water measurement and the working out of systems of division of the water supply between the canals and reservoirs and the communities dependent on them are becoming more and more important features of the work of this Office.

The structures used in the measurement and distribution of water are undergoing as important changes as the methods employed by farmers in applying water to their fields. The use of wood in flumes, head gates, and measuring boxes is being done away with, and metal, stone, and concrete structures are being substituted. The pioneer canal builders had to construct wooden flumes and wooden head gates, because this in many cases was the only available material, and it was always the cheapest. Experience, however, has shown that wooden flumes are leaky, expensive to maintain and operate, and their rapid decay makes their apparent economy a matter of grave question. Along with the growing appreciation of their disadvantages has come a remarkable advance during the last four or five years in the manufacture of concrete structures, especially of concrete strengthened by metal. The increasing use of this material in buildings promises to be duplicated in irrigation, and it bids fair to largely displace wood in the construction of flumes, pipes, culverts, and in many sections in the lining of canals to prevent excessive losses from seepage. This Office can render irrigation development no greater service than to collect and collate the results of practical experience in the use of concrete, stone, and metal, and in making tests to determine their efficiency and cost in cases where improvements wait upon more definite information than is now available.

IRRIGATION IN THE SEMIARID REGION.

In the semiarid region which extends from Canada to Mexico, through the western parts of the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, the rainfall in many years is sufficient to produce good crops, but in other years it is not, making agriculture, where rainfall is the sole dependence for moisture, a hazardous industry. This is a region of few streams, and the water supply must therefore be obtained from other sources, such as the storage of storm waters, pumping from wells, and from artesian wells. Experiments were carried on at Hays City, Kans., and data as to the cost of artesian wells and the profits from their use in the James River Valley, South Dakota, were collected. Both in Kansas and South Dakota irrigation has proven very profitable, and it is believed that the methods used in these two localities have wide applicability to the semiarid region.

IRRIGATION IN THE HUMID REGION.

The importance of irrigation in the humid portions of this country is illustrated by the effect of its adoption in the rice districts of Louisiana and Texas. In 1903 more than half a million acres of land was

irrigated in these two States, and the crop grown thereon had an estimated value of more than $14,000,000, or nearly $30 an acre. In other words, the value of the single crop is far greater than the total value of this land before irrigation was established.

The success of cranberry irrigation in Wisconsin and elsewhere promises equally important additions to the productive capacity of lands in the North. Irrigation is destined to be a large factor in market gardening and in the production of forage crops everywhere throughout the East. Northern Italy has a rainfall equal to that of the Mississippi Valley, yet millions of dollars are being spent in the construction of irrigation works, not to make agriculture possible but to make it profitable, and there seems to be no reason why irrigation can not be employed in many of the humid sections of the United States with equal benefit.

PUMPING AND DRAINAGE INVESTIGATIONS.

The rapid advance in the use of pumps in irrigation and the lessening cost of pumping, due to utilization of new forms of power, have also opened up a wide field in which this Office can aid farmers in determining how best to utilize small water supplies and be a great factor in the extension of irrigation in both the arid and humid sections of the country.

The large areas of land which were being swamped through leakage from ditches and seepage from higher irrigated land led to the beginning of drainage studies. These problems differed from those of ordinary farm drainage and required special study. The inauguration of this work, however, brought to light the importance of farm drainage in many sections of the East, and the demands upon this Office for investigation of these problems have become so great that the work now being done in humid regions exceeds that being done in irrigated districts. During the past season definite projects, which involved an outlay of about $1,400,000, were considered by the experts of this Office. Considerable time was given to a study of drainage conditions in Iowa, where it is estimated that lack of drainage caused an injury to the corn crop last year of more than $4,000,000. Here the relief of the swamped areas involves not only the preparation of comprehensive plans, but the framing of legislation which will enable the people of relatively large districts to work together in constructing and maintaining the needed works.

ECONOMIC STUDIES.

The only new work in our studies of legal and social problems inaugurated during last year was in compliance with the provision of the last appropriation bill requiring this Office to study the laws affecting irrigation and the rights of riparian proprietors. After consulting

the governors and attorney-generals of Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado, and the State engineers of Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado, it was concluded to take up a study of the legal and social problems created by the diversion and use of the Platte River in irrigation, the plan being to gather the facts showing the number of ditches, areas irrigated, character of the rights acquired under the laws of appropriation, influence upon the flow of the stream of the diversion of water by canals and its return in seepage through streams and springs, and the influence of this interference with the natural flow on the rights of farmers and mill owners owning riparian lands in the portions of the stream's course where the riparian doctrine is recognized. The inauguration of this investigation was warmly welcomed by both State officials and farmers concerned. The collection of data has been a laborious undertaking, and it is probable that another season will be required for its completion. It is believed that this report will throw much light upon many of the important practical questions which must be considered by the United States circuit and Supreme courts in the litigation now pending before those tribunals.

A more extended account of the progress of the irrigation investigations during the past year may be found in the report of the officer in charge on page 469.

RURAL ENGINEERING.

