WATER

Water is an absolute necessity to man, as much as the air he breathes or the food he eats. Water comes to us in the form of rain or snow. We usually think of it as unlimited, but we must come to think of it as a resource that can be abused and wasted or made useful and profitable as is the soil itself.

The amount of water is fixed and passes in an endless round from cloud to river or land and back to the clouds again. The average yearly rainfall of the United States is estimated at thirty inches, about forty inches in the eastern half, an average of eighteen inches in the western part, and in many places not more than ten or twelve inches. One inch of rain would amount to nearly one hundred and one tons per acre, or on a roof twenty feet long by twenty feet wide, one inch of rain would be two hundred and fifty gallons. With a rainfall of forty inches, this would amount to 10,000 gallons in a year, or an average, over every bit of land twenty feet square, of twenty-seven gallons for every day in the year. This is about the quantity that falls in the eastern part of the United States.

It varies slightly from year to year, but there is no more there is no possible way of adding to it, though we may lessen it by allowing it to rush out to sea, giving no service to the land. As the land waters diminish the rainfall also grows less.

This two hundred trillions cubic feet of water which falls on our land every year constitutes our entire water resource, is the source of all our rivers and streams, of the moisture in the air, of our rains and snows, and our water for plant and animal growth.

To understand how much this is, we may say that it is about equal to ten times the amount of water that flows through the Mississippi River system. The water of the Mississippi and its branches is nearly half of all the water in the United States that flows through waterways to the sea. This water that flows through our streams is sometimes called the run-off. The run-off is increasing every year as we cut our forests and cultivate our land. It is used for navigation, irrigation and power, but the increase is not an advantage for these purposes as might be supposed, because it comes in disastrous floods, tearing away dams, ruining power sites, and not only preventing navigation during the flood season, but by filling up the rivers and changing the channels, making navigation difficult and dangerous throughout the year. The run-off is controlled to some extent and may be brought under almost as complete control as may be desired.

As much as the water of five or six Mississippis, or a little more than half of our supply, is evaporated to moisten and temper the air, to fall as rain or snow, or to form dews. This is sometimes called the fly-off, and except for some changes caused by management of the land, is entirely beyond control.

A part of the remainder sinks into the soil below the surface. A large portion of this helps to cause the slow rock-decay that forms the soil, and which is known as ground water. It is estimated that within the first hundred feet below the surface of the earth there is a quantity of water that has seeped down; and that would form, if it were collected, a vast reservoir sixteen or seventeen feet in depth spreading over all the 3,000,000 square miles of the area of our country. This is equal to about seven years’ rainfall and is a very important part of our water resources. In many places it forms into underground streams or lakes. It feeds all the springs and many of the lakes. Our wells are dug or drilled into this underground water system. It carries away the excess of salts and mineral matter from the soil, the trees strike their roots deep into the earth and draw from it, and last and most important of all, that which sinks immediately below the surface supplies all our plant growth. So that it is this last portion, that which sinks below the ground, and which is sometimes termed the cut-off, amounting to about one-tenth of all our water resource, or about the quantity that flows through the Mississippi River system, that forms the really important part.

On this depends all that makes a land habitable, the water for drinking purposes and for plant and animal growth. On it depends the rate of production of every acre of farm and forest land and the life of every animal. Every full-grown man of one hundred and fifty pounds takes into his system not less than a ton of water each year, and every bushel of corn requires for its making fifteen or twenty tons of water.

Of the importance of this Professor Chamberlain says: “The key to the problem of soil conservation lies in due control of the water that falls on every acre. This water is an asset of great value. It should be counted by every land owner as a possible value, saved if turned where it will do good, lost if permitted to run away, doubly lost if it also carries away the soil and does destructive work below.”

The uses of rainfall are given thus:

A due portion should go through the soil to its bottom to promote rock decay. Some of it should go into the underdrainage to carry away harmful matter, another portion goes up to the surface carrying solutions needed by the plants. A portion goes into the plants to nourish them, and still another part runs off the surface, carrying away the worn-out parts of the soil.

Crops can use to advantage all the rain that falls during the growing season; and in most cases crops are all the better for all the water that can be carried over from the winter. There are many local exceptions, but in general crops are best when the soil can be made to absorb as much of the rainfall and snowfall as possible. This also causes the least possible amount of wash from the land.

