Evening star., 1920-09-19
VALUABLE LIBRARY
ON RECLAMATION.

walter l. Swanton, in the Reclamation Record.
One morning recently two European
engineers. members OF . large party
investigating the commercial and in
dustrial resources Of this country
and travelling on q carefully prepared
itinerary. visited the reclamation
service offices at Washington, D. C.
So interested were they in the reports
ana data placed at their disposal
in the engineering division that in
the afternoon the entire party. which
had planned to visit other important
works, returned and spent q large
part of the day studying the 'engi-
neering and cost data, project his
Of Mr.. Blanchard's engineering films
depicting construction work on the
reclamation projects vas shown
them.
A few days ago a hydraulic en-
gineer from one OF the northern Eu-
us almost year before and had since
visited many Of our projects. dropped
in to secure some recent reports and
bulletins before sailing for Europe.
These are but two of the many
Wn.hinstoe once ssoWine TN.
terest in the water power and irriga-
ton resources Of the United States.
During the last few years nearly a
hundred engineers and oncials Of
foreign countries have called at the
offices Of the United States reclama-
tion service, and the list Of countries
represented includes nearly. all parts
Of the world-Europe, Asia, Africa,
Australia and South America.
In response to the demands of our
been collected a large number of vol
umes Of engineering books, project
histories. and reports. forming a ref
erence library of several thousand
volumes. A unique feature of this
engineering library is the project his
volumes OF project histories Tin man
uscript), specifications, plans. photo
graphs and cost data
The engineering section contains
about 400 carefully selected books on
irrigation and engineering subjects
and includes works especially relating
to irrigation development.
sThe reclamation service is one of
the few bureaus of the governme ent
which is engaged in investigating,
constructing. operating and develop
ing engineering works and settle
ments on q large scale, and each year
the managers Of the thirty or more
projects thus being developed compile
ana forward in manuscript form . his
tory Of the project activities during
the past calendar year.
These histories and the separate fea-
ture reports form valuable record
of achievements of the service and
are filed, by projects, on shelves for
convenient reference.
The departmental section Of the H.
brary includes in addition to the
supply papers of the eeologi-
cal survey and the reports Of opera
tions of the bureau of soils-the es-
sentia1 land and water reports issued
by the government-current annual
reports and bulletins OF the various
departments and bureaus of the Unit
ed States government needed for ref
erence IN answering the numerous In
quiries received by telephone or cor
respondence.
The Investigations Of the reclama-
ton service in connection with the
proposed soldier settlements author
ICED by Congress for the fiscal tyear
1919 for the first time brought the
engineering activities of the service
es st OF the Mississippi river, and. in
connection with this work. there have.
been collected several hundred val
ua Bile publications issued by state en-
e.neers state geologtsts. state expert
ment stations. and other state agen-
cies which are filed alpha betically. by
states, in convenient shape for refer
ence. -.-.- ---