The Daily Missoulian., 1913-08-17
SAMUEL FORTlER VISITS BITTER ROOT
AND SEES CHANGES Of TEN YEARS
Eminent Irrigation Expert Discusses Development Of Mon
tana Lands Since He Lived in the State and Urges
Greater Economy in the Use Of the Water Supply Which
Makes Montana So Great as an Agricultural State.
than ever impressed with the wonder

| than ever impressed with the wonder
fui resources of Montana.
'sThe other day i was admiring the
grain fields of the Galiatin valley.
Few localities between the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans can raise more wheat,
barley or oats to the acre. One fail
we raised 81 BUSHES of wheat per
acre on the station farm and hesi-
tated about publishing the results,
lest our eastern friends would doubt
our veracity. Than. too, yield of
14O BUSHES of oats to the acre, under
the ordinary farm practice and field
conditions, is too common to excite
wonder.
Il came from Bozeman to- Butte and
Anaconda and / saw in the latter
cities the development ofSanother nat
ural resource. 1t was the mining
and smelling of copper ore which i'm
pressed me there. The Washoe smelt-
er at Anaconda handles every day
10000 tons Of ore, 1900 tons Of lime
rock and 900 tons of coke and coal.
This enormous mass of materials is
dumped into hoppers from cars at
the top of a hill and comes out as
copper matte at the foot of the hill. The
output each month in pure copper is
22,0O0,O0O pounds. Thought of the min
ers who dig 200 carloads Of ore out Of the
hills Of Butte each day, of the men
who tend the concentrators and
furnaces and of the engineers who
design such intricate machinery and
/ could not but feel that, after all,
irrigation is very simple process.
To-day / have gone over the or
chards of the Bitter Root valley and
the sights we have seen have con-
vinced me that irrigation is worth
while. Mrs. Marcus DAILY was kind
enough to place one Of her big cars at
my disposal and We saw more of the
valley in one day than we could have
seen with team in many days.
had not seen this beautiful valley
little idea of the remarkable develop
ment that has taken place in that time
Some IA years ago, Mr.. NJ. p.
Kippen, superintendent of irrigation OF
the Bitter Root Stock farm, and
climbed up to Lake Como to examine
it's feasibility as a storage reservoir.
We navigated the lake on a raft,
think, we inspected the dam site at
the outlet and measured the discharge.
We then came down to the creek of
the Bitter Root river and figured a
siphon to carry the stored water across
the river to the east bench.
I'VE we're both impressed with the
feasibility of the scheme at that time
and it was extremely interesting to
me to return to the same place today
and find that our dream of years ago
has become reality. The surface
of the former lake has been raised SO
feet; the small lake now covers 500
acres; steel siphon conveys the
water across the river and elevates it
far up on the other side. A main
conveying over 10000 inches of water
to the fertile soil of the bench lands
of Florence and Stevensville and be-
tween 10000 and $4,000 acres are act
ually irrigated.
I'VE were also up on University
Heights and saw 1900 acres of young
orchards, occupying the place where
pines and frs stood when I last saw.
the Bitter Root valley. l have often
admired the orange groves under the
Gage canal at Riverside, Cal, but
considering the setting produced by the
nearness of the Bitter Root range, l
doubt If it can excel the view which
one gets from University Heights"
Professor Fortier left last night on
his westward Journey