Doctor N. J. McGee says: “Scarcely anywhere in the United States is the rainfall excessive, that is, greater than is needed by growing plants, living animals and men. Nearly everywhere it falls below this standard. In the western part the average rainfall is only about eighteen inches; in the extreme eastern part the fall averages forty-eight inches. In the western part much of the land is unable to produce crops at all except when artificially watered. The eastern part might produce more abundant crops, develop greater industries and support a larger population with a rainfall of sixty inches than it is able to do with a rainfall of forty-eight inches.” As may readily be seen, the fly-off can be controlled only in a very small degree, by conserving the moisture that is in the soil, and so preventing it from evaporating too rapidly.

The cut-off can be controlled to a considerable extent through forestry and scientific farming and it is very important that the supply should be as carefully conserved as possible.

But it is in the run-off that the great waste of water occurs, and also that great saving is possible. It has been found by careful estimate that from eighty-five per cent. to ninety-five per cent. of the water that flows to the sea is wasted in freshets or destructive floods.

We are not accustomed to think of the water as wasted, since it seems beyond our control, but as we are taking a careful account of stock, and seeing how our forests, our fuels and our minerals are disappearing, and our soil being carried out to sea by the rushing waters, it is well to consider, also, whether this great resource may not be so used as to benefit mankind in many ways and at the same time lessen the drain on other resources.

The water of streams may be divided as to use into four great classes. The most important is that used by cities for general supply, for household and drinking purposes; next, that which is used for navigation and the running of boats to carry commerce; third, that which is used for artificial watering or irrigation, and lastly, that which is used for power in manufacturing.

In the past, when water has been used it has seldom been employed for more than one of these purposes, but as we come to understand more the nature, value and possibilities of this great resource, we shall learn to make the money spent for one of these lines of activity supply several other needs.

As we study each of these separately we shall see this interrelation among them.

The cities of the United States have expended $250,000,000 in waterworks and nearly as much more in land for reservoirs, and for canals for conveying the water from these reservoirs to the cities. The better managed systems protect the drained lands from erosion by planting forests or grass and the water is completely controlled, so that all the water, even the storm overflow, is saved. There is very little waste in these city water systems until it comes to the consumer, where, except when it is sold through meters, the waste is often great.

The failure to provide the greatest good lies in the fact that the water systems have been used for water supply only and have not been made profitable in other ways. The drainage basins should be heavily planted with trees, which will in time yield a large return, or with hay, which can be marketed each year. Whenever possible, the canals carrying the water supply should also be used to furnish power.

The city of Los Angeles, when it had a population of only 150,000, undertook to provide pure water from a point two hundred and fifty miles distant. To do so it must take on itself a debt of $23,000,000, a large sum for a city ten times its size. Yet the people were ready to assume this great burden to insure an unending supply of pure water, for they realized that without it their city could not continue to grow. It was not until the plans for piping water to the city were almost completed that the value of the water-power along the route was realized. It has been disposed of at a rate that pays ten per cent. interest on the debt each year, and has made what seemed a dangerous risk, a profitable business arrangement. All these other uses of water which are profitable, help to lower the price of water to the users.

The matter of supreme importance in the water supply, however, is not whether the water is cheap, but whether it is pure. If refuse from factories is allowed to drain into a stream, the water becomes loaded with poisonous chemicals, acids, or minerals. If city sewage or barn-yards are allowed to drain into it, the germs of typhoid and other fevers enter the water supply. To insure the purity of water supply from a stream, no factory waste, city sewage or country refuse should be allowed to enter any part of the stream. In addition to this it should be carefully filtered.

The disposal of waste is a serious problem, and the easiest way is to divert it into the nearest water course and trust to the old maxim, “Running water purifies itself.”

This, while true as a general fact, has so many exceptions that it is not safe to trust to it. The Sanitary District Canal of Chicago has proved positively that even the most heavily germ-laden water becomes pure by running many miles at a regulated speed through the open country, but the conditions are altogether different from those of an ordinary river. First, in a river, sewage may enter at any point down-stream to add to the germs already present in the water, while nothing is allowed to enter the Drainage Canal after it leaves the city. Second, some germs live for several days and may be carried many miles. Only a microscopic test can prove whether water contains such germs. Usually such tests are not made and water is used without people knowing whether it is pure or not, but the water of the Sanitary Canal is tested at many points to determine its purity. Each hour and each mile of its journey it grows purer. This proves that although running water does purify itself, a stream that is drained into all along its course is not a fit source of water supply.

