This interesting subject cannot be passed by without a little castle building, and accordingly an attempt will be made to show what the future of Montana may owe to irrigation.
It has just been shown how and where 1,750,000 acres may be added to the area at present under cultivation; many times this amount, however, can be reclaimed. Settled as closely as a large irrigated district would naturally be, these 1,750,000 acres will be increased by about 15 per cent. or 262,500 acres, the area which will be occupied by roads, buildings, and towns; that is to say over 2,000,000 acres will be rendered capable of sustaining the highest degree of settlement, though in reality this amount will be much greater since a large portion of the land will not be directly irrigated, since it will indirectly receive sufficient moisture from the neighboring fields to render it serviceable for pasturage.
It has been claimed by various authorities that a homestead of forty acres is abundant for the support of a family, assuming this estimate to be correct, then 2,000,000 acres will support 50,000 families; at five persons each this would give a farm population of 250,000. This number of farm workers would require a town and village population of one and one-half more, or our 2,000,000 acres would add in all 375,000 people to the State.
On the same basis the 18,000,000 acres which have been classified as irrigable land, (and this estimate is below that of the Montana Society of civil engineers and other authorities), would support 3,120,000 inhabitants.