TZb 
 
ALBERT R. MANN 
 LIBRARY 
 
 New York State Colleges 
 
 OF 
 
 Agriculture and Home Economics 
 
 AT 
 
 Cornell University 
 
Cornell University Library 
 TC 823.T25 
 
 Irrigation and drainage investigations o 
 
 3 1924 003 639 063 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003639063 
 
723 
 
 U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 
 
 ■ OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS, 
 
 A. C. TRUE, bireetor. 
 
 MON AND 
 
 INfESTIGATI' 
 
 OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIOl^S, 
 
 U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
 
 BT 
 
 R. P. TEELE, 
 
 Editorial Asulitiiiii, Office of Exper'nnenl Stations. 
 
 WASHINGTON:, 
 
 GOVEKNMBNT PRINTING OTFIOE. 
 1904. 
 
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS OF THE OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS ON 
 IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE. 
 
 KoTE.— For those publications to which a price is aflSxed application should be 
 made to the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, AVashington, 
 D. C, the officer designated by law to sell Government publications. Publications 
 marked with an asterisk (*) are not available for distribution. 
 *Bui. 36. Notes on Irrigation in Connecticut and New Jersey. By 0. S. Phelps and 
 
 E. B. Voorhees. Pp.' 64. Price, 10 cents. 
 Bui. 58. Water Rights on the Missouri River and its-Tributaries. By El wood Mead. 
 
 Pp. 80. Price, 10 cents. - ■ , , _ ,, 
 
 Bui. 60. Abstract of Laws for Acquiring Titles to Water from the Missouri River ' 
 and its Tributaries, with the Legal Forms in Use. Compiled by. El wood. 
 Mead. Pp. 77„ Price, 10 cepts. 
 Bui. 70. Water-Right Problems of Bear River. By Clarence T. Johnston and 
 
 Joseph A; Breckons. Pp. 40. Price, 15 cents. , 
 Bui. 73. Irrigation in the Rocky Mountain States. By J. 0. UlricK. • Pp. 64. Price, 
 
 10 cents. . , 
 
 Bui. 81. The Use of Water in Irrigation in Wyoming. By B. C. Buffum. Pp. 56. 
 
 Price, 10 cents. 
 *Bul. 86. The Usij of Water irL Irrigation. Report of investigations made in 1899, 
 under the supervision of Elwood Mead, expert in charge, and C. T-. 
 Johnston, assistant. Pp. 253. Price, 30 cents.. 
 Bid. 87. Irrigation in New Jersey. By Edward B. Voorhees. ' Pp. 40. Price, 5 
 
 cents. ' - i ' , 
 
 *Bul. 90. Irrigation in Hawaii. By Walter Maxwell. Pp.48. Price,: 10 cents. 
 Bui. 92. The Reservoir System of the Cache la Poudre Valley. By E.S. Nettl^ton. 
 
 Pp. 48. Price, 15 cents. 
 Bui. 96. Irrigation Laws of the Northwest Territories of, Canada and of Wyoming, 
 with Discussions by J. S. Dennis, Fred Bond, and J. Mt Wilsoti. Pp. 90. 
 Price, 10 cents. . . ' ' - . 
 
 Bui. 100. Report of Irrigation Investigations in California, under the direction of"- 
 Elwood Mead, assisted by William E. Smythe, Marsden Manson, J. M.- 
 Wilson, Charles D. Marx, Frank Soul6, C. E. Grunsky, Edward.M. Boggs, 
 ^ and James D. Schuyler. Pp.411. Price, cloth, |1. 25; paper, 90 cenfa.'- 
 
 *Bul. 104. The Use of Water in Irrigation. , Report of investigations Tnade in 1900,;: 
 - 1 , under the supervision of Elwpod Mead, expert in charge", and C. T. 
 
 Johnston, assistant. Pp. 334. Price, 50 cents. 
 Bui. 105. Irrigation in the United States. Testimony of Elwood Mead, irrigation 
 expert in charge, before the United States Industrial Commission June 
 
 11 and 12, 1901.' Pp. 47. Price, 15 cents. 
 
 Bui. 108. Irrigation Practice among Fruit Growers on the Pacific Coast. By E. J. 
 
 Wickson. Pp. 54. Price, 15 cents. 
 Bui. 113. Irrigation of Rice in the United States. By Frank Bond and George H. 
 
 Keeney. Pp. 77. Price, 30 cents. 
 Bui. 118. Irrigation from Big Thompson River. By John E. Field. Pp.75. Price 
 10 cents. ' , 
 
 *Bul. 119. Report of Irrigation Investigations for 1901, under the direction of Elwood 
 Mead, chief. Pp. 401. Price, 50 cents. : 
 
 [Continued on third page of cover.] 
 
723 
 
 U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 
 
 OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS, 
 
 A. C. TRUE, DireetQr. 
 
 IRRIGATION MD DRiMGE INVESTIGITIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 OFFICE OF EXPERIMEITT STATIONS, 
 
 U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
 
 / 
 
 ,.■ .P 
 
 R. I^. TEELE, 
 
 EiVdor'ial Axxixtmit, ('iiVitr nf Ji.i-j)i'i-iiiifiil ,'-:iiitlij)is 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 GOVKRNIMEXT PBIKTING OFFITB; 
 190-1:. 
 
TO 
 
 <;ls 
 
 347166 
 
 OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS 
 
 A. 0. Tkue, Ph. D., Director. 
 
 E. W. Allen, Ph. D., Assistant Director. 
 
 IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS. 
 
 Elwood Mead, Chief. 
 E. P. Teble, Editorial Assistant. 
 C. E. Tait, Assistant, in Charge of Central District. 
 Samuel Fortier, Irrigation Engineer, in Charge of Pacific District. 
 ■C. Ct. Elliott, Engineer, in Charge of Drainage Investigations, 
 2 
 
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 
 
 U. S. Department of Agkioultube, 
 
 Office of Expekiment Stations, 
 
 Washington, D. G. , July 5, IQOJi.. 
 Sie: I have the honor to transmit herewith and recommend for 
 publication a brief account of the irrigation and drainage investiga- 
 tions of the Office of Experiment Stations. This account is intended 
 primarily for distribution at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 
 connection with the exhibits of this Office in the Government building 
 and of the agricultural colleges and experiment stations in the Palace 
 of Education. 
 