Factory refuse, instead of being allowed to pollute the waters, should be turned to good use by extracting the chemicals, which form valuable by-products. All farm waste should be taken to a remote part of the farm, placed in an open shed or vat with cement floor and screened from flies to form a compost heap for fertilizers for the farm. This will amply repay the extra trouble and expense by increasing the farm crops. The sooner such refuse, especially manure, is returned to the land, the more valuable it is as a fertilizer.

In cities the sewage should be disposed of in such a way as to yield a profit to the city, and also promote the health of the people. The sewage of a city of 100,000 people is supposed to be worth, in Germany, about $900,000 a year for fertilizer on account of the phosphorus it contains. The city of Berlin operates large sewage farms, using as laborers men condemned to the workhouse. The expense for land and sewer system was $13,000,000, but it pays for the money invested, with $60,000 yearly profit over all expenses.

On the other hand the cost of impure water to the city of Pittsburg was reckoned at $3,850,000, and in the city of Albany, New York, the annual loss was estimated at $475,000.

In the early settlement of our country all towns were built on streams, and the ones which grew and flourished were all on rivers large enough to carry commerce by boat. After the invention of steamboats, daily packet lines were run on all the principal rivers.

Albert Gallatin planned a complete system of improved waterways, including many canals, that was intended to establish a great commercial route. Many canals were built and put into actual operation and dozens of others had been planned, when the building of railways began. This new system of transportation at once became popular. Not only were no more canals dug and no more steamboat lines built, but many of those actually in operation were abandoned.

In order to encourage railroad building and develop new regions, the government has given land and money to the extent of hundreds of millions of dollars, until now the railroads form one-seventh of all our national wealth, having 228,000 miles of tracks and earning $2,500,000,000 each year, while the waterways owned by the government have fallen into disuse.

Within the last four or five years another change has come about in the general attitude toward the waterways. At the time that the crops are moved in the fall, and when coal is needed for the winter supply, there are not nearly enough cars in the country to handle the volume of business, neither are there enough locomotives to move the necessary cars, nor tracks, nor stations. In short, the railways are entirely unable to handle the vast products of the country during the busiest seasons. Many persons in the West have suffered for fuel, and commerce has been greatly checked by the shortage; and the situation is growing worse each year as production increases.

James J. Hill estimates that the cost of equipping the railroads to carry the commerce of the country would be from five to eight billion dollars. This means a heavy tax on iron and coal and timber as well as on the labor resources of the country, and it would then be only a question of time until still further extensions were needed.

With these facts in view, interest in the waterways of the country has been revived.

It is estimated that it will require five hundred million dollars, or fifty million dollars a year for ten years completely to improve the waterways of the country. This is not more than one-tenth of what would be needed to equip the railroads. The cost of carrying freight by rail is from four to five times that of carrying it by water.

Much of the heavy freight of the country, coal, iron, grain and lumber, should be carried in this way, in order to reduce freight rates and so, indirectly, the cost to the people, and further to relieve the burden on the railways.

The railways, it might be added, would still have a large and increasing package-freight business, besides the handling of heavy freight in parts of the country where there are no navigable rivers.

For these reasons it would seem clearly the only wise policy to adopt a general plan for waterway improvement and carry it into effect at once. But there are many things to be considered.

Millions of dollars (in all about five hundred and fifty-two millions) have been spent for the improvement of waterways. Some of it has resulted in great gain, but a large part of it has been wasted through lack of an organized plan. Work has been begun and not enough money appropriated to finish it. In the course of a few years much of the value of the work is destroyed by the action of the current or by shifting sands, or if a stretch of river is finished in the most approved manner, often it is not used much, in some cases actually less after than before the work was begun, and these things have created a prejudice against waterway improvements.

The other reason is that in spite of the overcrowding of the railroads, the traffic on many of our large rivers is steadily growing less. The Inland Waterways Commission finds as a reason for the decrease, the relations existing between the railways and the waterways. A railway, they consider, has two classes of advantages. First, those that come from natural conditions. A railroad line can be built in any direction to any part of the country except the extremely mountainous parts, while a river runs only in a single direction.

If a new region distant from a large water course is opened up, as is being done rapidly in the West through irrigation and dry farming, the people are entirely dependent on the railways to develop it, to bring them all the conveniences of the outside world, and to carry the products of their land to the market.

Branch lines and switches can be built to factories and warehouses, while boats can reach only those situated along the water-front.

Another advantage of the railroads is that they bill freight all the way through, and that freight is much more easily transferred from one road to another. It is much more difficult and expensive to load and reload freight from boats and barges on account of the high and low water stages of the river. This difference amounts to as much as sixty feet in the Ohio River at Cincinnati. Railways make faster time, and the distance between two points is usually shorter, though sometimes during the busy season of the railways the river freight reaches its destination much sooner.

