able circumstances, as in addition to the use of a new and wellequipped laboratory the university has contributed $2,000 to the nutrition investigations, and furthermore the experiment station has furnished without charge the meat used for the investigations, the animals from which the portions of meat were taken having been bred, grown, fed, and slaughtered under known conditions. Valuable assistance has been rendered by the department of household science of the university.

The investigations with meat have shown that the losses of nutrients vary markedly with different methods of cooking, and, together with the results of Professor Grindley's earlier studies, furnish valuable data for the economical preparation of meat for the table, especially in institutions where large quantities are cooked at a time and economy is necessary.

In addition to the cooking experiments studies have been made of the kind and amount of proteids in broth of different sorts from cooked meat and in water extracts of uncooked meats, a valuable feature being the improvement of the methods for use in determining the nitrogen of meat and meat products.

At the University of Maine Prof. C. D. Woods and his associates have carried on experiments which have to do with the digestibility of different cereal breakfast foods. The work has included thirtyfour natural and thirty-four artificial digestion experiments, and has furnished results of much value. In addition to the experimental work reports of the dietary studies and digestion experiments with lumbermen and of digestion experiments with bread were prepared.

The cereal breakfast foods studied have included some of the sorts very commonly used, and the results obtained furnish valuable data for judging of the value of this important class of foods.

The dietary studies and digestion experiments with Maine lumbermen are of unusual interest, since they were carried on with men performing severe physical work under more or less trying conditions and exposure and living upon a diet which though abundant was very simple, being made up of a few staple foods of which the most important were perhaps beans and bread. The amounts eaten were fairly large, as might be expected from the character of the work performed. As regards thoroughness of digestion, little difference was observed between these men and others who have been studied under more usual conditions.

At the University of Minnesota Prof. Harry Snyder has studied especially the digestibility and nutritive value of cereal breakfast foods and of macaroni flour--i. e., bread prepared from macaroni wheat-and has made thirty-one digestion experiments. He has also made a milling experiment with macaroni wheat and an experiment on the preparation of macaroni from flour thus prepared.

The studies of cereal breakfast foods are especially interesting, and the results, taken in connection with those obtained at Middletown and the University of Maine, will go far toward settling the interesting question as to the value of this class of foods as compared with bread, macaroni, and other common cereal preparations. In connection with the work attention has been paid to the comparative economy and wholesomeness of different methods of marketing these foods, the cost of the nutrients furnished as compared with flour, meal, and the more common foods, the influence of methods of preparation on flavor, and related topics.

The work with macaroni wheat has furnished interesting data regarding the value of this class of wheat and the possibilities of extending its use.

Dr. H. C. Sherman, of Columbia University, New York City, has continued his collection of data regarding the protection of proteids in the body.

At the University of Tennessee Prof. C. E. Wait has continued the investigations along the same lines as in previous years, namely, twenty dietary studies of white families of limited means living in mountain districts, and twelve experiments on the digestibility of legumes.

Especial interest attaches to the studies of the digestibility of legumes, as hitherto little data has been available regarding the thoroughness with which this important class of nitrogenous foods is utilized by the body. In addition to other legumes, Professor Wait's work has included cowpeas, a food product of great importance in regions where it is grown and one whose use it seems could be profitably extended to regions where it is at present little known.

FOOD AND NUTRITION PUBLICATIONS.

The food and nutrition publications issued during the past year have included 5 techincal bulletins, 1 farmer's bulletin, an article for the Yearbook of the Department, an article for the Annual Report of the Office of Experiment Stations, and one for distribution at the St. Louis Exposition. The subjects treated in these publications are as follows:

Dietary Studies in Boston and Springfield, Mass., Philadelphia, Pa., and Chicago, Ill.; Further Investigations among Fruitarians at the California Agricultural Experiment Station; Experiments on the Metabolism of Matter and Energy in the Human Body, 19001902; Experiments on Losses in Cooking Meat, 1900-1903; Studies of the Digestibility and Nutritive Value of Bread at the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, 1899-1903; Poultry as Food; Wheat Flour and Bread; Nutrition Investigations at the Government Hospital for the Insane, Washington, D. C., and Investigations on the Nutrition of Man in the United States.

The following was submitted for publication, but was not actually printed during the fiscal year: Canned Fruit, Preserves and Jellies: Household Methods of Preparation.

IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE INVESTIGATIONS.

IRRIGATION.

The regulation of the water supplied to soils for the growth of crops by means of irrigation and drainage, as related to tillage, is a factor in crop production of universal importance. Investigations of the best manner of accomplishing the results desired through irrigation and drainage were carried on during the past year under the direction of Dr. Elwood Mead in thirty different States and Territories and two of our insular possessions. In California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, Arkansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, New Jersey, and in the islands of Porto Rico and Hawaii, this work was conducted under cooperative arrangements with the State agricultural colleges or experiment stations. In Idaho and Wyoming this Office cooperated with the State engineers' offices. In California and Nevada special cooperative appropriations were made by the States for extending this work. In addition to these cooperative studies work was carried on by the agents of the Department in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and West Virginia.

