The total area of Montana is 146,080 square miles, or 93,491,200 acres.
Of this vast empire 31,373,000 acres or about one-third of the whole is
agricultural land, while of this 18,157,000 acres or a little less than
one-fifth of the entire area is irrigable land, so classified not only
because it will, if provided with water, raise profitable crops, but
also because, in my opinion, water can with proper management be
provided for it.
Of the total area of the State only about 1,200,000 acres or less than
one-sixteenth of the irrigable area may be easily cultivated, by this I
do not mean that this whole amount is now reclaimed, but that it may
with the means liable to be employed by private parties with limited
capital, be readily brought under cultivation by the same methods by
which most of the lands in Montana are now irrigated.
The amount of land actually under cultivation, according to the
assessment of 1888, was 348,070 acres, and this should probably be
increased by about one-half, since the farmers doubtless greatly
underestimated the amounts of their cultivated lands to the assessor:
perhaps then, 500,000 acres under cultivation would be nearer the
truth.
It is estimated that three-fourths of the remaining 75,000,000 acres
not classed above as irrigable, or say 55,000,000 acres, which is
nearly two-thirds of the total area of the State, will, with the
increased facilities for watering live stock and for domestic use
offered by the highest state of irrigation development, become valuable
as grazing land, since it is naturally covered with an abundant growth
of bunch grass, and only needs better facilities for watering and for
the establishment of home farms, to cause it to be entirely occupied
for grazing purposes.
Nearly, or quite all, of the lands above classified as agricultural and
pasture lands, are now covered with an abundant growth of bunch grass,
occasional patches of sage brush or prickly pear, and devoid of any
timber other than patches of willows and cottonwoods along the streams,
or a few isolated clumps of scrub pines and junipers on the highest
lands.
About 10,000,000 of the remaining 20,000,000 acres are excellent timber
lands and are situated on the slopes and sides of the higher mountains,
though west of the Continental Divide the valleys and flat bench lands
are sometimes covered with timber.
The remaining 10,000,000 acres may be classed as barren and rugged
mountain peaks and some little barren "bad lands" near the southeastern
corner of the State, and the broken and rough cut banks of rivers,
"couleés," etc.
It is in these more rugged mountain regions that the great gold, silver
and copper deposits are found.