fHAT the action of con
gress in providing for the
irrigation of arid lands is
now to prove its benefit
in actual reclaiming of
. the wilderness is nowhere
more apparent at present than in the
Great Falls district of Montana. Ir
rigation at the hands of national au
thority is now a realization, and the
public is watching with a great deal
1 of interest the early irrigation pro
jects of Uncle Sam. By the provi
sions of the law, arid lands are to be
watered at the expense of the gov
ernment! upon a very much larger
scale than lias hitherto been possible
through the limited means at the dis
posal of individuals and small com
panies. As rapidly as practicable,
lj^xge tracts of government lands are
to be withdrawn from entry, sup
plied with an adequate system of ir
rigation, and again opened up for
settlement in sections as the irriga
tion ditches are extended. The
means to carry on this great gov
ernment work is taken from the
various revenues derived from gov
ernment lands. The most recent or
der from Washington provided for
the withdrawal of 1,000,000 acres of
land in the Great Falls district, rnak
patches in that vast northern region,
greater in area than- the state of In
diana, known as the Milk River
Valley (which will benefit largely by
the new government ditches) have
made such rapid strides in produc
tion as even to suggest that arid
lands, when properly irrigated, not
only produce more uniform crops,
but also brjfig them forth with more
certainty and regularity than lands
that lie within the great humid belt
where the crops may have moisture
only when it falls from the heavens,
Heretofore, of course, most, of the
irrigation of the Milk River Valley
has been carried on by private en
terprise. The method employed is
that which is known as furrowing
and flooding. By the former plan
water is run between the rows of
vegetables, corn, garden truck or
anything planted in rows. The water
is allowed to run in every alternate
row so that two rows are supplied
from one furrow. Grain and hay
crops are irrigated by the second
process known as flooding. Water is !
turned upon a piece of land to be ir;
rigated until it is entirely flooded
and all parts are thoroughly wet,
when the flow is stopped and the
surplus waters are drained off by
I I I
mu f'i|
. i v'/^ y
I
Ing fully 3,000,000 acres of land re
cently withdrawn from entry. Other
orders will be frequent. It is no
boy’s play that Uncle Sam has en
tered upon and the business in hand
is being pushed in a large way.
The traveler in Montana, viewing
the country from the car window,
arrives at the conclusion that he has
ventured beyond the confines of
♦%-eason and that there is no curse like
the curse of the desert. Nine cas
ual observers out of ten, perhaps,
will breathe a great sigh of relief
when “God’s country” is again reach
ed. And yet the tenth man will sea
something of value—something which
gives him a hint of the west’s future
agricultural glory. His impressions
will be the correct ones. The land
is not irredeemable. This has al
ready been effectively demonstrated
in small areas throughout the state.
Those dry, verdureless ditches are
to be the land’s salvation.
Up fo the present time the total
irrigated area in Montana amounts
to only 951,154 acres. A comparison
of this total with the three or four
million acres which will soon be
added to it, well reveals the stu
pendous nature of the government a
enterprise. And this is to be only a
beginning.
Already the redeemed land in va
rious parts of the state and espe
cially, just now, in the northern por
tion around Hinsdale, on the Great
Northern, is attracting the attention
of the agricultural world. Irrigated
ditches constructed for that purpose.
There are no expensive flumes and
vast stone dams to build, as in some
of the southwestern states.
Irrigation has been accomplished
in many localities by the organiza
tion of co-operative irrigation com
panies (incorporated under the stata
law) each composed of a number of
farmers for whom a common ditch
will suffice. Each farmer pledges
himself to do his share of the work
of building and maintaining the
canal and to pay his portion of the
cash assessments for the cost of tho
survey, material used, etc. The wa
ters of the state are free. Only
those farmers whose land is watered
by the canal are permitted to own
stock in the enterprise, although it
is said that the stock of any of these
incorporated companies is readily ac
cepted by the banks as collateral.
These water rights are indeed the
farmer’s most valuable holdings.
The first government cooperative
canal in Montana is located near
Great Falls by the Montana State
Arid Land Grant commission. This
canal is still in course of construc
tion, but 'when completed its water*
will benefit some 60,000 acres of arid
land. The actual area set aside for
redemption, however, amounts to
only 33,000 acres. More than one
third of this territory has been
placed under ditch and divided int-j
farms not exceeding 160 acres each.
These have been sold or offered for
sale, according to the state law, at
I he cost of getting the water on the
land, plus 20 per cent., which in this
instance amounts to a total charg«
of $15 an acre. The purchase of the
land includes the purchase of a per
petual water right, else, of course,
the whole project were defeated.
The soil of Dearborn valley, the re
gion in which the first government
experiment was tried, was well
adapted for a first trial of this kind
It is a rich, sandy loam that ha:»
been washed down by the streams in
ages past and now forms a deep
mantle over the country that serve:!
as a most excellent soil for crops
when the necessary amount of water
is available.
This state experiment was made
possible by the Carey act of congress,
by the provisions of which the nation
pesented the state with 1,000,000
acres to be reclaimed, thus allowing
Montana the distinction of owning
and operating the first governmental
irrigation canal in the western hemi
sphere. The canal, when completed,
will have cost not less than $400,000,
This Dearborn canal system, as it
is called, embraces 100 miles of main
waterway and several hundred miles
of laterals, the water being uniform
ly distributed. The main canal is 3S
feet svide and five feet deep, with an
average grade of 3.1 feet to the mile
Subsidiary canals range from 16 feet
wide on bottom to seven feet in
width. The reservoir system in
eludes about 3,000 acres with an
average depth of 20 feet, thus storing
50,000 to 60,000 acre feet. The water
supply is always adequate, the water
being taken from the Grand canyon
of the Dearborn river. As this river
is supplied by 175 square miles of
the main range of the Rockies, the
stream’s source is perpetual. By ar
interesting engineering feat this
state canal diverts a portion of the
water of Dearborn river, at a cer
tain point up the canyon, and, carry
ing the water over hill and vale to a
reservoir in Summit Lake, distributes
it to the several small valleys of Flat
creek, Auchard creek, Dry creek,
Simm’s creek and Spring coulee.
