The Dickinson press., 1904-08-27
SEES sRtA1 IRRIGATION POSSIBILITIES.
Guy E. Mitchell Is Enthusiastic Over Posi-.
biliti-s Of Irrigation AIony tie Missouri
River and in Western North Dakota,

Bismarck Tribune: The vast bench
lands OF the Missouri river in North Da-
kota are destined TO support a great
population OF prosperous farmers, in
place OF being devoted to the raising OF
crops OF wild hay.
rom the standpoint OF a lay man."
said & F.. Mitchell, the secretary of the
National lrrig.,ipn Association, II be-
lievr the Missouri b. "hcs /" H. capable
Of the cheap.s' and simplest irrigation
Ut aim 'st any l'nd> in the United St..e,.
IN s!:or, ,r!p oi General Williams and
myself up the Missouri on the WASH
burn. pil",rd ly Captain Grant Marsh,
disclosed large benches comprising tens
Of thousands nt acres twenty, thirty and
thirty five feet above the river level
which presented condition for id,..l irri-
CATION i'y pumping. The land is fertile,
the water supply unlimited and the lig-
mite fuel readily available. There seems
no reason why an enormous irrigation
development, should! not ensuc. In
xlancing over the repnrt OF Prof. Wilder.
formerly of the North Dakota geological
survey, | find a chapter OF irrigation in
which tie gives some interesting figures
on irrigation pumping ard these would
in my opinion apply to tens of thousands
OF acres "i Missouri benches viewed by
General Williams and myself from the
decks Of the 'Washburn'. Prof. Wilder
says:
|. "'%rhroughout the western part Of
North Dakota the Ignite furnishes a
cheap and available fuel for irrigation
purposes. Fisher brothers on Green
river, a small tributary of Heart, 7 miles
north OF Dickinson, have irrigated for
two years, pumping water from the river.
The lift is IS feet and a centrifugal pump
with a I discharge pipe having an inside
diameter Of eight inches is used. With
this pump which is driven by an ordinary
farm engine. 1900 gallons per minute
are easily raise1 IS feet. The cost of
the pump delivered was $3.50. MIR Fish.
er estimates that even in a dry season he
would have no difficulty in irriga,inc 200
acres with his present equipment. Two
dollars worth of coal was burned per day,
coal costing 50 cents per ton al 4 neigh.
boring bank. A. F. Riley. nn the Little
Heart river, neal Gladstone, last year,
irrigated 20 acres by means of Il dam
thrown across a draw. Next year he
proposes to irrigate 60 acres by means
of a centrifugal pump. Ignite occurs
on his farm, outcropping in a four-foot
vein, and can be had for the mere labor
of mining
"'Hundreds of localities are as favor
ably situated as these, and as the popu-
lation in the western part OF the state
increases, irrigation will become common,
Away from the streams wells will very
often furnish water for irrigation on a
large scale"
GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATIONS.
Two government engineers, Messrs.
S'orrs and Churchill Of the geological
survey, are just starting a general re.
connaisance of the Missouri river irri
CATION problem. They will visit the
outlying country and then come down
the river from a western point, after
which. if they find conditions favorable,
the Reclamation Service will send a
corps of surveyors to make detail plans
and surveys.
This work of the government is fraugh,
with enormous possibilities for
North Dakota. An empire lies latent ir
the midst of the state, of which the PEG,
pie little dream. The fertility OF ages
is stored in the soil, the water of half a
continent flows by uselessly to the sea
1t needs but the wedding Of the two te
create and develop a wealth compared
to which rainfall farming will seem a:
nothing-a wealth which will make NORTH
Dakota famous in wet years and in dr.,
as n of the greatest agricultural sec
lions of the globe.