 Respectfully, A. C. True, 
 
 Director. 
 
 Hon. James Wilson, 
 
 Secretary of Agriculture. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Historical 5 
 
 Need of irrigation and drainage in the United States 7 
 
 The irrigation investigations 8 
 
 Duty of water 9 
 
 Legal and economic problems 1-1 
 
 Pumping for irrigation 17 
 
 Irrigation in the semiarid region 18 
 
 Irrigation in the humid region 19 
 
 Composition of the water used in irrigation 20 
 
 The drainage investigations 22 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Plate I. Cement-lined canal, California . : 10 
 
 II. Pumping water from bayou for rice irrigation 18 
 
 Fig. 1. The Wyoming nilometer H 
 
 2. Friez water register No. 2 , 12 
 
 3. Water register manufactured for the Department (side view) 13 
 
 4. Diagram showing the relation between the rainfall of parts of Italy 
 
 anil that of humid sections of Eastern United States 20 
 
 5. Water-sample trap 21 
 
IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE' INVESTIGATIONS OF THE OFFICE 
 OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT 
 OF AGRICULTURE. 
 
 By R. P. Teele, Editorial Assistant. 
 
 HISTORICAL. 
 
 The. irrigation investigations of the Office of Experiment Stations 
 were first provided for in the agricultural appropriation act of 1898, 
 which contained an item of $10,000 "for the purpose of collecting 
 from agricultural colleges, agricultural experiment stations, and other 
 sources * * * valuable information and data on the subject of 
 irrigation, and publishing the same in bulletin form." The general 
 supervision of this work was assigned to the Office of Experiment 
 Stations. In order to determine the lines of information most valu- 
 able to the regions where irrigation is necessary, a conference of 
 experiment station officers and irrigation engineers who had been 
 prominently connected with western irrigation development was held 
 in Denver, Colo., July 12 and 13, 1897, and was attended by officers 
 of the experiment stations of California, Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, 
 Utah, and Wyoming, and by the State engineers of Colorado, Nebraska, 
 and Wyoming, besides representatives of the United States Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture. At this conference it was decided that the best 
 results could be obtained by carrying out this work along two general 
 lines: (1) The collection and publication of information regarding the 
 laws and institutions of the irrigated region in their relation to agricul- 
 ture, and (2) the publication of available information regarding the use 
 of ix-rigation waters in agriculture as shown by the actual experience of 
 farmers and by experimental investigations, and the encouragement 
 of further investigations in this line by the experiment stations. The 
 work was organized according to these suggestions, and was, there- 
 fore, divided into two classes, the legal and economic, and the cultural. 
 Following the conference, the work was placed under the direct charge 
 of Elwood Mead, at that time State engineer of Wyoming. This 
 action was indorsed by Congress at its next session, when it provided 
 for the investigation of (1) " the laws and institutions relating to irriga- 
 tion" and (2) " the use of irrigation waters, with especial suggestions 
 
 5 
 
6 
 
 for better methods for the utilization of irrigation waters in agriculture 
 than those in common use." The appropriation for the work was 
 increased to $35,000. 
 
 The original law provided for the collection of information from 
 the agricultural colleges and experiment stations and the law for the 
 succeeding year authorized the stations to cooperate with the Depart- 
 ment in the investigation of the subjects specified. In accordance with 
 the law, the work has been very largely done in cooperation, to the 
 great advantage of both the stations and the Department. A small 
 amount of financial assistance from the Department has enabled the 
 stations to extend their experiments in irrigation, while the' money 
 thus spent brought to the Department larger returns than could be 
 secured in any other way, since it secured the use of the lands and 
 equipments of the stations free of cost and the services of their 
 investigators by paying onljr small parts of their salaries. Thus the 
 Department secured for a few hundred dollars the making of experi- 
 ments which would have cost as many thousands of dollars if carried 
 on independently of the stations. 
 
 For the years ending June 30, 1901, and June 30, 1902, the appro- 
 priation was increased to $50,000, but the work authorized was not 
 changed. For the year ending June 30, 1903, the appropriation was 
 increased to $65,000, and the work was considerably enlarged. The 
 added work provided for included studies of (1) the laws affecting the 
 rights of riparian proprietors; (2) the use of irrigation waters abroad 
 as well as at home; (3) plans for the removal of seepage and surplus 
 waters by drainage; and (4) the use of different kinds of power for 
 irrigation and other agricultural purposes. In the act making appro- 
 priations for the Department of Agriculture for 1905 the growing 
 importance of drainage studies was recognized by a change of the title 
 of the investigations to "Irrigation and drainage investigations," and 
 an increase in the appropriation, the section providing for this reading 
 as follows: 
 
 Irrigation and Drainage Investigations: To enable the Secretary of Agricul- 
 ture to investigate and report upon the laws of the States and Territories as affecting 
 irrigation and the rights of appropriators and of riparian proprietors and institutions 
 relating to irrigation ar^d upon the use of irrigation waters, at home and abroad; with 
 especial suggestions of the best methods for the utilization o( irrigation waters in 
 agriculture, and upon plans for the removal of seepage and surplus waters by drain- 
 age, and upon the use of different kinds of power and appliances for irrigation and 
 drainage, and for the preparation, printing, and illustration of reports and bulletins 
 on irrigation and drainage, including employment of labor in the city of Washington 
 or elsewhere; and the agricultural experiment stations are hereby authorized and 
 directed to cooperate with the Secretary of Agriculture in carrying out said investi- 
 gations in such manner and to such extent as may be warranted by a due regard to 
 the varying conditions and needs and laws of the respective States and Territories 
 as may be mutually agreed upon, and all necessary expenses, sixty-seven thousand 
 five hundred dollars. 
 
NEED OF IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 The rainfall over one-third of the United States is so scanty that 
 irrigation is a necessity to the profitable growth of agricultural crops. 
 In other sections of the country there is an area equal in size to all 
 New England, with Indiana added, which is so wet that crops can not 
 be grown at all, and where settlement and cultivation must be post- 
 poned until the land has been diked and drained. 
 