The few irrigation experiments
that have been tried in Montana, al
though necessarily upon a small
scale as compared with the great
problem of irrigation throughout the
state, are quite successful and sig
nificant enough to arouse the en
thusiasm of whosoever takes the
pains to study the matter. They
teach the lesson that there is no big
ger or more fmportant problem be
fore the nation to-day than the irri
gation of its lands. MAX OWEN.
LAUDS AMERICAN METHODS.
DRS. B. A. & W. R. WASHBURN '
Physicians and Surgeons.
Special attention given to diseases
of Ear, Nose and Throat. Also Dis
eases of Women.
-:o:
Offices: New Watson Building,
Rooms 12, 14 and 15.
Newport, Arkansas.
__
DR. H. O. WALKER,
Physician and Surgeon.
Office: Redman’s Drag Store.
Newport, - - - Arkansas.
WHEN GOING
EAST • WEST - NORTH - SOUTH
TAKE THE OLD RELIABLE
ONLY LINE WITH DOUBLE DAILY
THROUGH SERVICE
TO HOT SPRINGS^
^NO CHANGE.
CONNECTION MADE AT BALD KNOB
TOR MEMPHIS.
UNSURPASSED SERVICE^
^ FAST TIME
DIRECT CONNECTION MADE AT ST.
LOUIS AND TEXARKANA WITH LINES
DIVERGING.
FOR INFORMATION CALL ON OR
ADDRESS
WM. M. GREGG, Agent,
NEWPORT, ARK.
H. C. Townsend, G. P. A.,
ST. LOUIS, MO.
!' .—_!== ■ ■■
The NEWPORT
LAUNDRY
COMPANY_
Has the Largest Plant In
Arkansas.
Equipped with Latest Improved
Machinery.
Uses Filtered and Condensed
Water and Positively Guar
antees all work.
Give Us A Trial.
We Will Please You. Prompt
Service and Special Work
Everyday.
Out of Town agents wanted.
NEWPORT LAUNDRY CO.
W. F. Williams, Mgr.
Henry ©wen
PHYSICIAN, SURGEON AM»
OCULIST.
«,VER BAILEY BROS'. DRY GOODS STORE
| Eupion Oil
L__
When buying illuminating
oil insist on having Eupion, the
family safety. This is a dou
ble distilled process oil that is
ORDORi.Ess and absolutely safe.
If you will use clean burners
and wicks and Eupion Oil you
will have best light obtainable.
Th* only merchants in New
port that sell this high grade
oil are: Wolff-Goldm^n Mer.
Co., W. B. Chastain, WilmaDS
Bros., R. D. Wilman*?, Heili
ger’s Union Market Co., Martin
Bros., and Harris & Daugherty,
Waters-Pierce Oil Comp’y
English Educator Speak* Word,* of
H In li Commendation for System
in Vogue in United States.
The British board of education has
issued twd volumes of special reports
containing essays on secondary in
struction in the United States. Sir
Joshua Fitch, chief inspector of train
ing colleges, contributes an introduc
tion in which he compares the British
and American systems. He says that
in America there is no distribution of
parties corresponding to the English
conservatives and liberals, because
there are no dynastic or ecclesiastical
privileges to conserve. The whole na
tion, he says, may be described as a
party of progress. The politicians in
America differ only in their views as
to what progress means.
The other essayists include D. S.
Sanford, of the Brooklyn high school;
G. L. Fox, of Newr Haven, Conn., and
H. T. Mark. The Daily Chronicle in
reviewing the reports says the most
striking fact in the study of American
education is the universal enthusiasm
and the conviction that it is the duty
of the nation to provide the best avail
able instruction and training for the
young American.
TRACING GREAT WATERSHED
(ieoloKlcal Survey Eiigugnt in Ex
amining Water lleurlng Rocks
in the Great Plains.
The geological survey is engaged
in an examination of the water-bear
ing rocks in the great plains between
the Mississippi river and the Rocky
mountains for the purpose of indi
cating the distance of underground
streams and reservoirs from the sur
face, and the depth of the wells nec
essary to reach them.
From careful study of well-bor
ing and other geological phenomena
of the region it has been discovered
that extensive waker-bearing strata
underlie the whole plains region and
are bent upward and reach the sur
face on the eastern Hanks of the
Rocky and Big Horn mountains, and
in the Black Hills uplift.
Abundant Sympathy.
“Don’t you sympathize w ith the peo
ple who are complaining of high
prices?”
“I do,” answered the monopolist.
“It shall never be said that I was dere
lict in the matter of sympathy. 1 sym
pathize with the people you mention
a great deal, and if things go as I ex
pect them to in three or four months
I’ll sympathize with them twice as
much.”—Washington Star
i
THE BANK OF NEWPORT
• (Oldest and Largest Bank in the County).
CAPITAL $50,000
-:-r. - rOFFICERS-—-—- -t ", j
G. W. Decker, President, A. D. Bailey, Vice-President j
R. M. Johnson, Cashier. T. D. Kinman, Asst. Cashier
Directors:—A. D. Bailey, V. Y. Cook, G. W. Decker, John T. Flynn,
Thos. J. Graham, J. W. Grubbs, R. M. Johnson, A. E.
Shoffner, J. M. Stayton.
We thank our patrons for the past year’s business out of which we are
enabled to pay our stockholders their regular ten per cent dividend, and to
add to our surplus fund and reserve profit account 87414.99.
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