The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1907-05-22
A BIG IRRIGATION PROJECT.

While the various irrigation pro.
jects undertaken by the United States
reclamation bureau are estimated to
cost over thirty million dollars, most
OF them are small in comparison with
a Cauanian enterprise which is
claimed to be the biggest on the con-
tinent. The Canadian Pacific rail.
road 10 furnishing funds for the pro.
ject, which will irrigate an immense
tract Of land in Southern Alberta.
A newspaper description of this i'm
mense project says it contemplates the
irrigation of approximately 5000. 900
acres of land, an area twice as large
as the entire state of Delaware and
capable of sustaining a population
greater than that which now inhabits
the whole of Northwest Territory.
When the first settlers pushed their
way across the plains in the early sos
In the track of the new railway, they
found the luxuriant dry grass of this
prairie section sufficient to sustain
large herds of sheep and cattle. Some
of the early homesteaders started
farms in the valley and along the
bottom lands. The black loan was
excellent for corps, but the rock wall
OF the mountains to the west. which
shut out the winter winds, sometimes
shut out the moisture too, and the
farmers early discovered that in q
great part Of southern Alberta artifi-
cial moisture meant the insurance of
maximum crops every year.
This was particularly true of the s.
O0O, 900 acres of the Canadian Pacific.
To get an idea of this domain, picture
to yourself a tract of land $50 miles
long, 40 miles wide, and shaped like
an enormous curved meat chopper or
heavy butchers knife. The northern
%boundry, the blade of the knife, is the
Red Deer river, and the southern, the
irregular ourse of the Bow river.
Between these rivers the land stretches
in a general southeasterly direction
from the city Of Calgary and the 9Th
meridian to the line between ranges 10
and II west of the 18th meridian. The
soil inside these boundary lines is of
the best, with good clay sub-soil, and
the area, as a whole, is especially
adapted to the application of water,
and lends itself readily to the great
canals and secondary bitches.
Four years ago, the railroad or
dered surveys of the entire region.
These surveys developed the fact that
at least half the area, or 1000, DOC
acres, could be brought directly under
irrigation by the construction Of can
ais from the Bow river, whose sources
are fed by the unfailing nov of the
western mountains. Two years ago,
construction work was commenced
and already over 1000 miles of canals
have been dug.
The total undertaking calls for tn,
construction of 1000 miles Of canals
and bitches, or an artificial river Ion!
enough to reach across the continen
from New York to San Francisco
This construction will entail the Xca
walton of the orm mass Of -,
$50, 900 cubic yards Of material, AM
will cost somewhere between s., 900 ,0O
and SIS. 900, 900. These remarkabl
figures place the present project in
class by itself, and explain the inter
est which United States governmen
engineers are taking in the undertake
ing. One of these engineers, DR.. FL
wood Mead, chief of drainage and ir
rig CATION investig alton for the depar,
ment of agriculture at Washington
recently examined the project, AM
his report on it was most favorable.
The plan of the railway compau
differs from most other irrigatio
projects in the fact that it is the inteu
ton OF the company to dig all tn
bitches and carry all the water diret
to each 100 acres, leaving nothing TO
the farmer to do but to open up tn
small furrow laterals on his ow
land.