The Harlem News

Land Projects Employ 450 In Tri-County Area

Malta, May 2. (Special)-More than 450 men, including survey crews, supervisors and foremen, are working on dry land and irrigated land development in the Milk river-northern Montana project area at the present time, according to information released from the project office at Malta.

Work is being concentrated on the development of irrigation and drainage facilities and land leveling operations in the irrigated valley. In Valley county the power line to the resettlement units east of Hinsdale will be completed by May 10 and the pump irrigation plant which will supply water for 320 acres of land near the highway bridge east of Hinsdale will be operating by May 18, Project Engineer William Wallinder states.

Irrigation and drainage structures on all Hinsdale units will be completed by June 1. Twenty men are employed in addition to a survey crew. A caterpillar tractor and a LeTourneau are working 16 hours a day, 30 days a month and a small caterpillar is working 40 hours a week on the Valley county project. The work is under the supervision of William Broderick, field engineer.

In Blaine county work is being done under the supervision of Field Engineer Duffy Murry. Irrigation and drainage structures will be completed on all Zurich units by June 1. Land is being leveled on the north side of Milk river at Zurich and preliminary surveys are being made of the Harlem area so land development work can start June 1. A dragline and a LeTourneau are working 16 hours a day, 30 days a month in an effort to get as much work as possible done this crop season.

Two additional survey crews have been put to work in the Malta area in an effort to keep the survey work ahead of the land development crews.

Land development on the Edwards tract at Malta is expected to be completed by May 20. A large crew of men is working on irrigation structures out of Wagner where two caterpillars and two LeTourneaus are working two shifts a day, 30 days a month.

Work started May 2 on 10 reservoirs on dry land in the tri-county area. Four projects are under construction in Blaine county, four in Phillips and two in Valley county.

The Blaine county reservoirs are located north of Savoy, north of Chinook and north of Harlem. Phillips county reservoirs are also in the northern section of the county, one being near old Lovejoy, one near Grove, one at Corwine Center and one near Forks. One reservoir is being constructed west of Opheim and one south of Vandalia in Valley county.

A seeding and tree planting project is also under way in Valley county. Rodent control crews are at work in each county and a wading pool for children is being constructed at the American Legion health pool in Phillips county.

The work on dry land development, which is under the bureau of agricultural economics of the department of agriculture, is supervised by T. W. Traphagen in Valley county; Lee Robinson, Blaine county and Clyde Ferris, Phillips county.