first ten years, 2 per cent for the second ten years, and 1 per cent for the third ten years, so that the interest payments by the Government end with the expiration of the water right. When the right expires it may be renewed just as franchises are renewed in this country.

In many sections of Italy canal companies have experienced the same losses and farmers suffered the same injury from seepage as are met with in this country. In some instances canals have had to be cemented for their entire length. Drainage has also had to follow canal building, as the seepage water fills the farmers' fields and the cellars of houses in towns. In recent years the granting of rights to build canals is frequently conditioned on the canal company constructing, along with its irrigation works, a complete system of drains to carry off the surplus water. In some districts drainage works have been built under an agreement whereby the canal company pays 40 per cent of the cost of drains and receives the water they collect, the farmers and the municipality paying the remainder.

The results of irrigation in Italy encourage the belief that it is destined to be a large factor in the agriculture of humid parts of the United States, especially in those sections where streams have fall enough for water to be diverted and distributed by gravity and in the Southern States where the long, hot seasons will make irrigation of great value to farmers in the growing of hay and forage crops and in the production of fruits and garden products.

Irrigation is not for the arid West alone. The conditions which have led to its adoption in the humid parts of Germany, Switzerland, France, and Italy are beginning to appear in the Eastern States and, with increasing population and high land values, canal and reservoir building will soon become as important a feature of farm improvement along both slopes of the Alleghenies as it is now along the southern and western slopes of the Alps.

PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE.

During the past year the collection of information as to methods employed in the practical operations of irrigation farming has been begun. All agents of the irrigation investigations were requested to collect and send in descriptions of the best practices in performing certain operations observed by them in the sections where they were working, accompanying their reports with drawings and other illustrations made in the field. These reports are all brought together in the Office, and bulletins on the different operations are being prepared giving the results of the experience of the whole country on these particular lines. New subjects will be taken up each year until the whole field of irrigation practice is covered. It is a slow and expensive process for each farmer to work out for himself the best ways

of

doing his work, and it is impossible for any number of them to go over the country investigating the methods of others. The Department can do them no greater service than to collect this information and place it in available form for all who want it.

The subjects taken up in this way during 1903 were raising water with current wheels and preparing land for irrigation. The agents sent in descriptions, drawings, and photographs of wheels seen by them in all parts of the country, with statements of the quantities of water raised, the area watered, and the cost of the wheels. A bulletin compiled from these reports will soon be published and will be available for anyone applying for it. There are many places where small quantities of water can be raised in this way with almost no cash outlay, and this bulletin will serve to suggest the making of wheels to parties living where they can be used and will tell them how to make them.

In the same way the reports on methods of preparing land for irrigation will be combined and published. The operations discussed are: Removing sagebrush, smoothing and leveling land, and laying out and constructing laterals, checks, embankments, etc. These are practical operations which must be performed by everyone bringing land under irrigation for the first time. In addition, the persons reclaiming such land are usually inexperienced in irrigation. The publication and distribution of a bulletin telling what must be done and how to do it will save such persons from making costly mistakes and enable them to put their land in condition with the least possible trouble and expense.

The scope of this work for 1904 has been somewhat enlarged. It has been proposed to carry on the work in cooperation with the agricultural experiment stations of the States, as well as through our agents. Looking to this end a conference was held in Washington, during the meeting of the Association of Agricultural Colleges, between the representatives of this Office and those of the stations interested. At that meeting both the general plan and many of the details were discussed and the plan was unanimously indorsed. In order to determine what questions should be taken up it was decided that the chief of irrigation investigations should prepare a list of subjects which should be sent to each station interested, and that the director of each station should indicate on the list the order of the importance of those subjects and any others which he wished to add and return the list to the Office. The two subjects shown by all the lists returned to be deemed most important will be chosen to be taken up the coming year and will be studied by all the stations, this Department furnishing a part or all of the funds and digesting and publishing the results. In this way the Department will secure the services of the expert staffs of the S. Doc. 148, 58-2-32

experiment stations and the use of their equipment at a very small expense and will secure uniformity in the lines of work taken up. Adding to this the observations of our own agents will make possible the publication of a series of bulletins on the practical operations of irrigation farming which will be of very great value to our farmers. and to our agricultural schools which are now hampered by the lack of text-books on such subjects. As the country becomes more thickly settled agricultural progress will be more and more limited to improvements in methods, and this Office is doing what it can to promote this means of progress.

The following are the subjects suggested to be taken up by the stations in the arid region:

(1) Measuring water.

(2) Losses from seepage.

(3) Removing grass and aquatic plants from canals and ditches.

(4) Employing cement and concrete in the place of wood in farm structures, such as watering troughs, feed boxes, water pipes, irrigation flumes, and the lining of canals.

(5) Measurements of the rise of ground water in the soil.

(6) Construction of small reservoirs.

(7) Construction and operation of open drains now in use in irrigation. (8) Construction and operation of underdrains now in use in irrigation districts.

(9) Methods of laying out and constructing checks or compartments. (10) Inquiries regarding certain classes of farm machinery in general use, with a view to determining what problems farmers meet in their use and in what directions studies may be required for their improvement. The relative efficiency of windmills and gas engines in pumping and in supplying power for other kinds of farm work, the problems connected with the use of traction engines in general farm work, and the relative merits of disk and moldboard plows, are examples of special inquiries in this field.