The opportunities for this Department to do useful and effective work in studies of other branches of rural engineering are every year becoming more numerous and important. These include the laying out of farms so as to permit of the establishment of systems of rotation, and the economical cultivation and harvesting of crops; the construction and grouping of farm houses and farm buildings so as to secure efficiency and economy and contribute to the healthfulness and attractiveness of rural life. In the movement of settlement to the West and the continued extension of civilized life to regions before unoccupied these matters have been largely neglected, and there is no doubt that, in these particulars, the convenience and attractiveness of farm homes in this country are inferior to those in most European countries. It is equally certain that the betterment of these conditions. will have much to do with checking the movement from the farms to the cities.

In the construction of farm buildings, both barns and houses, the farmer is now almost entirely dependent on his own knowledge and ingenuity, and as a result the majority of farm buildings are unsatisfactory, whether considered from the standpoint of appearance, durability, or adaptation to the needs of their occupants. Some problems in connection with farm buildings need careful study in order to improve their healthfulness and convenience. One of these is ventila

tion. We do not know either the effect of poor ventilation or the most efficient means of securing good ventilation. Another is the improvement in the water system of both farm houses and farm barns. Heretofore, nearly all farm buildings have been built of wood. A change to other materials is inevitable in the near future. Timber is becoming scarce and costly and must be supplemented by brick, stone, and cement. On the other hand, improvements in the manufacture of cement and in the methods of utilizing it for different construction purposes have been one of the most marked developments of recent times. This Department can render the farmers of this country no greater service than by showing just how far it is possible for farmers to make use of these advances in our industrial methods by determining the relative cost and value of different materials to be used in the construction of houses, barns, fences, and other features of the equipment of a modern farm.

It is believed, however, that the greatest opportunity for the improvement of the agricultural practice of the United States is to be found in the right selection and care of farm machinery. In no other country is its use so extensive, and the scarcity and high price of farm labor will tend to its increased use in the future, rather than otherwise. The total value of implements and machinery on the farms of this country, according to the recent census, was $761,261,550, an average of $133 per farm, taking the country over, and of 90 cents per acre of farm land. Much of this machinery is elaborate and complicated in construction, and requires mechanical skill for its most efficient operation and care, not to mention the making of small repairs. It represents an important part of the farmer's invested capital upon which he must pay or earn interest. That there is an enormous waste of money due to neglect and unskillful handling of this part of the farm equipment must be obvious to anyone who has traveled through the regions where it is most used.

The record of two tenants on neighboring farms in Nebraska is a case in point as showing how much of this waste may be avoided. These two men have been living on the same farms for the past nine years. One of them is still using the same harvester which he purchased the first year he took the farm; the other has bought and “worn out" three self-binders. In eight and a half years there has been a difference of $1,900 in the outlay for farm machinery by these two men. Both farms are about equally equipped. The difference is that, as a result of better care and more skillful use, one man's tools have lasted about three times as long as the other's. Such examples of extravagant management are by no means uncommon. The American farmer, with all his mechanical aptitude and inventive skill, has been strangely neglectful in his management and care of agricultural machinery, and until recently there has been little demand for studies

of this subject by this Department and the agricultural colleges of this country.

In Germany, France, and more recently in England, a well-equipped laboratory for testing agricultural machines and a museum filled with samples of machines of different patterns for examination by students is held to be as essential to proper instruction in agriculture as a chemical laboratory. The first floor of the agricultural high school at Berlin contains a museum in which are found the best types of agri cultural implements of the United States, England, and Germany. The student who makes proper use of that museum has a better under. standing of the principles which govern the construction of the tools. he is to use and the modifications to conform to different uses than it would be possible for him to acquire in any other way, and it is a kind of training especially demanded by the conditions of American farm life.

This training in the agricultural institutions of Germany is regarded there as of the highest value not only by farmers but also by manufacturers. It gives them trained workmen in their shops and trained agents to extend their export trade in different countries. The union of agricultural and mechanical knowledge in their employees and agents has enabled German implement makers to greatly increase their export trade, and it is believed that the same result would follow similar training here. If we are to maintain our standing as a producing and manufacturing nation, we must maintain our superiority as designers and users of farm machinery, and this can be best promoted by bringing the intelligence of the trained experts of the Department of Agriculture and of the professors and students of our agricultural colleges to bear on this problem.

Of late, interest in the problems of rural engineering has been awakened in many agricultural regions in this country. A few colleges have created departments for instruction in certain branches of rural engineering, the departments of irrigation engineering in Colorado and California being illustrations of this, and a number of colleges are now beginning the establishment of courses in rural engineering with farm mechanics as the leading feature, and there is much interest in the development of these courses as independent lines of work. Among these are the colleges of agriculture in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and North Dakota.

The colleges attempting to establish courses in farm mechanics and other lines of agricultural engineering are immediately made aware of the fact that the data for the scientific and pedagogical basis of such courses are very meager, and they are, therefore, looking to this Department to aid them in instituting investigations to supply this information. Inquiries which might profitably be undertaken under this head include: