Mosasaurs, and in the museum of the university of Montana is the
greater part of the skeleton of a Dinosaur which was found here.
Interesting fossil remains have also been found in Carboniferous
formations in the south-west of the state.
Fauna.—The native fauna is not sharply distinguished from that of the surrounding states. The bison, which once ranged the plains in large herds, have been exterminated; the moose and the elk are found only occasionally in the wilder regions; mountain sheep, antelopes, black and grizzly bears, wolves, coyotes and lynx (“wild cats”) are also becoming rare. Black-tailed and mule deer are still favourite game for sportsmen. Geese, ducks and grouse are numerous about the lakes and rivers. Several kinds of fish, among which are trout, salmon, grayling and white fish, inhabit many of the lakes, rivers and mountain streams, and a government fish hatchery at Bozeman, Gallatin county, restocks waters in which the supply has been diminished.
Flora.—The Great Plains are covered for the most part only with bunch grass which grows in tufts, leaving the ground visible between, and except in May and June presents a yellow and withered appearance. Mixed with the bunch grass are occasional patches of sage brush. Most of the bluffs along the principal river valleys, especially those in the south-east, are entirely bare of vegetation, but on the bottom lands along the rivers and streams considerable patches of cottonwood and willows are common. The mountain valleys are covered with little except grasses; on the higher parts of the mountains there are barren rocks or only a scant growth of timber; but many of the lower mountain slopes, especially those along the western border, are clothed with heavy timber, yellow pine, red fir and tamarack being the principal species.
Climate.—The climate is generally dry, although less so on the mountains and in the Flathead river basin than on the Great Plains, and is subject to sudden changes and to great extremes of temperature; but the temperature varies more than the amount of precipitation. In the west the climate is generally delightful, it being there greatly affected by the warm, dry “Chinook” wind which blows from the Pacific Ocean; to some extent the wind modifies the temperature nearly to the eastern border. It is the prevailing wind of winter in the mountains and in consequence the periods of cold, though often severe, are short. In the east the winters are often long and very cold, and the summers dry and hot. The mean annual temperature ranges from 37° F. in the north-east to 47° in the sheltered valleys among the mountains. On the Great Plains a range of extremes within a year from −40° F. to 100° is not unusual, but in the mountain valleys the range is rarely greater than from −20° to 90°. The records from 1880 to 1907 show a maximum range from 117° at Glendive, near the eastern border, in July 1893, to −63° at Poplar, about 80 m. north by west of Glendive, in January 1885. The amount of precipitation is greater in the north-west and on the mountains, because in the one case the mountains of lower elevation are a less obstruction to the moisture-bearing winds from the west, and in the other the mountains condense the moisture; the mountains which stand in isolated groups upon the plains are frequently in summer the focus of local thunder showers. The average annual precipitation ranges from 10 to 15 in. on the Great Plains to 20 in. or more in the north-west, and over limited areas in the higher mountain region. Nearly one-half of the rain falls during the four months from May to August inclusive. Storms endangering life and property occur only in the east, caused by a high north wind with snow or rain and a low temperature.
Soil.—In the river bottoms the soil is for the most part a black clayey loam lacking in natural drainage, but on the “bench lands” higher up there is a deep layer of sandy loam beneath which is a bed of gravel. Some of the best soil is in the mountain valleys, for these valleys were once lakes and rich deposits of alluvium were made in them. The mountain slopes are often bare or covered only with a thin layer of mould.
Agriculture.—The rainfall is sufficient for good grazing, but except in the Flathead valley cultivation was long considered to be dependent on irrigation; and consequently farming was only incidental to stock raising and mining until after 1870, and as late as 1900 the ratio of improved farm land to the total land area was less than in any other state or territory except New Mexico, Wyoming, Arizona and Hawaii. In 1906 the farm area was almost equally divided between “dry” farming and farming under irrigation, three-fourths of the wheat produced was grown without irrigation, and the dry farming was very successful with the comparatively new and valuable crops of durum, or macaroni wheat, and Russian barley, which is used in straw for winter feed to sheep and neat cattle. The counties where dry farming had been carried on on the largest scale were Missoula, Ravalli, Flathead, Cascade, Fergus and Gallatin, where cereal yields, though not nearly so large as from irrigated lands, were high compared with the average for the country. But even where dry farming was successful, the increase of crops made possible by cheap irrigation seemed to be inducing farmers to abandon it. Among the larger privately irrigated tracts are: 16,000 to 18,000 acres in Yellowstone county, fed by a canal built by the Billings Land & Irrigation Company; about 35,000 acres of orchard land in the Bitter Root Valley, in Ravalli county, irrigated by canals from Lake Como, a natural reservoir; and 