 In the fifteen States and Territories of the arid region irrigation is 
 the fundamental agrtcultural problem, because the very existence of 
 civilized life depends in lai'ge measure on the ability to use rivers for 
 this purpose. In these States the production of a cheap and abundant 
 home food supply, made possible by irrigation, has increased the 
 comfort and lessened the cost of living, and contributed in a greater 
 degree than any other single cause to their continued growth and 
 prosperity. By it desert wastes have been transformed into the most 
 productive, healthful, and beautiful habitations of man to be found on 
 this continent. The cities of Denver, Salt Lake, Los Angeles, and 
 many others of lesser note are as much the creation of irrigation as 
 the orchards and farms which surround them, and all depend for 
 existence upon water and the institutions which govern its ownership 
 and use. 
 
 In many humid sections of the countr^^ high-priced land and 
 intensive methods of cultivation are making of irrigation a factor of 
 continually increasing value and importance, and it would seem that 
 the experience of the United States, like that of Europe, will prove 
 that no agent of agriculture or horticulture is so effective in increasing 
 and insuring large yields as the ability to apply water in the right 
 amount and at the right time. 
 
 There are large areas of land which always receive too much water, 
 large areas which never receive enough, and yet larger areas which 
 have sometimes too much and sometimes too little water. Only by 
 proper control of the water supply can these lands be made to produce 
 the best crops, and such a control includes both irrigation and drain- 
 age, some lands needing one, some the other, and some needing both. 
 The greater part of the land now farmed in the United States belongs- 
 to the last class. The experiments made by this Office and the expe- 
 rience of farmers and gardeners show that irrigation in dry years^ 
 even in the regions of heaviest average rainfall, much more thaa 
 repays .the cost of supplying the water. In these regions crops are as 
 often drowned out as burned out, and it is probable that drainage to 
 remove water in wet years will prove as profitable as irrigation in dry 
 years. 
 
 The area of land in the United States east of the one hundredth 
 meridian which is too wet for agricultural use but which can be reclaimed 
 
by drainage has been estimated by Prof. N. S. Shaler at from 105,000 
 to 131,000 square miles," or from 67,200,000 to 83,840,000 acres. It 
 is a notable fact that this is practically the same as the estimates of 
 the area which can be reclaimed by irrigation; that is, the area east of 
 the one hundredth meridian which can be reclaimed by drainage equals 
 that west of that line which can be reclaimed by irrigation. These 
 wet lands have received for centuries the alluvial deposits from the 
 streams which overflow them and the vegetable mold from the rank 
 growth which covers them, so that when relieved of their surplus 
 water they are among our most productive lands, competent authority 
 estimating their productive capacity as being four times that of the 
 State of Illinois. 
 
 The irrigation and drainage investigations of the Office of Expex-i- 
 ment Stations were established by Congress to study the best methods 
 of utilizing these two aids to agriculture, to determine the best 
 methods of securing, distributing, and applying water to land when 
 it is too dry, and of removing water from land when it is too wet. 
 The following pages will give a brief outline of the work which is 
 being carried on, and of some of the results which have been secured. 
 
 THE IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS. 
 
 While accurate statistics are lacking, it is certain that more than 
 $200,000,000 has been expended in the United States in the construc- 
 tion of canals and reservoirs for distributing water in irrigation and 
 in preparing land for its application. More than 10,000,000 acres of 
 land are being watered each year and more than 15,000,000 acres are 
 capable of being watered from the canals and ditches already built. 
 The greater part of this water comes from creeks and rivers, hundreds 
 •of these being completelj' emptied at some season each year in order 
 to meet the needs of the fields along their banks. Other ditches are 
 supplied fi-om reservoirs, of which thousands have already been built. 
 Still other ditches are filled from water lifted from wells. In all, the 
 welfare and prosperity of several million homes and the future indus- 
 trial importance of more than one-third of this country is dependent 
 upon the successful working of the laws and practices for the control 
 and utilization of water which have grown up in the western part of 
 the United States within the past fifty years. The rapidit}'^ and extent 
 of this irrigation development has had no counterpart in any other 
 country. It has been carried out bj^ men to whom all its problems 
 were strange and new, and, in many cases, where scanty population, 
 lack of transportation facilities, and limited means on the part of 
 settlers have added to both the difficulty and the cost of the work. 
 The results already secured furnish a remarkable illustration of the 
 
 « Fresh Water Morasses of the United States. 
 
energy and capacity of the American farmer, but the time has come 
 when this kind of development should be replaced by one less waste- 
 ful and more orderly. Of necessity much of the early work was done 
 in an unsatisfactory fashion, many of the methods of using water are 
 crude and imperfect, and the social and legal organizations under 
 which rivers are now being fought over are not adapted to securing 
 the largest and best results or to meeting the requirements of the time 
 when increasing value of water and greater demand for its use by an 
 increased population will intensify the struggle over its possession. 
 Many of the problems created by this development have already 
 assumed a complexity and importance which makes it plain that their 
 solution can onh^ be effected through painstaking investigation, which 
 will embrace widely scattered areas and be directed and interpreted by 
 men of experience and ability in irrigation engineering and irrigation 
 practice. The investigations during the past five years have been 
 directed toward building up an organization of experts, who shall be 
 investigators rather than construction engineers and who shall study 
 all problems from the standpoint of the farmer. 
 
 I DTTTY or WATER. 
 
 The first question which confronts the farmer in the arid region is 
 the amount of water required to insure crops on the land he is to cul- 
 tivate. He needs this information in order to make an intelligent 
 bargain for water where he rents it from a canal company, or to fix 
 the size of thecanal he builds himself. He needs to know when this 
 water will be required — how much in May, how much in August— in 
 order to determine whether the stream, reservoir, or well he depends 
 on can supply it. The amount he must have varies widely in different 
 localities and with different products. The irrigation of small grains, 
 as a rule, ends with July; the irrigation of many root crops does not 
 begin before this month, while the irrigation of alfalfa continues 
 throughout the growing season. 
 
