Evening star., 1916-01-02

veloping projects in certain areas
where the demand seemed to make 1t
has been making a survey of the irri-
cation possibilities on nation wide
scale, and has formulated the ultimate
problems that the states and the ma
tion must solve if they are to make the
best possible use of a limited water
supply.
One of the discoveries that this line
of work has brought out is that of the
approximately LIS, 100000 acres of i'm
proved farms in states where irrigation
is practiced. and the many additional
acres of arabic lands that the neces-
sary moisture would make productive,
less than 50,00O,000 acres can be sup
piled with water at present rates of
use before the supply becomes ex-
hausted. 1t has been discovered at the
same time. however, that present irri-
cation methods are wasteful and that
proper use of water would compel the
desert to loosen its grip on an addi.
tional so per cent of area.
In helping the irrigators in their
night against the desert the Office is at
tacking all phases of the problem. It
has found. for instance, that before the
precious water reaches the fields mil
lions OF gallons seep away in improp-
erly constructed canals and bitches; so
1t has experimental to develop efficient
types of channels and to encourage
their use. 1t has found. too. that
water they give their crops the better
the results will be, are actually water
logging and otherwise injuring their
lands with lavish applications, while
better lands next door are unutilized
for lack of the wasted fluid. And it
has found that, short of this extreme,
1t is the general custom to use an ex-
cess of water, which. sinking to a
greater depth in the soil than the roots
can possibly penetrate to, is as truly
had 1yo1
to the field.
The irrigation experts of the Office
have been called on to assist in one
way or another practically all of the
states In which irrigation is practiced.
They recently co-operated with the
California conservation commission in
making what is perhaps the most COM
plete intensive study of water re-
sources and land subject to irrigation
that has been made in this country,
and are now carrying on. with the COM
mission and with officials of Colorado.
experiments to develop improved irri-
cation methods. The office of irriga-
ton Investigations has found in its
study of conditions that sparse settle
ment and high land prices are two i'm
portant obstacles to the rapid develop
ment of existing irrigation projects
that must be overcome. and it believes
that other needs are for elimination of
politics in the management of irriga-
tion districts and state irrigation work.
and for the stabilizing of irrigation
district bonds by close state super
vision or even state aid.
The officials of the office, from ia amil-
iarity with conditions in score of
states. believe that best results will be
reached when there is a division of
labor that will place construction of
the great needed reservoirs in the
hands of the national government. con-
struction of the distributing systems in
phases of maintenance and operation
in the hands of smaller organizations.
That all government commissions, in
spite of the reputation acquired by
some of those created in
Buying Up recent years, are not
chiefly intent on spending
e'S' their appropriations is
shown by the record of the national
forest reservation commission, which
has allowed approximately $4,000, 900
of an s11,o0o,o00 appropriation to lapse
because it insisted On unquestioned
proof of good title to lands.
The commission was created by Con-
gress in 1911 to carry out the impor-
tant work of acquiring national for
ests in the east. where, because of con-
gested population, they were especially
needed. but were wholly lacking. The
titles to the needed lands, protecting
the headwaters of streams in the
southern Appalachian and White noun
tains, were found to be. in such a tan
gle, however. that the commission
could not proceed with purchases and
had to devote its whole attention to
Strengthening out questions of owner
ship. while portion of the appropria-
ton. made available for limited
period, reverted to the Treasury. In
spite of delays, however. headway was
made, and as a result of the commits
sion's work lands totaling over 1,300.-
900 acres have been approved for pur-
chase in sixteen localities as the nuclei
of the national reservations. These 1t is
intended to make extensive enough to
protect the more important portions Of
the mountain watersheds of the Allan
tic coast and eastern Mississippi valley
streams.
The misgivings of some Legislators
who feared that high land values in
the east would make the acquisition of
large forest areas impracticable have
proved unfounded SO far, and the COM
mission has been able to secure the
lands for an average price of only $5.22
an acre. In the belief that values will
greatly increase in the near future. the
purchasing body is recommending that
the present Congress fix on 100000
acres as the area needed for eastern
forests and that it make $2,000,00O
available each year until the proposed
reservations are acquired.
On the trail of the peppermint and
spearmint oils that go to flavor the mill
lions of packages
Essential nil for of chewing gum,
the tons of candies
Chewing Gum. and the thousands
of barrels of soft drinks consumed in
the United States each year, the De-
partment of Agriculture has traced the
mint herbs to a center of production in
southern Michigan and northern In
diana. There, in rich muck soils once
the beds of lakes and swamps, over
25,00O acres of the mints are grown. In
this region, which has been found to
be admirably adapted to mint culture,
persons who know the herbs only by
small garden patches or by hoatlng
leaves in a julep will find them grown
as the principal crop-in rows some
times several miles long
The plants are cut with mower
while in full bloom and are raked and
handled like hay. being carted off to
the stills when partially dry. Here the
herbs are tossed into huge watts, treated
with steam, the oil being driven on and
collected in condensers.
The department finds that the United
States is the greatest of mint producing
countries. contributing about 2bo.oOo
mounds of oil to the worlds annual
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