Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-08-06

the Gauges. He has piled up tens of mil
lions TO reclaim the bare lands, and has
an army of engineers and laborers at
work turning them into farms for his peo-
pIe Last year he had 1900 men dig
ging, blasting and damming. He has al
ready built so many canals that II they
were laid end to end they would reach
from New York to San Francisco and
back to New Orleans, or if measured
upon the Pacific would extend from Cali
fornia to China. Some of these canals
carry whole rivers. He has built about
800 miles OF wagon roads, has eXcaVated
more than twenty miles of tunnels, ano
altogether has taken out enough earth 10
equal ditch three feet wide and three
fee, deep running clear around the world
at the equator. and in addition 10 equal
a hole three feet square run through the
globe from one side to the other, and
similar tunnel dug at right angles to this
from pole 10 pole.
This is the work of the reclamation
service, which is backed by a capital OF
about ninety million dollars, and OF
which sixty millions are already invested
There are ten millions left of the recla-
nation fund, and in addition twenty mil
lions more which have been appropriated
by Congress and are at the command OF
the service This great work is headed
by some of the ablest organizers and
most skilled engineers of Uncle Sans
scientific army. j have spent this week
at their Office building in aShington
1t has a large number OF clerks, although
the actual constructive operations are
scattered all over the west. The -" asl-
hoe bNfT N
stage of the work. 1t receives daily re-
ports of what is being done, and one can
get a bird s-eye view of the mighty I'M
dertakings which are now under way.
The government scientists have made
maps of the country, testing every slope.
hill and valley. They have measured the
water in the air overhead, and WIN
diamond drills have tested the beds or the
canyons beneath in sinking the 1ounda-
lions for dams which will store up the
rainfall They have done so much drill
ing that if the holes could be placed END
to end they would reach more than ten
miles down into the rocky hedrt OF olu
Mother Earth.
In company with DIR. F. II. Newell the
director, and one of the engineers, Mr.
G. J. Blanchard / have gone over the
maps showing where the various recia-
nation projects are situated Broadly
speaking they cover the whole arid west
extending from the great plains to the
Pacific. Those of the great plains are IN
country Whlcn mas Deeh IdiseiS ut
voted to grazing and which had enough
rainfall to produce food for the millions
of bu6aloes which once wandered over
1t. These projects are in the western
parts of Kansas, Nebraska and the Da-
kotas.
Another division is situated on the
great plateau which lies between the
Rocky mountains and the Sierra Nevadas
and Cascades, while others are on the
Pacific slope still farther west. There
n n
of which work is now going on, and in
many of which water is already flowing
over the lands.
Every one of these GASES contains Won
ders enough for a letter and some are
so remarkable that they cannot be passed
without notice. They are all watered
by dams which have created reservoirs
in the mountains, and some of these
dams are of enormous extent. Take the
Shoshone, which holds back the waters