 He should also be able to estimate how much of the water taken in 
 at the head gate will be lost b}' seepage in transit, because losses in 
 transit in some instances amount to more than one-half of the total 
 supply. For the past fi\'e 3'ears the Office of Experiment Stations, 
 through its irrigation investigations, has been gathering and publish- 
 ing this information for the benefit of farmers and ditch owners. 
 Systematic measurements have been made in all parts of the arid 
 region to determine the amount of water lost in transit in canals, the 
 amount required by different crops, and the manner in which the quan- 
 tity of water used can be influenced by greater care in the prepara- 
 tion of land, greater skill in the distribution of water, and by 
 improvements to lessen seepage losses in diversion and carriage. Some 
 of the results of these studies are given in charts exhibited at the 
 
10 
 
 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, which show the average quantity of 
 water required to irrigate an acre of land when measured at the head 
 gate, the average when measured at the margin of fields, and the 
 average requirements of different crops. 
 
 One of the results of these investigations has been to show that the 
 loss of water from seepage is far more serious than had been generally 
 supposed, even by canal owners and irrigation engineers, and that one 
 of the most promising means of increasing the duty of water is to 
 build better canals and devote more care to keeping them in first-class 
 condition. It has already proven profitable in a few localities to line 
 canals with some impervious coating in order to reduce or prevent 
 seepage losses. Many miles of canals and ditches in southern Cali- 
 fornia have been cemented at a profit (PI. I), and the extension of this 
 sort of work is only delayed because of uncertainty as to whether or 
 not cementing is the cheapest and best means of securing a water- 
 tight conduit. 
 
 One of the first difliculties encountered in the beginning of this 
 work was the lack of an accurate, simple register to keep a continuous 
 record of the water used. All those which were satisfactory were 
 at that time imported from France. To-day they are practically all 
 made in this country, a result which is chiefly due to the irrigation 
 investigations of this OflSce. Designs of instruments were made by 
 the experts, as experience showed what changes could be made to 
 advantage. The drawings were given to the makers of such instru- 
 ments. Some of the instruments which had their origin in the designs 
 prepared by this Office, and which have been perfected in details by 
 the various makers are shown in figures 1, 2, and 3." They are now 
 superior to anything used in the irrigated districts of Europe. 
 
 The accurate measurement of water is the first requisite in the effi- 
 cient division of a river among those entitled to its water supply. In 
 the preparation of weir tables, directions for placing weirs, and in dis- 
 cussion of the factors wliich influence water measurement, this Office 
 has done much to direct and aid improvement along this line in every 
 arid State. 
 
 Actual measurements of the quantity of water used in irrigation, 
 and of the volume lost by seepage and evaporation in ditches, should 
 have been made at the very outset in irrigation development in every 
 important valley of the West. It is the only way in which a reliable 
 guide can be had for framing water-right contracts between farmers 
 and canal owners, and to enable courts to make a just and intelligent 
 adjudication of rights to a stream. In order that an appropriation of 
 water shall be limited to beneficial use we must first know how much 
 is needed to supply that use. 
 
 "These instruments are shown in the exhibit of the Office at the St. Loais Expo- 
 sition. 
 
U. S. Dept. of Agr., Office of Expt. Stations, 723. 
 
 Plate I. 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 > 
 
11 
 
 To show.how little was known in the early settlement of these ques- 
 tions, it may be stated that along a stream 25 miles in length the 
 amount of water bargained to be supplied under the early contracts, 
 varied from enough to cover the land to a depth of 1 foot in the sea- 
 son to enough to cover it to a depth of 7 feet during the same time, 
 while the decrees of the court establishing rights to water varied from 
 enough to cover the land to a depth of 1 foot in a season to enough to 
 cover it to a depth of 400 feet in a season. The use made of the meas- 
 urements carried on by this Office during the past five years by courts, 
 legislators, ditch companies, and farmers has shown the need of these 
 data. The averages obtained show that much more water is used than 
 is needed, and lead to the belief that 
 the water now used on one acre can, by 
 better preparation of land and more 
 skillful application, be made to serve 
 two acres. General rules are not, 
 however, sufficient for the working 
 out of a satisfactory irrigation prac- 
 tice for the whole arid region, be- 
 cause soil, climate, and crop each 
 influence the result and produce 
 widely varying requirements in dif- 
 ferent sections. More than three 
 times as much water is needed in 
 Arizona as in Montana, because ihe 
 summers are hotter and the growing 
 seasons longer. What is needed, 
 therefore, is investigations which 
 will be sufficient in number and wide 
 enough in geographical distribution 
 to furnish an approximate guide for 
 the practice of farmers in all sections 
 
 of the COUntrv. fig. l.— The Wyoming nilometer. 
 
 The earlier investigations dealt wholly with the quantity of water 
 required under methods in common use. During the past two years 
 a new .series of original researches have been inaugurated, to determine 
 what quantity of water will give the best results and what methods of 
 application will secure the greatest economy in its use. A large num- 
 ber of experiments are being made in Utah, California, Oregon, and 
 Montana, in which different quantities of water are being applied to 
 the same crop by the same methods, in order to determine where the 
 increased use of water ceases to be profitable, and also where it ceases 
 to be beneficial. We wish to find out two things: What volume of 
 water will give the largest yield for an acre of land, and what volume 
 will give the largest return for each acre-foot of water used. Exrieri- 
 
12 
 
 ments are also being made to determine what method of application 
 will give the best results with the least loss of water from seepage and 
 evaporation." "While the experiments were only begun last year, the 
 results are most significant— nearly twice as much water being required 
 
 </f- Position OF REOUciNO gcab ivheh 
 
 HOT IN US£. 
 
 Fig. 2.— Friez water register No. 2. 
 
 to irrigate land by flooding as will serve where it is applied in deep 
 furrows. 
 
 These investigations have also disclosed the fact that the character 
 of water rights has an important influence on the volume of water 
 
 o Pictures of the tank experiments at Fresno, Cal., displayed in the exhibt at St. 
 Louis, show how some of these studies are being carried on. 
 