The other class of reasons relates to the railways themselves, which have always been in open competition with the waterways, and to gain traffic for themselves, usually charge lower rates to those points to which boats also carry freight. In many cases they have bought the steamboat lines so that rates might be kept up, and then, unable to operate the two lines as cheaply as one, have abandoned the steamboat lines.

Another method by which the railroads have driven out the water traffic, is by charging extremely heavy rates for freight hauled a short distance to or from boats, making it quite as cheap as well as more convenient to send freight all the way by rail.

Lastly, railroad warehouses, terminals and machinery for handling freight are all much better than those of inland steamboat lines, except at some points on the Great Lakes where the traffic is very heavy.

Some of these disadvantages might be overcome by law. In France, where the waterways are managed better than in any other country, the law requires that railroad rates be twenty per cent. higher on all heavy freight than the rates on the same freight if carried by water, and in several countries railroad companies are not permitted to own or manage a steamboat line.

These measures are suggestive of what may be done by law to correct abuses, but laws alone can not accomplish everything. The rivers belong to all the people, and every one who wishes may operate steamboat or barge lines, but before these can become profitable, and before first class warehouses and machinery are installed, there must appear on the part of the people a desire to patronize them. The best results are found in those cases where there is harmony between the railways and the steamboat lines; those in which the steamboat lines relieve the railways of much of the heavy freight which they are not able to handle without greatly increasing their present equipment.

There should be cooeperation on the part of the people. The towns and cities along the banks of many European rivers provide suitable terminals, warehouses and wharves with free use of the service. In other cases this is done by private capital with a charge for use to shippers. Sometimes it is done by the steamboat companies themselves, but unless one or the other method is assured all along the river it is not wise for the government to undertake the improvement of a stream.

Intelligent improvement of the waterways of the United States demands first that a careful survey of the needs of the whole country be made, then that a systematic plan be carried out providing for the improvement of important streams first.

The state and nation should work together, and any work that is begun should be completed as promptly as possible so that its full benefit may be realized.

Certain work, such as the improvement of the channel, should be done by the national government, since the waters belong to the nation; but the expense of constructing levees or dykes should be borne by the land owners along the banks, because the land thus protected is greatly increased in value; or by the state, which gets the return in increased taxes.

In many instances, the improvement of a stream would be a great benefit to one state or part of a state, but it would be impossible in many years to improve all the desirable streams, so that the larger ones of most general importance must be considered first.

In such cases the improvement is often undertaken by the state. Some navigable rivers have been thus improved and many canals are the property of states or of private companies.

Only a few rivers have a steady flow throughout the year at a depth sufficient to carry large boats. On most streams destructive floods at certain seasons and low waters at others interfere with navigation during a considerable part of the year. Most rivers have sand-bars, sunken rocks or logs in the channel, making the passage of boats difficult and dangerous. Others are well suited for navigation, except at points where rapids and falls make it impossible for boats to pass. The Ohio, the Tennessee, the Missouri and the upper Mississippi abound in such dangerous places and these should be canalized. It is the improving of rivers in these ways, dredging harbors to make them safer, and digging canals to provide a short passage between two bodies of water, that constitute what is known as the Improvement of Inland Waters.

If you look at a map showing the navigable streams of the United States you will see that nearly all of them lie in the eastern part.

The Mississippi is like a great artery with branches extending in all directions, east and west. The Great Lakes, with their outlet, the St. Lawrence River, and the many important rivers emptying into the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, such as the Merrimac, Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Potomac and Rio Grande, form great highways for all the commerce of the eastern part of the country, while the Columbia, Sacramento and Colorado Rivers, with their branches, are the only navigable streams of any importance west of the Mississippi River system.

In some places a small portion of land divides two important water areas, and canals dug through this neck of land change the commercial routes of the whole world. Such are the Isthmus of Suez, eighty-seven miles wide, through which a canal was cut that saves a sailing distance of 3,700 miles from England to India. Only the Isthmus of Panama, forty-nine miles in width, divides the Atlantic from the Pacific Ocean. When the canal across this narrow strip is completed, the sailing distance from New York to San Francisco will be shortened 8,000 miles, the entire distance around South America.

The Sault Ste. Marie Canal, connecting Lakes Superior and Huron, is only a little more than a mile and a half long, but it opens up the entire iron, copper, lumber and wheat resources of the Northwest to cheap water passage through the other lakes to the manufacturing region of the East.

