The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-02-27
THE NATIONAL
 DRAINAGE CONGRESS
By w. B. Gregory Irrigation Engineer, U. $. Department of Agriculture and Experimental Engineer, Tulane University

i The National Drainage Congress to 1 be held in New Orleans April 1913, 1912 should be of interest to every l citizen of the United States. The importance of irrigation to the whole country, and especially to the l arid states, is no longer a question to | be debated. Irrigation. as an ac- l complished fact, is convincingly shown by the returns of the Census of 1909, MT. R. P Teele, in charge of the IT, Census, in an address before the IT. rigation Congress in Chicago last De l cember, gave the total acreage irri- gated in the arid states as 13, 739, 499 acres. This is an increase of S2-5 per- cent in the last decade and 107.3 per- cent in the last two decades. Let us compare these figures with the possibilities afforded by drainage l. While there have been some results accomplished in drainage in the last | ten years, the acreage reclaimed by drainage during that time is very
 much less than that due to irrigation. Circular 76. Drainage Investigation United States Department of Agricu1- ture 1907 is authority for the state ment that the wet land areas east of the Rocky Mountains amount to the enormaus total of 119,922 square miles, Or 76,7S2,0sO acres, practically equal to the combined area of the | states of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. There are many points from which the drainage problem may be viewed. The effects on general prosperity may be eStinIa ted from the wonderful re- comparison be made on acreage alone, we see at once that the magnitude of the drainage problem and therefore the effect on general prosperity will be between four and five times as great.
 The average cost per acre to se-
 cure irrigation in the arid states, as given by MT. NTeele based on the acre age of 1909 is $22.1S per acre, while the average cost of irrigation for works built since 1899 is S3S.l9 per acre for those built prior to that date. This shows that the cost of future ir- rigation works will be greatly in ex- cess of the cost in the past as the problem becomes more difficult. There are millions of acres of land to be reclaimed by drainage at a, cost varying from $4 per re to from $20 | to $3O per acre, wheTt conditions are less favorable.
 No one questions the fertility of the l irrigated lands When. however, a comparison is made with the fertility of the wet lands that are to be re- of the latter. The low lands are al- most universally of alluviaI forma- tion and besides having the best of the soils from the high countries ad- l jacent, they also have a, deposit vary ing from a few inches to several feet in depth of decayed vegetable matter, high in nitrogen, the most expensive of fertilizers, and in addition they us- ually possess the other requisites of fertility to a remarkable degree. It is worth while to reclaim these lands?
 Ask the farmers who are cultivat- or any of the states of the middle west.
 Ask the truck farmers of the Sacra-
 mento Valley in California.
 Ask the men who are raising crops l on the reclaimed lands of Louisiana 1 where the results attained are almost beyond belief.
 These lands are the most valuable in the United States and will produce | more per acre of crops that will sell for more money in the markets than | any other lands in the section in which they are located. Forty acres of this land. if devoted | to general crops, will yield returns that will mean prosperity to a fam 1 fly.
 Ten acres deovted to truck and veg | etables will support a family provid- l ing not only the needs of daily life. | but a competence for old age. Estimating the present, acreage to l be reclaimed by drainage at 6S, ,000, ,OOO 1 the number of 40 acre farms to be 1 added to the productive lands of the l United States amounts to HOO, ,0OO- If a family of five persons is to oc-
 cupy each of these farms, it means an additional population of $500. 900. 1 These figures are conservative because i much of the reclaimed territory will be used for truck gardens and win 1 support a population several times as dense as that suggested above The addition of this valuable area of highly productive land means that the burden of taxation will be carried by more people and therefore, will be less of a burden for all. It means the development of all the country with the accompanying result that good roads will become a universal necessity, and that their cost will he
 smaller proportionately than at present.