13 
 
 used in irrigation. Contracts which are based on the acres irrigated 
 are a direct incentive to a wasteful use of water, because the farmer 
 feels that the more water he uses on an acre the more he will get for 
 the money paid. On the other hand, contracts which base the rental 
 charge on the volume of water used encourage farmers to exhibit skill 
 and economy in its application, because the less they put on their 
 fields the smaller their water rentals will be. It makes it profitable to 
 expend more money in the preparation of land, to put ditches in bet- 
 ter-condition, and to supplement irrigation by thorough cultivation. 
 
 After the water supply is secured, fields must be prepared for its 
 application. The cost, the labor, and the skill required in putting an 
 uneven surface in condition to have water reach, by gravity ,^ every 
 
 Fig. 3.— Water register manufactured for the Department (side view) 
 
 square foot of its surface have never been rightly appreciated. So 
 much attention has been given to problems connected with the build- 
 ing of dams and canals that the work of the farmer, which, after all, 
 determines what value the dams and canals are to have, has been neg- 
 lected. No one who has made a study of our irrigation practice can fail 
 to reach the conclusion that the outlay expended in preparing fields for 
 the application of water, which includes removing brush, leveling 
 uneven areas, and the building of laterals, is on the average equal to or 
 greater than the cost of the main canals. Not only is this true, but, 
 owing to lack of information regarding the methods of applying water, 
 much of this money and labor has been lost. This waste and Toss is 
 going on continually, because each year tens of thousands of beginners 
 in irrigation undertake the reclamation of new lands. If left to them- 
 selves they adopt the methods of their neighbors, without regard to 
 
14 
 
 whether they are suited to their conditions. In too many instances 
 they are not. There are in this country about thirty different sys- 
 tems of applying water to crops. To know which one of these is best 
 suited to a particular farm requires a knowledge of the subject not 
 possessed by the average irrigator or the average engineer. Noth- 
 ing will do more to promote rapid and successful settlement of lands 
 now arid than to show farmers how to save money and time in grading 
 land and building laterals; but in order to advise regarding this, field 
 investigations which will give an accurate idea of conditions are abso- 
 lutely indispensable, and these are being made' and reports prepared. 
 The results of studies of this kind made in one district show that to 
 prepare the land for irrigation by the plan first adopted would involve 
 an outlay of more than $3,000,000, or about twice the amount needed to 
 build the canal. It has also been made apparent that fully half of this 
 ■outlay can be saved b}^ the adoption of a different method of applying 
 water. 
 
 LEGAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS. 
 
 When there is more water in the stream than all the irrigators need, 
 farmers pay little attention to the nature of their rights to divert its 
 flow; but as ditches increase in number until the stream does not carry 
 enough water to supply all, the question of which head gate must be 
 ■closed and which farmer must lose his crop because of this shortage 
 becomes a matter of overshadowing importance. It is then that the 
 irrigator with an imperfect right realizes that a valid title to water is 
 more important than a title to land. The knowledge of his own lost 
 labor, ruined crops, and his fields parched by drought is aggravated by 
 the prosperity of his neighbors whose superior rights in the stream 
 keep their ditches filled and their fields wet. In the absence of laws 
 to govern the division of the water supply, or of agreements to regu- 
 late such division hj mutual consent, the position of a canal on the 
 stream determines whether it has an abundant or scanty water supply. 
 The irrigator whose ditch is nearest the head of the stream, or whose 
 lateral is nearest the head of the canal, uses or wastes water as he 
 pleases. Those farthest down must take what is left, and when waste 
 or use has exhausted the supply it is always the irrigator at the lower 
 end of the stream or the farther end of the canal who is the first to 
 suffer. To prevent the waste and injustice inevitable on such canals, 
 there has been built up in each "Western State a system of legal and 
 social institutions intended to govern the relations of water users to 
 each other and to determine and protect their rights to the water sup- 
 ply. As settlements have multiplied, demands on the streams have 
 increased, and irrigators have come to realize that on the wisdom and 
 justice of these institutions depend in large measure the value of irri- 
 gated land and the security, peacefulness, and profit which attend 
 their work. 
 
15 
 
 The Arkansas River in Colorado will serve to illustrate the impor- 
 tance of the social and legal problems of irrigation. One thousand 
 nine hundred ditches divert this river in that State. Their aggregate 
 length, exclusive of laterals, is more than 3,000 miles. About $9,000,000 
 has been expended in their construction. Six hundred thousand acres 
 of land can be watered from them, and more than jl:00,000 is now being 
 irrigated. Between 7,000 and 8,000 people depend on these ditches 
 for their water supply, and they have invested large sums of money in 
 the purchase of stock in the companies, in buying water-right con- 
 tracts, or in the payment of annual water rentals. The value of the 
 irrigable land thereunder is between $25,000,000 and $30,000,000. 
 The cost of operating and maintaining these works is over $200,000 a 
 year. Each one of these 8,000 irrigators knows that in order to grow 
 a crop he must have his part of the water of the river at the time the 
 crop needs it, and that if some other canal or some other irrigator 
 takes his share his crops will be ruined, no matter how industrious or 
 skillful he ma}'^ be in their cultivation. With 8,000 irrigators scat- 
 tered over a territory more than 200 miles in length and in places 50 
 miles wide, he also knows that he is dependent for his share of the 
 water supply on the nature of the arrangements for preventing waste 
 on the part of others and on the efficiency of the division of the 
 stream between the 1,900 ditches which divert it. Unless the head 
 gates of these ditches or canals are so adjusted that no one can take 
 more than its proper share, and unless those not entitled to water are 
 closed entirely when the protection of superior rights requires it, 
 there must inevitably be injustice, bitterness of feeling, and failure of 
 crops. 
 