The Erie Canal, by connecting Lake Erie with the Hudson River from Buffalo to Albany, New York, makes the only water passage from the Great Lakes to the ocean that lies within the borders of the United States.

If you will turn to the map again, you will see still other places where a short canal may open up an entirely new and important water route. From Chicago to Lockport, Illinois, is only thirty-seven miles, but Chicago is on Lake Michigan, while Lockport is on the Illinois River, a branch of the Mississippi. This canal, a large part of which is now in operation, is a part of the Lakes to Gulf waterway. One plan is to broaden and deepen the channel so that large vessels may pass, without unloading, from the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.

Another proposed canal which would be undertaken largely by individual states and a part of which is already completed, would afford a safe inside passage connecting the many bays, channels and navigable rivers of the Atlantic coast.

Still another proposed measure is the cutting of a canal from the southern end of Lake Michigan to the western end of Lake Erie at Toledo, Ohio, to avoid the long haul up Lake Michigan and down Lake Huron again.

The United States now has 25,000 miles of navigable rivers and a nearly equal mileage of rivers not now navigable but which might be made commercially important; five great lakes that have a combined length of 1,410 miles, 2,120 miles of operated canals, and 2,500 miles of sounds, bays and bayous, that might be joined by tidewater canals easily constructed, less than 1,000 miles long altogether, and making a continuous passage from New England to the Gulf of Mexico.

In all, our waterways at the present time are 55,000 to 60,000 miles long, the greatest system in the world, but almost unused.

The most important waterway improvement so far completed, is the Sault Ste. Marie, or the “Soo” canal which cost $96,000,000. A depth of eight feet was increased to twenty-one feet. The traffic has risen in sixteen years from a million and a quarter tons to forty-one and a quarter million tons.

A large proportion of the United States is not naturally fitted to be the home of man; at least, it is not fitted to produce his food, and except on the lofty mountains the reason for this will almost always be found to be either a lack or an excess of water.

In some parts of the country, there is, as we have seen, little rainfall. These arid or semi-arid lands must be provided with water for drinking purposes and for agriculture. The diverting of water courses into canals and ditches so that water can be carried to these waste lands is called irrigation.

In other parts of the country where rains are abundant, serious floods occur every year, often many times in a year. Thousands of acres of land thus subject to overflow are lost to use. The holding back of these flood waters in the upper part of the rivers, and so preventing these overflows, is termed storage of waters.

In still other regions the rainfall is abundant, and the land low-lying. Large areas are always covered with water. Such lands are called swamps or bogs, and when drained, they become the richest of agricultural lands. Irrigation, storage and drainage are the three methods employed to make waste lands valuable and useful. The land is saved or reclaimed, so all these methods of balancing and distributing the water supply are called reclamation.

In general it may be said that irrigation is more generally needed in the West, storage of flood waters in the central and eastern states, and drainage in the South.

By thus distributing the rainfall, hundreds of millions of acres have been or may be reclaimed, and large regions, formerly unfit to inhabit, have been turned into profitable farms. Three-fourths of one per cent. of our total rainfall, or two per cent. of all that falls in the West, is used for irrigating 13,000,000 acres.

There are several methods of irrigation which are adapted to different regions and different crops. The rice fields of South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas are irrigated by allowing the land to remain continually flooded to a depth of several inches. When the irrigation season is over the levees are opened, and the water runs off rapidly, and the crop is soon ready to be harvested. Tidal rivers are used to supply water in most cases, but in Texas many flowing wells are employed for irrigation.

In Florida, where irrigation is used largely for intensive farming, various means are employed, some of which are also used in the western and southwestern states. Mechanical pumps, operated by turbine wheels, pump the water from the rivers if a lift be required. Sometimes the water is pumped direct to the fields in iron pipes and applied by means of hydrants and hose, as in a city water system.

Overhead pipe lines are now recognized as the most perfect and satisfactory form of artificial watering. Two-inch pipes are run over frames several feet in height. These are arranged in parallel lines all over the fields about forty feet apart. At intervals of forty feet, a small iron pipe, ending with a fine spraying attachment, extends upward. The water is turned on in the evening and comes out of the sprayer in a fine mist and falls upon the plants like a gentle rain.