Another list was suggested for the humid States, as follows:

(1) Employing cement and concrete in the place of wood in farm structures, such as watering troughs, feed boxes, and water pipes. (2) The use of tile drains to prevent the erosion of hillsides.

(3) Methods of terracing hillsides.

(4) Construction of small reservoirs.

(5) Cranberry irrigation.

(6) Irrigating market gardens.

(7) Irrigating rice.

(8) The relative efficiency and cost of iron, canvas, wood, vitrified pipe, and cement as a material for conduits for carrying water for irrigation and other farm purposes.

(9) Methods of constructing and maintaining dikes for the irrigation of rice and in preventing the flooding of swamp and overflowed lands.

(10) Inquiries regarding certain classes of farm machinery in general use, with a view to determining what problems farmers must meet in their use and in what directions studies may be required for their improvement. The relative efficiency of windmills and gas engines in pumping and in supplying power for other kinds of farm work, the problems connected with the use of traction engines in general farm work, and the relative merits of disk and moldboard plows, are examples of special inquiries in this field.

PUBLICATIONS.

R. P. TEELE, Editorial Assistant, in charge.

The irrigation publications for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1903, included 5 bulletins, a report to the Director of the Office, 2 Yearbook articles, and 1 circular, making a total of 901 printed pages. In addition, separates of bulletins previously published were issued, aggregating 681 pages, and reprints of other bulletins, containing 119 pages. This makes a total of 1,701 pages of printed matter issued during the year, 901 of which was new matter. The new publications were as follows:

Bulletin No. 124. Report of Irrigation Investigations in Utah. By R. P. Teele, A. P. Stover, A. F. Doremus, J. D. Stannard, Frank Adams, and G. L. Swendsen. Pp. 336, pls. 19, figs. 2. Price, $1.10.

This is an exhaustive study of the irrigation laws of Utah from the standpoint of their relation to agricultural development and of the customs and institutions which have grown up under these laws. The distinctive features of Utah irrigation are the cooperative canal companies and their rules for distributing water to their members. The reports contained in this bulletin show very clearly how these companies are organized, how they distribute water, and the cost of water to their members.

Bulletin No. 130. Egyptian Irrigation. By Clarence T. Johnston. Pp. 100, pls. 24, figs. 9. Price, 30 cents.

Mr. Johnston spent the winter of 1901-2 in Egypt studying the irrigation laws and practices of that country and inspecting the irrigation works. This bulletin contains the results of his studies. gives a description of the country, the agricultural methods in use, and the canals and structures connected therewith, including the great Assuan Dam which was nearing completion at the time of Mr. Johnston's visit. The main features of the system of distributing water are also discussed and the texts of the more important parts of the irrigation laws are given.

Bulletin No. 131. Plans of structures in use on irrigation canals in the United States, from drawings exhibited by the Office of Experiment Stations at Paris in 1900 and at Buffalo in 1901, prepared under the direction of Elwood Mead. Pp. 51, pls. 22. Price, 60 cents.

This is an album of plans chosen from those exhibited at Paris and Buffalo. The plans are accompanied by explanations, bills of materials, and statements of cost of construction, maintenance, and repairs, and of their efficiency and durability.

Bulletin No. 133. Report of Irrigation Investigations for 1902, under the direction of Elwood Mead, chief. Pp. 226, pls. 12, figs. 16. Price, 25 cents.

This is the fourth of the series of annual reports of the work of the irrigation investigations. It does not, however, contain reports of all the work done nor any summing up of the work, but is a collection of reports on the agricultural conditions in various localities studied by our agents during the year. It contains the following reports: Irrigation in the Mountain Water District, Salt Lake County, Utah, by E. R. Morgan; The Use of Water from the Wood Rivers, Idaho, by J. D. Stannard; Irrigation Investigations on Sand Creek, Albany County, Wyo., by Burton P. Fleming; Irrigation in Washington, by O. L. Waller; Irrigation Investigations in Montana, 1902, by Samuel Fortier; Irrigation Systems on Stoney Creek, Cal., by W. T. Clarke and C. W. Landis; Irrigation in the Black Hills, S. Dak., by A. B. Crane; Rice Irrigation in Louisiana and Texas, by Frank Bond; Third Progress Report on Silt Measurements, by J. C. Nagle; Irrigation Experiments at the Missouri Experiment Station, by H. J. Waters; Irrigation in Wisconsin in 1902, by A. R. Whitson; Irrigation Investigations in New Jersey, 1902, by E. B. Voorhees; The Use of Pumps for Irrigation in Hawaii, by Jared G. Smith.

Bulletin No. 134. Storage of Water on Cache la Poudre and Big Thompson Rivers, by C. E. Tait. Pp. 100, pls. 5, figs. 10. Price, 10 cents.

This bulletin contains descriptions of the reservoirs built for storing the water of the two streams named, giving capacities, costs, details of construction, and data as to crops raised with stored water. These reservoirs have been built by the associated efforts of the farmers using the water and are, therefore, especially instructive to others similarly situated.

Review of Irrigation Investigations for 1902, by Elwood Mead, chief. Pp. 25, pls. 5.

This is a reprint from the Annual Report of the Director of this Office. It gives a summing up of the work done during the previous fiscal year.

Some Engineering Features of Drainage, by C. G. Elliott. Pp. 14, pl. 1, figs. 2. Reprint from Yearbook for 1902. It contains a general discussion of some phases of drainage and describes what has been done in a few places.