The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-11-07
Our Inland
Waterways
Uncle Sans Plans to Cheaper
Freight Rates and Reduce the Cost
of Living
of living
By FRANK G.. CARPENTER.

the United states over. Inc pest way
to measure this is by acre feet-that
is, by covering a certain number or
acres with water "a foot in depth.
The yearly supply measured that way
would cover five thousand million
acres, which in area is equal to 200
states the size Of Ohio, Virginia or
Kentucky, or in volume to ten Mis-
sissippi rivers running day and night
all the year through. All this comes
from the rain or snow which falls in
one ear.
The distribution of this supply,
however, is very Draw a line
north and south across the United
/ Moines, Iowa, n more than half Of
all the rain that falls will be found
east of that line. The average pre-
cipitation over that tract Is forty-eight
inches per annum. 1t is the humid
region OF our country. From thai
line about 500 miles westward is an
other territory which may be called
semi-hurnid, where the rainfall Is
about thirty inches, and the whole
remainder, consisting of about two
fifths Of our country, includes the arid
lands, where the average precipita-
tract is the region of the deserts, the
mountains and Of the reclamation
projects. 1t is a country Of a few
we'll watered spots, but also Of extern
sive tracts which are bone dry.
Where the Rains Go.
Nevertheless, we have, all told, an
annual rainfall equal to ten Missis-
sippi rivers. We have measured the
quantity and know that it falls.
Where does it go? I shall ask these
~high-browed scientists to tell you the
story. Here again MCGEE is the best
authority. His mind is so sharp that
it can split a raindrop, and his vision
CO o1nor fhot ho n fOfJnuy fhn 1~o~
to the skies or to the bowels of old
Mother Earth. He divides the rain
fall into three-the %run-off, the fly
off and the cutoff. One-third Of all
the water that falls, says he. flows
into the sea through the rivers and
off. a smaller amount soaks into the
soil and saturates the rocks and finds
it's way into the sea by leaking out
into the streams. This is the cutoff.
The remainder, which IS by far the
most of the supply, evaporates and
This is the 1y-off. This is the water
which, in connection with hat from
the oceans, loads the cloud and
drops again upon the n
The fy-off is so large that if you
could freeze it into cubes a mile
ice wall a mile high n a mile wide
all the way from New York to De-
troit. The run-off, if so frozen, would
make such a wall 500 miles long, and
the cutoff, or the water which sinks
into the soil, would make one long
enough to reach from Philadelphia to
Boston.
Our Underground Waters.
In addition to the water which falls
every year, we hav another great
supply underground, which has ac-
cumuiated and is fed by the rain and
snow which fall from time to time.
This water is always moving, but the
amount is SO great that it is equal to
the entire rainfall Of the United
States for seven years, or to the run
off FOR twenty years. There is 50
much Of it under the surface of the
earth that it has been stimate that
If it were equally distributed it would
wrap around our globe an envelope
Of water n~inety-six feet in thickness.
! MCGEE stimat that the amount Of
water which lies under the United
States to a depth of 100 feet would,
if It could be raised to the surface
n held there, cover our whole
try to a depth Of seventeen feet. He
estimates that it contains 1900 cubic
miles Of water, Or enough to build a
rampant Of ice two miles wide and
five miles high through the Missfs-
sippi valley from ST. Paul to st. Louis
n OF to New Orleans.
This underground water runs from
the surface, as in the case of sWamps
and marshes, to hundreds OF feet. and
esen a thousand feet, below the sur
face. All the cracks and openings Of
the rocks are filled with water, and
there are porous rocks which take up
water like a sponge. In these about
one-fifth Of h whole volume is sup
posed to be stored 1t is this water
which feeds our artesian wells and
other wells. 1t is this that feeds the
x + in Ornof Ho0~0n on6 fhso that
furnishes the larger part OF our table
supply. In some places this water is
pumped up and used for irrigation
and in others it flows on being tapped.
and altogether it is very valuable.
will be asked not My to
/ C0HS0EQ the faroufa that 46ou -..-