By another form of irrigation, the fields are divided at regular intervals by wide wooden troughs from which water is directed between the rows of plants. Main canals leading from the streams and intersected by short canals extend in all directions through the fields and orchards, and are distributed in various ways. This system is in general use throughout the arid portions of the West. The methods are said to be the most scientific and varied in southern California.

When water for irrigation is supplied from wells some underground system is generally used. One common method is to lay continuous pipes from the wells all over the fields and distribute from hydrants, plugs and standpipes.

By still another system, the water is carried below the surface through pipes which are broken every few inches and laid in beds of charcoal.

In the eastern states irrigation is only employed in dry weather to increase the yield of vegetable crops. In the arid western region it transforms what would otherwise be a dreary desert into fertile valleys.

William J. Bryan, speaking at the first Conservation Congress, said, “Last September, I visited the southern part of Idaho and saw there a tract that has been recently reclaimed. I had been there before. I had looked upon these lands as so barren that it seemed as if it were impossible that they could ever be made useful.

“When I went back this time and found that in three years 1,700,000 acres of land had been reclaimed, that where three years ago nothing but sage-brush grew, they are now raising seven tons of alfalfa to the acre, and more than a hundred bushels of oats; when I found that ten thousand people are living on that tract, that in one town that has grown up in that time there are more than 1,900 inhabitants, and in three banks they had deposits of over half a million dollars, I had some realization of the magic power of water when applied to these desert lands.”

The same thing might be said of other regions throughout the West. In the Salton district of California a marvelous change has been brought about by irrigation. A few years ago that was one of the most desolate and forbidding regions on our continent. Now it is covered with several thousands of acres of alfalfa and other crops, and it bids fair to be a great fruit region. Of southern California it is said, “The irrigation systems of this part of the state are known all over the world, and have created a prosperous commonwealth in a region which would be a scene of utter desolation without them.”

This locality presents a better opportunity for the scientific study of farming by irrigation than exists anywhere else in the world. Here all land values depend directly on ability to obtain a water supply. So precious is the water and so abundant are the rewards that follow its application to the soil that the most careful consideration is given to the various sources of supply and distribution.

As land becomes scarcer and the cost of living greater on account of the increase in population, men are turning more and more to irrigation to solve the problem of food supply.

As showing what may be accomplished by irrigation, the report of the last census says: “The construction of large irrigation works on the Platte, Yellowstone and Arkansas Rivers would render fertile an area equal to that of some eastern states. Engineers are grappling with the great problems of conserving the flood waters of these streams, which now are wasted and help to increase the destructive floods of the Mississippi. The solving of these problems will change a vast area of country, now practically worthless, into valuable farms.”

The “Great Bend” country, drained by the Columbia River, contains several million acres of land which only requires water to make it of great agricultural value.

The Gila River basin contains more than 10,000,000 acres of fertile land, capable of producing immense crops if irrigated, but without irrigation it is a desert land where only sage-brush and cactus flourish.

From arid lands capable of producing excellent crops but lacking in the magical element of water, we pass to the consideration of lands where the richest of soils are shut off from productiveness because they are covered with water. On the lower Mississippi the soil is richer than in any other part of the United States, but much of it is overflowed so frequently that it is unfit for cultivation. Dykes and levees have reclaimed thousands of acres of such overflow land. Many states control large marshy sections that have been or may be reclaimed.

In southern Florida lie the Everglades, a vast country which has been worse than valueless; a malarial region abounding in alligators, rattlesnakes, scorpions and other dangerous animals and insects. The state of Florida has undertaken the work of draining this great swamp, and when the task is completed, Florida will have added to its resources 3,000,000 acres of the richest soil for the raising of winter vegetables and fruits.

Florida is engaged in another great project the digging of an inside passage connecting its inland tidal waters by a canal system which will open to navigation a continuous inland waterway six hundred miles in length. In digging these canals through the marshes bordering the coast, thousands of acres of exceedingly fertile land have been reclaimed and are now producing valuable crops.

The Kankakee marshes in Indiana have been drained, adding many thousands of acres of rich soil to the agricultural area of the state.

In all, about 80,000,000 acres are so wet that they must be drained in order to make them produce good farm crops, but which, while now covered only with marsh grass or undergrowth, is capable of being made the most fertile of all land.

This swamp land is ten times the area of Holland, which supports a population of 5,000,000 people. It is therefore easy to see how greatly we may add to our productive territory and our national wealth by reclamation through drainage.

We now come to the use of water as power; and although in the last fifty years this subject has received little attention, as manufacturing increases and as fuel decreases and becomes higher, the value of water becomes more evident, and water-power sites are being eagerly sought.

