The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1905-05-24
MONTANA IRRIGATION PROJECTS.

1t is gathered from remarks made
by officials Of the government reclama.
ton service that the completion of the
larger irrigation projects in Montana
is many years distant. The com.
mencement Of construction work will
be undertaken at as early a date as
pOssible--after the owners Of lands to
be irrigated have complied with gov.
ernment regulations, and other neces-
sary preliminaries have been arranged
satisfactOrily-but the extension of
any large system to all the lands
which it is proposed to reclaim must
await an accumulation of funds de.
rived from the annual payments upon
land watered by that part of the
system which was first constructed.
This is the information given out by
II. N. Savage, assistant chief engineer
Of the reclamation service, who is
making an inspection of governmen,
irrigation projects in Montana. The
federal authorities do not propose to
expend several million dollars in
completing any one project requiring
the expenditure Of SO large q sum,
and then suspend operations upon 9th.
err projects until The irrigated lands
are appropriated and paid for by set
tiers. According to MIR. Savage, the
reclamation service, in carrying out
the larger undertakings, proposes to
complete about one.fourth of the pro.
posed project, and the eturns from
lands SO reclaimed will provide funds
with which to build another one-fourth
OF the system, repeating the process
until the whole project is completed.
In an address before a meeting of
Great Falls citizens, Mr.. Savage gave
this review of the situation:
"In the reclamation service we have
an appropriation Of perhaps S25 ,O00,.
600: this to be put over thirteen states
and three territories. Our object is to
find the principal projects in each sec
NAol II w olllIS ttlCIIl W uCN ClOptlCuls
IN other words, to scatter the appro.
preparation TO the best and fairest ad.
vantage. We must have money com.
ing back from the sale of lands in Or
der to carry the work on.
ave now have seven projects under
actual construction. In forty days
we vii! have two more, the Huntley
and the Glendive. This will give
Montana two projects, which will be
more thar any other state or territory
now has.
The law provides that leo acres
shall be the largest homestead, to be
divided into units Gown to forty acres.
We are using the So-acrc unit in our
projects so far, and, in justice to Sem
ator Gibson, | must say that this is
largely due to his suggestion.
sit is not our intention to finish
large projects complete Immediately,
but to finish Il small portion of each
so that the lands covered may be sold
to settlers and thus furnish money
with which to carry the work still
farther. In other words. we start the
work aud allow the project then to
work out its own salvation. AS
money comes in from the sale of lands
We can go ahead.
ia the two projects which will te
IN actual construction in Montana
within Il few days there is the greatest
interest, as we'll as in the other pro.
jectS. | believe that two hundred mil.
lion dollars could be expended in
Montana alone to make homes. There
are the %srandest possibilities in Mon.
tana of any state in the union, and
ont OF it one day, through the govern.
ment irrigation service, will grow an
empire"