 The final problem of irrigation becomes one of distribution and, to 
 make this a success, the arrangements for transporting water to the 
 laterals of the different farms should be carried out with the sanje 
 order and system that marks the management of a railroad or express 
 company. The difficulty of securing a satisfactory division of a river 
 among irrigators is enormously increased by the fact that the volume 
 of water to be divided is never uniform. It varies from day to day 
 and from season to season. The flow of the Arkansas, for example, 
 has been as high as 40,000 cubic feet per second and as low as 100 
 cubic feet per second. At its highest stage there was more water 
 than all the canals could carry and the integrity of head gates was 
 threatened. At its lowest stage there was not enough to wet the 
 flumes. Irrigation on this stream has already been so extended that 
 without storage of flood waters the crops on many fields must each 
 year be parched by drought, and great storage reservoirs have been 
 built and others are contemplated in order that the 200,000 acres of 
 land under existing ditches, not yet irrigated, may be brought under 
 cultivation. The water of many of these reservoirs has to be turned 
 
16 
 
 into the river, mingled with that coming directly from the snows, and 
 carried past the head gates of many ditches and canals not entitled to 
 stored water, in order to reach the head gates of the canals under 
 which its owners live. The difficulty of dividing the natural flow is 
 therefore augmented by its union with the stored supply. 
 
 The great extent of territory embraced, the vast interests involved, 
 the changing conditions regarding needs of irrigators, and the volume 
 of watei' to supply them makes it manifestly impossible for each 
 individual irrigator to protect and secure his own share. The farmer 
 at the lower end of this valley can not cultivate his fields and watch, 
 the head gates of the canals above. As an individual he is helpless. 
 The success of his own efforts and that of all other irrigators depends 
 on public control and the enforcement of laws by men of broad experi- 
 ence and possessing tact, firmness, and administrative ability of high 
 order. The greatest weakness of American irrigation to-day is the 
 lack of effective administration of streams. " 
 
 Where the above facts have not been recognized continuous and 
 expensive litigation over water rights has been the result, and this 
 has been one of the heaviest burdens borne by the farmers of the arid 
 States. It is made the more burdensome because it is wholly unpro- 
 ductive, the money spent in litigation being wasted, considering the 
 Industry as a whole. The amounts thus spent are a drain on the farm- 
 ers now using water, and the probability of these controversies con- 
 tinuing is an effective check on further development. The prevalence 
 of litigation is the most significant indication of inadequate or misfit 
 laws, and a conclusive argument in favor of an investigation to show 
 the direction which improvements should take. In carrying out the 
 investigation of this subject certain typical districts have been selected 
 and a careful study made of existing conditions, the object being first 
 to obtain the facts, believing that they would be the most potent 
 argument for reform. In presenting these facts investigators must 
 be something more than reporters, and should present not only the 
 existing situation but the causes by which it was created, and this has 
 been done. The reports of this Office on the irrigation systems of 
 Califnrnia, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, and Colorado have resulted in a 
 ^reat quickening of popular appreciation of the necessity for more 
 effective laws. 
 
 Adequate legislation and efficient protection of rights is further 
 hampered by the fact that State boundaries cut across the drainage 
 lines of many irrigated valleys. The irrigated district of the Arkansas 
 lies partly in Colorado and partly in Kansas. That of Bear River 
 begins in Utah, extends into Wyoming and Idaho, and returns again 
 
 f'This has been brought out in Bulletins 96, 100, 118, 124, luid 140 of the Office oU 
 Experiment Stations. 
 
17 
 
 to Utah. Differences in laws and customs and lack of efficient pro- 
 tection of rights in every one of these valleys means that pi'iorities 
 must be enforced along the entire stream, but this is not possible as 
 long as a single authority is not in charge and as long as the nature of 
 rights, customs, and prejudices differ as greatly as they do in different 
 States at the present time. In order to determine what solution 
 should be made of this problem, Congress has required the Office of 
 Experiment Stations, through its irrigation investigations, to prepare 
 a report on the laws affecting irrigation and the rights of riparian 
 proprietors. This report will deal with a concrete illustration of the 
 effect of existing laws, the Platte Eiver being used. On this stream 
 riparian rights are recognized at the lower end and only the rights of 
 appropriation at the upper end. The report will deal with the laws, 
 the number and character of existing rights, the methods of dividing 
 water, and the How of the stream as affected by diversions above and 
 the return of seepage water below. 
 
 PUMPING FOB, IRRIGATION. 
 
 The first lands irrigated were the bottoms along streams. Irrigation 
 has graduady extended to the higher lands, with constantly increasing 
 expense for canal construction. In many places the cost of a gravity 
 supply has become so great that it is cheaper to pump water than 
 to build long canals. In many other sections the onl^' available water 
 supply is from wells, the streams having so slight a fall that their 
 diversion by gravity is impossible. Losses from canals and the irri- 
 gation of land are bringing the ground water nearer and nearer the 
 surface until, in many instances, this ground water is the cheapest 
 source of supply that farmers have. They can raise it to the surface 
 by means of pumps with less expense than they can rent water from 
 canals, and in addition they are free from the variations in supply or 
 the complications over management so common to large canal systems. 
 Recent discoveries of oil and improvements in transmission of elec- 
 trical power have greatly reduced the expense of pumping water for 
 irrigation. 
 
 This is a new branch of irrigation, and the ordinary farmer or water 
 user under a gravity canal has had little opportunity of gaining infor- 
 mation concerning it. During the past few years many pumping 
 plants have been Installed and much experimenting has been done at 
 the expense of the owners, but the experience and knowledge thus 
 gained by the few have not been made available to the many. A study 
 of the cost and methods of pumping water forms an important feature 
 of the investigations of this Office. 
 
 This branch of the subject is many sided. There are, for example, 
 a comparison of the various fuels, the proper conditions for each 
 kind and make of pumps and engines under which both will work at 
 2321—04 2 
 
18 
 
 their highest efficiency, the digging and Donng of wells, the proper 
 installation of plants, the effect of pumping on the ground-water 
 supply, and the quantity required for the irrigation of different crops 
 on soils of various characters. These and similar questions have been 
 under investigation." 
 
 IRRIGATION IN THE SEMI ARID REGION. 
 