Our age may come to be known in the future as the age of power, because through the application of mechanical power man has gained such marvelous control over the world about him. Wind and water led in the production of power until about 1870, since which time they have scarcely increased at all, the greater advantages of steam and electricity having driven them out.

As long as all factories had to be built by the side of streams having suitable water-power, the number and size of factories were always extremely limited. With the introduction of steam it became possible to build factories at mines, in forests, in fruit or grain regions, wherever the supply of raw material was plentiful, and to multiply factories of all kinds in cities near the markets for their product, or where labor was cheap and abundant. But power could only be used where it was developed, and the size of the power plant depended on the amount of business done by each individual user.

Now a new era of power has again enlarged the possibilities of manufacturing. By means of electricity the work, not only of factories, but also of the home and the farm may be done in any place where electricity can be installed. We must bear in mind that electricity is never a source of power, but is only the agent that carries power to the user. The source of all electric power is either steam or water, produced by water-wheels, turbines, steam-engines or gas-engines. The economical way to furnish electric power is to establish central power plants, and electricity may be conveyed from them for many miles. An electric railway, telegraph, or telephone system many miles in length is operated from a single power plant. Electric light and power are transmitted all over the largest cities. It is no longer necessary that a factory be of any specified size nor that it have any waste power. If it be within reach of the electrical current it may use as much or as little as is needed.

The cheapness of electric power must always depend on nearness to the source of supply or to the market. Until a short time ago it was customary to locate electric power-houses near the market, that is, in cities. But the benefits to be derived from having the electric plant near the source of power, so that the cost of production is greatly lessened, are becoming better recognized. This will make water-power increasingly valuable.

It is even now practicable to develop water-power, wherever located, for the production of electricity. Although the lowest grade coals are used for electric power at the mines yet they can now be used for still other purposes. Coal or other fuel once used can not be replaced, but when electricity is derived from water-power only energy otherwise wasted is used. This energy, if derived from water-power, is all added to our assets instead of being lost.

For many years the amount of power used for manufacturing and other purposes has doubled about once in ten years, and the steady pace kept by different lines of development shows how closely they are related. Our power, our forest cut, the use of our iron and other minerals, our coal and petroleum, the railroad earnings, freight and passenger traffic, and our agricultural products all double themselves every ten years. This means that in ten years we shall require twice as much power as now, but will have far less coal to use. This raises the question, have we available water-power to conserve our coal supply? Let us see. It is estimated that we are now using 26,000,000 horse-power of energy derived from steam, 3,000,000 horse-power derived from water, and 800,000 from gas or oil, a total of 29,800,000 horse-power. It is also estimated that there is now running idly over dams, falls, and rapids 30,000,000 horse-power of energy. In other words, we are wasting every day enough water to run every factory and mill, and to turn every wheel, to move every electric car and to supply every electric light or power-station in the country.

The amount of water-power is gauged solely by the low-water stage of the stream. A river is considered to produce only as much power as it can furnish at its season of lowest water. At other times factories may be operated more actively, but usually most of the extra power is wasted during a large part of the year.

If these storm or flood waters can be stored in reservoirs, the stream-flow throughout the year can be made fairly uniform and the power possibilities greatly increased. The Geological Survey believes that by storing the flood waters and regulating the flow of the streams, the large rivers of the United States may be made to furnish 150,000,000 horse-power, enough, if it could be utilized, to supply every power need of our country for many years to come without using a ton of our coal, and without in any way decreasing the water.

Of course this can never be practicable. Much power will always be needed where no stream for power is available. But the lesson is plain that where water can be used it should be, both in order to save the coal and because it can be produced more cheaply. The 30,000,000 horse-power now available, if produced in our most modern electric plants, would require the burning of nearly 225,000,000 tons of coal, and if in the average plant run by steam-engines, more than 650,000,000 tons of coal, which is fifty per cent. more than all the coal that is now produced in this country. At three dollars per ton it would cost $2,000,000,000 a year to supply the coal to furnish the power that we might have, one might almost say, as a by-product from the improving of the rivers for navigation. The development of the water-power possibilities of the country is now going forward at a rapid rate, however.

Dams on the Susquehanna River will soon make 30,000 horse-power available, which could be increased to 200,000 by building storage reservoirs.

