The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1921-08-19
SERVICE
SITS UP

Officers of the Milk River recla-
nation project are showing some life.
Either they have just realized that
the project, as it has been managed,
is a failure, or they have been in
jected with some of the same brand
of pep hat is putting more action in
to all departments of the government,
since Gen. Dawes got on the job.
Representatives of the service, who
have visited Glasgow during the week,
have announced that they are working
on a policy to get officers of the SER
vice, or the departments-the gov
eminent end-and the business men
of the valley, together for the pur-
pose of bringing in settlers for the
project. This, according to the men,
DRY of the oldest inhabitants of the
valley, is the first time project rep
resentatives have developed interest
enough in getting settlers, to make
mention of it in connection with an
actual effort to do so.
1t is implicitly, if not specifically
admitted, that up to date, so far as
producing irrigated lands successfully
Occupied by actual residents, is con-
cerned, the project has been a dismal
failure-nothing at which the offic-
ials could point with pride. They
seem to have at last conceived the
idea that these lands are intended
to be occupied by settlers and cult
waited, with the water which the ser
vice is to furnish.
The supply of water over the entire
tract is not yet delivered, and there
are apparently, unnecessary and bur-
densome regulations, regarding its
use and it's price that have a tendency
to drive settlers away rather than
induce them to come to the land. 1t
would seem that the reclamation au-
thorities are applying to the severe
climatic conditions and short seasons
of northern Montana the same rules
for irrigation that are applicable to
New Mexico and Colorado, and eX-
pect to get settlers to farm here
thus restricted. For example, some
theorist in Washington says that one
man should have only water for ten
acres on a Colorado orchard, there
fore it is perfectly plain that he
should have water for only a small
tract in Montana; if he wants to
farm more than 100 acres, the owner
of land is, to a large extent, depen-
dent upon the judgment of a civil
engineer in authority, as we under
stand the complex situation at this
time.
The government has found out that
while it is comparatively easy to dig
bitches and build dams, by taking a
generation or so of time for the task,
it is another matter to care for the
human interest. The handling or
people is something that cannot be
covered by any engineering course at
college, or successfully carried on I'M
der bureaucratic rules.
Perhaps what has brought the phase
of settling up the valley to the notice
of the government, is the fact that
at this time many of the best irri-
cation farmers of the country are
going to Canada, lured by the more
liberal handling of the subject of col
onization and settlement by the Ca
madam authorities. Across the line
the settler has the help of the gov
eminent, in the three or more years
necessary to subdue the land, so that
a crop can be raised.
By opening the Milk River project
to five year leases and furnishing all
the water the settler would pay for,
the government would have no diff
ficulty in getting most of the pro-
ject under cultivation preparatory to
dividing it into smaller tracts, if nee
essary. This is assuming that the
water rental is reduced to pre-war
prices. 1t vas only ascertained that
the war was over after March 4th;
before then So per acre foot had been
charged for water and with prices
the lowest in history considering 9TH
er costs to the farmer, this rate was
maintained until too late for this
years occupation, when it was reduced
to 81.
Different management than this is
necessary in order to induce settlers
to occupy the land. We realize that
the reclamation service is hampered
In its administration; it reports to
the interior department. The farmer
uses water under the direction of the
Department of Agriculture, which
supervises irrigation farming. The
settler on the project is almost as
well cared for, as the Alaska bears,
that made Secretary Hoover so much
trouble.
The simple way at present, is for
the government to go on and finish
the project, establish the units and
fix a definite construction charge;
then furnish the water needed for
such land as is cultivated as was at
first intended; this done and the pro
ject will have more settlers than can
be accommodated, and there will be
no "large land holders" on the pro-
ject.
This administration has an oppor-
tunity, and the time is certainly ripe,
to speed up the Reclamation service;
the whole plan should be revised, reg
ulations that discourage settlement
should be cut out, and the personnel
&c AZ l,,o,,3 o,J f.o1J foroo Lo