In company with a representative of the Bureau of Plant Industry, Mr. C. G. Elliott, engineer in charge of drainage investigations, made a study of the drainage problems of the fruit and vegetable lands bordering the Everglades in Florida.

In collaboration wtih the Bureau of Chemistry a large number of samples of irrigation waters were collected by the field agents of this Office and analyzed by the Bureau of Chemistry, to determine the amount and influence on plant and animal life of the impurities carried.

THE DUTY OF WATER.

The measurements of the quantity of water used under ordinary practice were continued in nearly all of the arid States, in districts where this information is needed as a guide in the adjudication of water rights, to serve as a basis for fixing the dimensions of new canals, or for making comparisons between the average duty under existing practice and the possible duty under tests being made of more skillful and economic methods. These records of existing practice were supplemented by experiments to determine the absolute

quantity of water which, under given conditions of soil and climate, will produce the largest yield. In these experiments the quantity of water applied varied from 2 to 60 inches, or from the lowest limit of economy in actual practice to about the maximum quantity of water used by irrigators in anything resembling good practice. These experiments will be continued until the approximate limits of economy in water, beyond which saving becomes unprofitable, are ascertained, and also the other extreme, beyond which additional application of water becomes injurious, is approximately determined. A report of these investigations is given in the subsequent pages of this report, and is illustrated by photographs which show how varying the quantity of water affects the growth of crops. This information is needed to determine the kind of water-right contracts best suited to different localities. Where there is more irrigable land than water to irrigate it, lessened use and a high duty, even with diminished yield, may be the most profitable system, because of the large increase in cultivated acres which it makes possible; while, on the other hand, where the water supply is abundant, a knowledge of the extent to which a liberal use of water increases yields is desired. Another line of experiments has been carried on to determine the influence on the quality of fruits and grains of varying the time of irrigation as well as the amount of water applied. While not conclusive, the results of these experiments give reason for believing that through skillful handling of water the quality of both fruits and grains can be progressively improved. These tests have been supplemented by comprehensive inquiries to ascertain the experience of practical fruit growers, the investigation with respect to fruits being made by Prof. E. J. Wickson, horticulturist of the California Experiment Station, and those on grains under the direction of J. A. Widtsoe, director of the Utah Experiment Station. Heretofore soft wheats have been largely grown where irrigation is practiced. It is hoped to change this and produce better varieties either through the adaptation of hard wheats to irrigation or through the progressive improvement of soft wheats by better methods of applying water.

The studies of preparing land for irrigation and the collection of data regarding the cost of doing this have been continued. The results of these studies are proving of great practical value to farmers. Thousands of beginners wish to know how to prepare their land for applying water. This not only involves the giving of information regarding implements to be used, but the selection of the method to be adopted. There are in all in this country about thirty different methods of applying water to land, these being modifications of four general systems. The soil, the climate, the kind of crops to be grown, and the topography of the surface are all factors which

enter into the selection of the method to be employed. The check method seems to be best adapted to light, sandy soils having slopes of from 3 to 6 feet to the mile. In the greater part of the country the flooding of the land from small field ditches is the popular system; probably three-fifths of all the land irrigated is watered by this method, yet in certain sections of the country, notably in the San Joaquin Valley, in California, this method is unknown. The furrow method is generally used in the irrigation of orchards and for all cultivated crops, and has one marked advantage over flooding or checks in lessening the loss from evaporation, the experiments in California in 1904 showing a saving in irrigation through deep furrows of 25 per cent. At present the arbitrary difference in irrigation methods to be found in districts having the same natural condition seems to come largely from the influence of the method first adopted, the tendency of later comers being to follow the plan they see in operation. The bulletins describing different methods are causing land to be prepared and water applied in a much more intelligent and efficient manner.

PUMPING WATER FOR IRRIGATION.

The studies of irrigation by pumping carried on during the past year have taken a wide range and included laboratory tests of the efficiency of different makes of pumps, field records showing the quantity of water lifted, the number of acres irrigated, the amount of fuel used (with its cost), and the value of the crops grown. These experiments and inquiries in regard to pumping were carried on in California, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Kansas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, and Wyoming, part of the work being under the direction of the engineers and experts of this Office and a part in cooperation with the State University of California and the State experiment stations of New Mexico, Kansas, and Arkansas.

During the past season statistics of the cost of pumping water for irrigation were obtained from over 1,000 pumping plants. These embraced nearly every kind of power and about every type of pump. The fuel included straw, brush, coal, wood, gasoline, and crude petroleum; the power, steam, gasoline, windmills, and electricity. The importance of pumping is due to the fact that in many sections of the country wells furnish the only available water supply, and to the further fact that improvements in machinery have so lessened the cost of pumping that many farmers are employing it where it is possible to obtain water from gravity canals. It is believed that this extension of pumping is destined to continue. Over 13,000,000 acres of land in India-about 25 per cent of the entire irrigated area is irrigated from wells, and about 8,000,000 acres additional is irrigated from small reservoirs. In the Madras Presidency