A dam just begun at the rapids of the Mississippi River at Keokuk, Iowa, will, when completed, furnish 200,000 horse-power. Niagara is producing 56,000 horse-power on the United States side. The Muscle Shoals Falls rapids in the Tennessee River is furnishing 188,000 horse-power. Illinois will greatly increase its possibilities for offering cheap power to factories, when the Lakes to Gulf Canal with 173,000,000 horse-power worth $12,750,000 yearly, and the Chicago Drainage or Sanitary Canal, which has nearly 60,000 horse-power, are complete. Both of these projects were undertaken by the state.

In California 250,000 horse-power is now in operation, and 5,000,000 horse-power might easily be developed in that state alone, which at the price of coal would be worth a billion dollars a year.

New England has the oldest system of water-power control, because before the era of steam it was the chief manufacturing region of the country. The Merrimac, flowing through New Hampshire and Massachusetts, is the most carefully conserved river in the world, and Governor Dingley of Maine said that the water-power of Maine is equal to the working energy of 13,000,000 men.

The money value is counted at twenty dollars a year per horse power, but it frequently brings as high as one hundred or even one hundred and fifty dollars a year in a good manufacturing region, so that the value of our water-power facilities can hardly be computed.

An ideal picture of the harmonious development of our water resources for all purposes is one that is not too difficult to realize. It is the ideal that should be always before us in the improvement of our waterways, and we should bear in mind that although the expense will be heavy, it will not cost more than one-tenth as much to improve all the important waterways as to equip the railways to carry the traffic they will be called on to carry in the next ten years; and also that in the past, for every dollar that has been spent on waterways, almost twenty-five dollars has been spent on railways. The railways are a great and important part of our national development, but the waterways should not be neglected. Rather, the two should be so harmonized and adjusted as to make one great commercial system that will furnish cheap and abundant transportation for all our commerce.

The most complete plan for conserving our waters is as follows: First, build storage reservoirs along the upper stretches of the river to hold the overflow waters of the flood season which are to be turned into the main channel when the water becomes too low for ordinary navigation.

These storage reservoirs should be on the lowest grade of land, that which would be least productive. The reservoirs should be well stocked with the best varieties of fish to make them profitable. The banks should be planted with forest trees and made as attractive as they can be made to form public parks and pleasure grounds for the people, where boating, fishing and bathing may be enjoyed.

The next point is to remove all obstructions from the river, to canalize it at shallow places or rapids, so that the whole river will be navigable, and, if necessary, to deepen the channel so that it will carry large vessels between two important points.

Dams should be built to take advantage of every opportunity for water-power. One of the worst mistakes in the past has been the failure to use the power that might have been developed in improving the streams for navigation.

Rivers should be made profitable still further by stocking with fish and should be kept clear of factory refuse and sewage. Soil-wash should be lessened by planting trees and shrubs along the banks; and where overflow or erosion lowers the value of the land or repeatedly ruins the crops, dykes and levees should be built.

The rivers most important commercially should be improved first. Canals should be cut between waterways where large benefits will result; overflow and swamp land should be drained, and in arid regions every particle of water conserved for irrigation purposes.

The irrigation canals may also be used to supply water-power, and the canals may be used as are other canals for towing barges. If electric power is produced, electric towing is cheap and very desirable as a means of transportation.

In short, our water supply should be as carefully used and with as little waste as the land of forests. The most important improvements needed are, a Lakes to Gulf Waterway that shall be safe and practicable at least for vessels of moderate size; the improvement of the Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee and Upper Mississippi Rivers; an inner coast passage from New England to Florida, and in navigable rivers dredging and deepening if necessary, to make many outlets to the sea which will afford cheap transportation.

In the West, the Columbia, San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers with their branches should be made navigable. Many western rivers have been almost ruined by filling with rocks in hydraulic mining, but this is now prohibited by law and if the channels were cleared they would again become navigable.

Appropriations for much of this work have already been made by Congress, but the work is not systematically planned. The cost of all of it would be about sixty-two and a half cents a year for each man, woman and child in the country and every one would receive some benefit.

The National Conservation Commission on Waterways found that the average family pays for transportation or freight on all its food and clothing and the necessities of life, nearly or quite one-third their actual cost. “It is estimated that the direct benefits would be a yearly saving in freight handling of $250,000,000, a yearly saving in flood damage of $150,000,000, a saving in forest fires of at least $25,000,000, a benefit through cheapened power of fully $75,000,000 and a yearly saving in farm production of $500,000,000; a total of $1,000,000,000, or twelve dollars and fifty cents for each person twenty times the cost! And this does not take into account the benefits from irrigation, drainage, and the lessening of disease by a pure water supply.”