF FERTILE ZONE
Possesses Every Natural Advantage
and Resource to Make 1t Pros
porous Community.

porous Community.
X u
AS a result of the irrigation propa-
ganda Montana is receiving much val
liable advertising in the east. Incl.
dentally Billings and the Yellowstone
valley are getting a generous share
of the publicity gained, for to write
of irrigation and it's resultant wonders
without mentioning Billings and the
magnificent valley of which it is the
queen would we'll nigh be an impos-
siblity. One Of the most prolific and
capable contributors to the is
Guy E. Mitchell, corresponding secre-
tary of the National Irrigation asso-
citation, who has access to the col
umns of a large number of the more
important newspapers of the east,
those published in Chicago, New York,
Boston, Philadelphia and others of the
great metropoli beyond the Mississ-
ippi. Very frequently his articles are
illustrated from actual photographs
and to many of the eastern people
pictures of scenes in the Yellowstone
valley have become a familiar sight.
Under date of October 10 Mr..
Mitchell has contributed the annexed
article, which has appeared in a num-
Der of the eastern papers, dailies and
Meeklies.
Center Of Fertile Zone.
Billings lies in the heart of the IA
nous Yellowstone valley, a land OF
sheep and cattle and great fields Of
grain and alfalfa to feed them, and OF
potatoes and fruit, and in fact almost
everything that will grow in a tenn
,perate zone. Yellowstone farming by
irrigation is young, but Billings as
pires to be the center of a potato
world as famous as Greeley, of apple
raising, as noted as northern New
York, of muskmelon growing as we'll
known as Rocky Ford, and of beet
sugar making as prosperous as Sugar
City or Oxnard. 1t has the climate
the long days of sunshine-it has the
rich soil, and, keystone to the whole,
it has. the waters of the Yellowst69j
Fff~er.
A Wonderful Transformation.
Billings has seen a wonderful
transformation in the Yellowstone
valley. First it was simply a cattle
pasture, where it took 80 acres to sup
port a steer. Then gradually came
the big fields of alfalfa, after the first
irrigation canal was built, now we
find diversified farming, and the di-
vision of the large tracts into smaller
| farms with diversified crops. l en-
joyed a dinner with the family of my
old friend, 1. d. O'Donnell, we'll known
throughout Montana as old Alfalfa,
and with the exception of the coffee
and the sugar and the salt, everything
upon the table vas raised upon his
own farm, and it was a bountiful re
past. OF course, this is not such a
strange thing to find among eastern
farmers, but it is a bit unusual in q
new country where the first develop
ment of agriculture has been the
stock ranch and where the condensed
milk and the canning factories have
found all too ready a market for the
agricultural good of the country.
Too Few Gardens.
"And while l am speaking of Mr.
IO'Donnell's farm and garden, l viii
say that there are too few ample and
abundant gardens, thoughfully laid
out and planted and we'll titled, ever
in the east. The really ideal farm
garden, furnishing not only a whole
some and luxurious table all the grow
ing season, but dried and home-cannet
products for all the winer, is the ex
ception rather than the rule. even II
the good farming sections in the east
We are not thinking too much Of ou'
s!omachs and our animal desires
wien we make the best garden pos
sible.
"Many a kitchen garden which is t.
or at least should furnish mos. of ;h'
motive power to carry on the work o
the farm. is the product of odd times
between the planting of the money
crops. Money crops for what? T.
buy, in considerable measure, thing
unnecessary or which could better b
raised on the farm. The farmer VIII
plans broad and. deep to get ever
particle of his living possible fror
the soil by his labor has a wisdo1