Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-04-29


There will be 1900 acres ready for
settlement this year under the Hunt
ley project near Billings, Mont. Situ-
ated 5000 feet above the sea and vat
cred by the Yellowstone river, this land
is remarkably fertile. producing alfalfa.
grains, corn, fruit and vegetables. A
novel feature of the construction work
on this project is the pumping STATION
near Ballantine, where the fail OF
water from the main canal Is made TO
lift a portion of the water to a canal
on q higher level. Vertical turbines
and centrifugal pumps are mounted on
the same shaft and the operation Is
nearly automatic.
An equal area of land Is being opened
under the Sun river project, Montana.
Already the influx of farmers has been
so great that there are said to be
splendid opportunities for the business
man, merchant and manufacturer.
Many of the farmers are meeting with
such success that their friends in the
east are going westward to join them.
Another Montana project Just opened
to settlement is the Lower Yellowstone.
where $4,000 acres of land lying near
the junction of the Yellowstone with
the Missouri river Is rapidly being filed
upon. The man who wants home
there will have to hurry.
A little farther south 10000 acres
will be opened during May In the Sho-
shone project, Wyoming, near Buffalo
Bill's favorite old stamping ground: In
order to complete this project dam
1928 feet high-the highest In the world
was built, a road eight miles long
and a tunnel three miles In length were
cut through the solid rock, and hun
dreds of miles of canals were dug.
Still farther south $4,000 acres Will
be available for settlers In the I'm
compahgre project Colorado. Forty
thousand acres will be added to the
irrigable area in the so-called Truckee-
Carson project, Nevada, water being
taken from Lake Tahoe under spec
ial agreement with a private irriga-
ton concern. A tract of 1900 acres in
Southeastern California, under the
Yuma project, will be opened In Octo-
Der next. There tropical fruits can be
grown almost without cultivation.
The Yuma lands lie on an Indian
reservation and a small payment must
be made to the red men owners In
order to obtain possession. This is
true also in the Huntley project, Mon
tana, which was part of the Crow In
dian reservation. AS fast as congress
authorizes 1t the reclamation service Is
placing Indian lands under irrigation.
This year. besides those just men
toned, lands having an area of nearly
1901 900 acres, located on Indian reser-
vations in Montana and Washington,
will be thrown open to the settler and
they are expected to be entered upon
quickly, as they embrace some of the
most valuable fruit land In the world.
The construction of irrigation works
on the Fort Peck Indian reservation,
Montana, will be commenced as soon
as possible.
The latest project to receive the APP
prevail of the government involves the
reclamation of $4,000 acres, of fine
fruit lands in Grand Valley, Colo. 1t
will take several years to complete
the works, which will include a canal
sixty miles long, pumping stations.
etc, to irrigate land on several levels.
The Grand Valley apple and peach or
chards are world famous, the fruit
growers getting two dollars box for
their product. There are marvellous
tales from Grand Valley of oats grow
ing eight feet high and yielding 1875
bushels per acre, Of potatoes producing
400 bushels to the acre, and of caH1ta-
loupes and vegetables. planted between
rows OF growing trees, which pay for
the farm before the orchards bear.
The government is extending the
blessings of irrigation at public ex-
pense, to the people OF Porto Rico. A
So, 900, 900 bond issue has been sold there
and the proceeds are being devoted to
the construction of irrigation works.
ms a sort of supplement to irrigation.
dry farming is practiced extensively in
the west on land which cannot be
watered Under a new law 5000, 900
acres of land in Wyoming are to be
thrown open at once to settlers who
will be permitted to acquire S20-acre
homesteads for dry farming purposes.
1t is not known how successful this
experiment will be.
While the government encourages
home building 1t objects to frauds on
the public domain in violation of the
reclamation law or any other statute.
A million dollars is now being spent
by the general land office and 200 spec
ial agents are being employed to in
vestigate and prosecute the guilty per-
sons in $4,000 cases of alleged land
frauds involving $110,000,000 worth of
lands. The department of justice is
prosecuting $4,000 defendants in Okla
homa in an effort to recover several
million acres of land alleged to have
been fraudulently acquired.
A few years ago one had only to
travel westward a short journey to see
nothing but public land from skyline to
skyline. Today bands of steel extend
from ocean to ocean, the Great Ameri-
can desert Is fast disappearing under
the onslaught of irrigation and dry
farming, and cities and towns, and
wide green GASES dot the landscape.
The property of the nation, which at
one time embraced nearly two billions
of acres of land, has been reduced to
something like half a billion acres.
Out of our free lands have arisen
twenty vigorous commonwealth and
an agricultural empire that IL the
marvel of the world today.
Copyright, 1909, by Frederic ]. Hashin)