 Between the eastern parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, 
 and the Dakotas and the distinctively arid country which lies at the 
 western border of these States there is a broad strip of country which 
 extends from the northern boundary of the United States almost to 
 the Gulf of Mexico. In this belt there is plentj'^ of rain in many sea- 
 sons to produce crops, but in others agriculture without irrigation is 
 a failure. In all years the period in which irrigation is necessarj'^ is 
 of brief duration onlJ^ In these sections farmers are confronted by 
 two problems — how to make the limited water supply of that region 
 available, and how to utilize it to the best advantage. Owing to the 
 absence of large rivers and the intermittent character of the streams, 
 the majority of farmers must depend upon two sources for their water 
 supplj' — on what thej' can pump out of the subsoil of their farms, and 
 what they can store in small reservoirs. In this region there have 
 been recurring periods of wet and dry j'ears, which have peopled and 
 depopulated certain sections three or four times. Rainy years attract 
 farmers and drj: 5'ears drive them awaj'. A special system of agri- 
 culture must be worked out for this part of the country, in which the 
 total holdings of land will be comparatively large, but where each 
 ■ settler will be fortified by having from 10 to 20 acres of ground which 
 he can irrigate, and which will assure him everj' year, whether it be a 
 wet or a dry one, an ample supplj^ of vegetables from his garden, sonje 
 fruits, and enough, alfalfa and forage to support his milch cows and 
 other live stock. 
 
 Something of the possibilities of reclaiming land by means of pumps 
 and small reservoirs is shown by the statistics of irrigation in India. 
 In British India, within an area approximately equal to what is termed 
 thesemiarid region, 12,895,000 acres are irrigated with water which is 
 raised by some mechanical means, while 8,138,000 acres are irrigated 
 from "tanks," or reservoirs, most of which are supplied from storm 
 water rather than from streams.' 
 
 It is believed that grain crops, at least, can be raised throughout the 
 plains region by deep fall plowing, which will put the land in condi- 
 tion to absorb all the water which falls during the winter, and thorough 
 
 "The exhibit at St. Louis shows one of the typical pumps used in the western part 
 of the irrigated district. 
 
 6 Report of the Indian Irrigation Commission, 1901-1903, Pt. I, p. 11. 
 
U. S. Dept. of Agr., Office of Expt, Stations, 723. 
 
 Plate II. 
 
 5 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 IIMHM| JlL < kVjttk. >i«| 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 r ;■:■ > ' 7 ■ ■ ■■ ■ •' ■ ' ^ '■..f-#^^;:,;-.-i',.";'^' J 
 
19 
 
 cultivation in the spring, which will prevent the evaporation of the 
 soil moisture. Experiments are being made to determine the efficiency 
 of this system of cultivation. 
 
 The use of pumps and windmills, the storage of storm waters in 
 roservoirs and in the soil, will at least enable those engaged in the live- 
 stock business on the plains to raise their own provisions and provide 
 feed for their stock during winter storms. Much more is hoped for. 
 
 Experts having a knowledge of both the installation and operation 
 of pumps, and of applying water to crops, are at work in western 
 Kansas, Texas, and Arkansas, showing farmers the best methods of 
 securing and applying water, and collecting data to show the possibil- 
 ities and cost of providing a water supply throughout this vast region. 
 
 IRRIGATION IN THE HUMID REGION. 
 
 In the humid region irrigation is not necessary to profitable agri- 
 culture, as it is in the West, and the problem is not how to get the 
 largest possible returns from a limited water supply, but whether the 
 supplying of water to plants during dry seasons or during the short 
 dry periods which occur in almost every season will increase produc- 
 tion enough to repay the expense incurred. This, of course, includes 
 a study of the most economical means of securing a water supply and 
 the best methods of applying it to crops. Experiments made in Mis- 
 souri, Wisconsin, and New Jersey have demonstrated that irrigation 
 in those sections is highly profitable by the methods followed, and the 
 experiments are being continued with a view to the determination of 
 the best methods. The work in Missouri is mainly with small fruits 
 and nursery stock. The experiments in Wisconsin include field as 
 well as garden crops, and at present the irrigation of cranberries is 
 being thoroughly tested. In New Jersey small fruits and garden 
 crops have been irrigated. 
 
 The greatest field for irrigation in the humid district is, however,, 
 in the Southern States. Here comprehensive studies of the best meth- 
 ods of irrigating rice, the amount of water required, and the cost of 
 supplying it where it must Tje raised from streams or wells by pump- 
 ing (PI. II), are being carried on. In addition, experiments have been 
 instituted in connection with two of the experiment stations of the 
 Southern States to determine whether or not ordinary field crops can 
 be irrigated with profit. The great extension of irrigation in Euro- 
 pean countries, with a rainfall equal to or greater than our own and 
 more evenly distributed, leads to the belief that it is to prove of equal 
 advantage here. The diagram (fig. 4) shows the relation between the 
 rainfall of the greatest irrigated district of Europe and that of typical 
 humid sections of the eastern part of the United States. 
 
20 
 
 COMPOSITION OF THE WA- 
 TER USED IN IMIIGA- 
 TION. 
 
 A knowledge of the chem- 
 ical composition of water 
 used in irrigation is at times 
 of great advantage. Some 
 water supplies carry so large 
 a percentage of alkaline salts 
 as to make their continued 
 use on land a serious menace. 
 The silt borne by many 
 streams is a fertilizer of 
 great value and one of the 
 most effective means of less- 
 ening seepage losses in canals 
 and ditches. During the past 
 four years, through the co- 
 operation^ of the Bureau of 
 Chemistry of this Depart- 
 ment, the chemical depart- 
 ment of the State Agricul- 
 tural College of Texas, and 
 the College of Agriculture in 
 the University of California, 
 numerous samples of water 
 have been collected and the 
 amount of silt carried in sus- 
 pension and the alkaline salts 
 in solution have been deter- ' 
 mined. 
 
 In the rice-growing district 
 of Louisiana and Texas these 
 analyses are needed to deter- 
 mine when the salt content, 
 due to the inflowing sea wa- 
 ter, becomes a menace to 
 pumping machinery and the 
 growing crop. In Texas 
 many analyses have been 
 made to determine the sedi- 
 ment value of the water used 
 in irrigation and also to de- 
 termine how the deposit of 
 sediment is likely to impair 
 the efficient operation of 
 ditches or the life" of reser- 
 
21 
 
 voirs by filling them up. The work of Professox Nagle in Texas 
 showed that the quantity of silt carried by southern streams is too 
 important a factor to be ignored in the construction of either ditches 
 or reservoirs. 
 