100,000 acres in Missoula county, to be watered from a 28 ft. dam across the Clark Fork (or Missoula River) at Bonner. Private irrigation by pumping was first successfully introduced about 1901, and in 1906 a state report estimated that 125 pumping irrigation plants were in use in the state. Boring for underground water supply to be used in irrigation was tried on a small scale. An area of 16,000 acres in Missoula county is watered by a ditch 10 m. long built in 1902–1905 by the co-operative Grass Valley-Frenchtown Irrigation Company, and the Teton Co-operative Canal Company in 1906 began work on a diversion canal from the Teton River, whose waters are to be stored by a dam 62 ft. high and 2100 ft. long. But more important than private and co-operative undertakings are the Federal irrigation projects. In 1894 Congress passed the Carey Act, under which Montana received title to 1,000,000 acres of arid land on condition that the state would reclaim it by providing an adequate supply of water; the state accepted the offer, created an irrigation commission, and provided means for securing the necessary funds. Furthermore, Congress in 1902 appropriated the receipts from the sales of public lands in the state to the construction of irrigation work. In 1899 there were 6812 m. of irrigation canals and large ditches in the state; the irrigated acreage had increased from 350,582 acres in 1889 to 951,154 acres in 1899, when about 84% of the irrigated area was in the south-west. The great Federal projects were not begun until after 1900. Among them are: the Huntley project in Yellowstone county, begun in 1904 and practically completed in 1908, covering land formerly in the Crow Indian reservation, the irrigable area being 28,921 acres; the Lower Milk river project (and the subsidiary St Mary project), in Chouteau, Valley and Teton counties, by which the water of St Mary river[1] is stored and diverted to the headquarters of the Milk river to irrigate an area of 300,000 acres; the Sun river project (Teton, Lewis and Clark, Chouteau and Cascade counties), by which, as the ordinary flow of that river is already utilized for irrigation, the flood waters are stored and carried to the higher bench lands of the district; in Montana (Dawson county) and North Dakota (McKenzie county), the Lower Yellowstone project; and the Blackfeet project, to irrigate the Blackfeet reservation in Teton county.
In 1900, 11,844,454 acres, or 12·7% of the area, was included in farms; of this, 1,736,701 acres, or 14·7%, was improved; 54·7%, of the improved farm land was irrigated; 79·4% of the irrigated land was used for growing crops and 20·6% for pasturage; the total acreage of all crops was 1,151,674, and of this 755,865, or 65·6%, was irrigated. In the same year there were 13,370 farms exclusive of those on Indian reservations; of these, 6665 contained less than 175 acres each; 1289 contained more than 1000 acres each; 8043 contained some irrigated land, the average amount being 118 acres; 11,592 were worked by owners or part owners, 624 by cash tenants, and 606 by share tenants.
Of the total acreage of all crops in 1899, 875,712 acres, or 76%, were hay and forage, and 254,231 acres, or 22·1%, were cereals; of the cereal acreage 52·7% was oats, 36·2% was wheat, 9% was barley, and 1·3% was Indian corn. In 1909 the oat crop was 15,390,000 bushels from 300,000 acres; the acreage of wheat in 1909 was 350,000 and the production 10,764,000 bushels; the acreage of barley in 1909 was 50,000 acres, and 1,900,000 bushels were raised; the acreage of Indian corn in 1909 was 5000 acres, and 175,000 bushels were grown.
Sugar beets were first grown in Montana at Evans, Cascade county, in 1893 without irrigation. In 1906 a refinery (with a daily slicing capacity of 1200 tons) was built at Billings, Yellowstone county. Russians, with experience in beet-growing, and Japanese are furnished by the sugar company to the growers for the bunching, thinning, hoeing and topping of the beets. In 1906 sugar refineries were projected at Hamilton, Kalispell, Chinook, Laurel, Missoula, Dillon and Great Falls; and in 1907 the crop was so large that 12,000 freight cars were needed to carry it and the railways had a car and coal “famine.”
The east is devoted chiefly to stock raising; for cattle, horses and sheep thrive well on the bunch grass except when it is covered with snow. The principal sheep-raising counties are Custer, Yellowstone, whither many sheep are brought to be fattened, Rosebud, Beaverhead, Valley, and Meagher. In 1909 the number of sheep in Montana was 5,747,000, being exceeded only by the number in Wyoming; the number of cattle was 922,000, only 80,000 being milch cows, and the number of horses 319,000.
Lumber.—The woodland area was estimated in 1900 at 42,000 sq. m., much of which had been burned over. It is confined mainly to the mountain slopes, and in March 1909 31,858·9 sq. m., more than three-fourths of this total, had been set apart in the following “national forests”: Absaroka (980,440 acres), Beartooth (685,293 acres), Beaverhead (1,506,680 acres in Montana; and a smaller area in Idaho), Bitterroot (1,180,900 acres), Blackfeet (1,956,340 acres),
- ↑ The St Mary and both forks of the Milk river flow northward into the Dominion of Canada, and as there has been much private irrigation both north and south of the international boundary, the present Federal project and other undertakings in the same region necessitate an international agreement as to the division of the waters, especially of the St Mary, and commissioners representing the Canadian government and the United States conferred in regard to it in May 1908.
