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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 10, 1904)
Montana -.4. V-.'.'-' HE great copper, silver and sold mines of Montana, the .'Trraa ure State" of the Union, potent , aa has been their Influence In its development and while they are yet far from their maximum output and value, must soon take a second place in the state's resources. It Is Montana's des tiny to be one of the richest agricultural States In the Union. As the agriculture of Colorado, now the foremost state In the production of precious metals, has already outstripped Its mines, so In a few years Will Montana's farming- lead its mines. With lands of surpassing- fertility, la which agricultural plant food has lain stored for centuries, with no drenching rains to leach them away, and with a mag nificent water supply from the rain and snows which fall upon 1 V Igh peaks and watersheds of .the continent divide, , Mon tana's fat cattle .and sheep, splendid fruit, heavy grains and varied agricultural products will become widely famous. "The next ten years," said a prominent official of the government reclamation ser vice, in speaking- of-the gTeat present and coming development of the . far northwest, "will see Montana lead all the western states in the area of Its Irrigated land. Its agricultural future is assured and brilliant. It has the land and It has the water all that are needed in the arid re gion to produce fabulous wealth." ' Montana has an area equal , to that of France. It has, It has often been stated by various authorities, with all its great Water supply conserved and made to irri gate its rich lands, ' room for as dense a population as that of France. Over three-fifths of this 'great state is drained by the Missouri river and its big tributaries, such as the Yellowstone, the Jefferson, 'the Milk river'; and " other branches. Strong rivers these are, rushing down out of their mountain fastnesses the Absaroka, the Snowy, the Big Horn and Wind river ranges where at eleva tions of 8.000, 10,000 and 11,000 feet the snows are perpetual, melting under the summer suns and furnishing a constant water supply, especially In the late sum mer, when it is most needed for irrigation. Much has already been accomplished by co-operative effort in irrigation among farmers. The irrigated area, according to the census figures, has increaseed during the past two years at the rate of about 100,000 ' acres a year and now aggregates 1,140,000 acf-ei. This has been accom plished by the co-operation of small com munities and some of the most successful examples are seen at such places as Hins dale and Chinook in the Great Milk River valley, where farmers have combined, taking- up land under the five-year homestead law and constructing their own Irrigation works, thus owning the land and the water and paying- no rent ' or tribute to water companies or water bondholders. Most of . these works have . been simple diversion propositions without expensive dams, and the cost has been very light, land reclamation averaging, according to 'Jha 1900 census, but $1.95 per acre. The opportunities are legion where bands - of twenty or forty or 100 enterprising farmers with a little money and with their strong arms and good. teams may build diversion r storage- dams and lead the water out upon 160-acre homestead claims, building up homes upon the desert, which will make each and . every one of them . prosperous and wealthy. The total productivity of Montana's lands Is shown by the census -figures. The total amount invested In ditches in Montana up to June 1, 1900, was K 683,072. while the total value of Irriga tion products for the one year, 1899, was $7,230,0(1 At the rate of increase In farming- and Irrigation in the state during the last census decade, the next ten years will see Montana's cultivated area trebled If not quadrupled, even leaving- out of considera tion ts vast reclamation works proposed to Lead in 6CENB IN THE TKLXOWSTONBJ VALLEY. MONTANA. . . . . ........ 5 jft0L i Mnu.tJbM ) . '1 f : ifi . i n i 1 mi ,i GOVERNMENT SKETCH OP MILK RIVER CAN AX. AS IT WILX. APPEAR WHEN COMPLETED NORTHERN MONTANA. by the federal government under the na tional Irrigation law. The project. for storing- the flood waters of the Milk river in northern Montana un der the direction of "Engineer Cyrus C. Babb of the geological survey. Is one of the first gTeat works investigated by the government engineers, even before the pas sage of the national irrigation act. This volves huge dams and canals and will re claim, when carried to full completion, a yery large area probably 600,000 acres of exceedingly rich land In the already . fa mous Milk river valley.. It will be a fa mous engineering exploit, by which the water now flowing into the Saskatchewan and thence into Hudson bay, will be car ried into the Missouri banln and ultimately reach the Gulf of Mexico. The govern ment has also taken up the Fort Buford project in eastern Montana and North Da kota and is likewise preparing- to spend f2,600,000 in the Wyoming-Shoshone project, which will reclaim some of the lands of southern Montana. These are the most advanced of the government works. In various other parts of the state the na tional hydrographers are making recon naissances and surveys, investigating res ervoir sites and reclalmable areas.. A serious menace, however, to the agri cultural future of the state lies In the ten dency to land absorption into immense pri vate holdings, which have resulted largely through the abuse of the desert land act Anil the commuters' clause of the home stead act, under which government land Is ' entered by speculators and dummies and not by actual settlers. W. W. Wooldrldge, president of the Montana Fruit Growers' association, in a recent adJress, cited eleven great ranches In Montana with ah average acreage each of G6.000, and showed statis tically the greater benefit which would have come to the state had these been set tled up into several. small farms and oc cupied by settlers and their famine. There seems to be a strong sentiment throughout the state for the repeal of these laws, leav- ' . Ing only the original homestead law, which has worked so successfully in building up ."co-operative Irrigation colonies in the Milk T river valley. All of this great promise of agriculture will, however, but add to Montana's fame as a mining- state. "Speaking from a min er's standpoint," said the geological survey official above quoted, "Montana's surface Irrigation and Mining ,i .t . ii (A i, '.. t 'v. A. -s - .a ,.t. '. 4 MONTANA FARM has been but indifferently scratched. We know that whole mountains exist of ore too expensive to work because the cost of living for man and beast Is too" high. The state has thousands of other mountains of which we know little or nothing. Montana la a- vast country of itself; the mountains of its western half cover thousands and ' tens of thousands of square miles. Now, - extend agriculture throughout the state, lead the great stream out of their deep channels and spread thorn over sortie mil lions of acres of arid soil and (hit mountain wealth can be turned to man's account, railroads will penetrate the de.tert and .Montana can almost supply the wor'.d with metals." OUY E. M1TCHKUI China's Warriors. ' The Chinaman Is the embodiment of (he business spirit and the - established prin ciples of trafflo permeate even the soldier -"V -., , . 4 i 'V. ' ' s. -- "- J AND ORCHARD SCENE. ranks. The secret of China's inglorious military career in recent years is that ths rank and file had not been paid. The Chinaman's ruling- passion for business" displayed itself in the war with Japan. A general in the Japanese army told me that after the first Are from his regiment of Infantry the Chinese troops arrayed against him disappeared like a mist. Not long thereafter they appeared In the rear of his army, retailing vegetables to his soldiers. Nevertheless, he was confident, there was no lack of bravery among those) thrifty deserters. Inquiry developed that they had not been paid their wages audi that they lived in no expectation that their miserable cash allotment as heroes would ever come their way. When they could coin an opportunity Into profit, the al ternativeof inrlorlously facing the firing? line without paj-naturally failed to, kindle martial seal. Booklover'a Magaxlne,