 During the present season a large number of water samples are 
 being taken and analyzed in California. One purpose of these is to 
 inform farmers as to whether or not the soil water, which is being 
 made available by the construction of drainage works and the pump- 
 ing of water from wells, can be applied to the land continuously with- 
 
 OESION 
 
 WATER SAMPLE TRAP 
 
 SILT INVESTIGATIONS 
 
 OIHCHSIONS OF CYLINDER 
 Dimeter 3.0 indwe 
 Length 1 
 
 riG. 5. — Water sample trap. 
 
 out danger of injurJ^ Thus far the results of these analyses have 
 been most encouraging, showing in nearly every case that the percent- 
 age of alkali is so small as to permit of the water being used with 
 safety, and insuring a large increase in the irrigated area from this 
 source of supply. 
 
 In collecting samples from the deep bayous of Louisiana and Texas, 
 and from some of the streams where the percentage of silt is high, it 
 has been desirable to ascertain whether there was any difference in 
 the character of the water on the surface and at the bottom of the 
 stream. The water sampler shown in figure 6 was devised for this 
 purpose." 
 
 .«Two of these instruments are in the exhibit at St. Louis. 
 
22 
 
 THE DEAINAGE INVESTIGATIONS. 
 
 The loss of water from leaky canals causes the temporary injury 
 of many thousand acres of land in the irrigated districts of the West. 
 This water finds its waj'' through the subsoil in the fields below the 
 canals fi'oni which it escapes, dissolving in its course the soluble salts 
 in the soil through which it passes. In time it fills the subsoil in the 
 lower lands, causing a gradual rise of the water plane until in places 
 what were formerly productive fields become bogs and marshes, -in 
 which the roots of all vegetation are drowned out. As the soil water 
 evaporates, it becomes more and more concentrated, until the water 
 and soil become so strongly alkaline as to check the growth of plants,- 
 or prevent it entirely, leaving the ground bare of vegetation but 
 covered with a crust of alkali. Seepage water, therefore, causes two 
 injuries — it drowns out vegetation in some places by excess of water 
 and kills vegetation in other instances by excess of alkali. It is 
 estimated that in some of the older agricultural districts fully 10 per 
 cent of the land once cultivated is now unproductive on account of 
 the rise of seepage water. 
 
 Although much can be done to prevent seepage from canals, and to 
 prevent waste and the escape of water from irrigated lands by economy 
 in use, some loss is inevitable, and the overwatered area is gradually 
 extending. Checking losses will not now restore the productiveness 
 of the lands already injured. To relieve these lands of their surplus 
 water and alkali, drainage is necessary. This necessity was recognized 
 by Congress in making provision for the work of this Office for the 
 year 1903, when a clause was inserted in the law providing for the study 
 of "plans for the removal of seepage and surplus waters by drainage." 
 For many years as fast as lowlands became unfit for cultivation they 
 were abandoned, because it cost less to water new lands than to drain th# 
 old; but as longer canals are required to reach new lands, the expense 
 becomes so great that better returns can be secured by the drainage of 
 seeped lands. The exhaustion of the water supply helps on this tendency, 
 since these lands when drained require much less water than higher lands, 
 and the water drained from them can be used to irrigate other lands. 
 
 The most extended studies of drainage of irrigated lands have been 
 carried on in California, Washington, and Utah. In the district about 
 Fresno, Cal. , where the water plane was once 70 feet below the surface, 
 it has risen in places to 2 feet from the surface. Here the problem 
 is to determine whether the water shall be carried off according to the 
 plans of drainage in the humid sections or efforts made to intercept 
 the water as it comes from canals. As a result of two seasons' field 
 studies plans were made for two methods of drainage, one employing 
 open ditches and the other draintiles. In the districts in Washing- 
 ton where injury was caused both from excess of water and alkali, 
 
23 
 
 studies were made to determine tlie movements of the water in the 
 soil and to ascertain the quantity of water which the drains must 
 remove in order to keep the water level below a certain level. The 
 reports of the investigations during 1903 show the results of these 
 studies and furnish plans for the relief of the lands now being 
 damaged. 
 
 The beginning of drainage studies in the arid region' was followed 
 by numerous requests for advice about the solution of drainage prob- 
 lems in the East. Much work has been done in Iowa, Wisconsin, and 
 Illinois, and a beginning made in Louisiana and Florida. In Iowa 
 there are two drainage problems of special Importance. One is legis- 
 lation which will enable the landowners of large districts to combine 
 in carrying out comprehensive plans and the other is to have the 
 plans in accord with the best drainage practice. The expert in charge 
 of the drainage investigations has acted as an ex-oificio member of a 
 drainage commission to frame drainage laws in Iowa and has given 
 advice about plans in numerous districts. Work of a similar character 
 is being carried on in Illinois and Wisconsin. 
 
 The use of underdrains to prevent hillside erosion is also receiving 
 attention. Experiments to determine the feasibility of this were car- 
 ried on in northern Georgia. The cultivation of cotton on the uplands 
 of the Southern States can only be insured by the adoption of engi- 
 neering improvements which will protect hillsides from erosion. This, 
 crop requires clean culture and leaves no binding material in the soil 
 to protect it during the winter storms. The farmers of that section 
 have m^de extensive expenditures in the construction of ridges and 
 terraces, but these have been only partially successful. In many 
 places the water oozing through the soil on the ridges crops out at a 
 lower point on the hillside, and these seepage spot's start surface wash- 
 ing which in time forms deep gullies that necessitate the abandonment 
 of the whole field. To prevent this tile have been laid in such a way as 
 to intercept the seepage water and carry it off into protected surface 
 channels. In the season which has elapsed since the experiment began 
 one crop has been raised without an}'^ washing having occurred. 
 
 The demand for aid and advice regarding drainage has necessitated 
 the extension of this portion of the investigation and led Congress at 
 its last session to give it greater prominence in the work. In nearly 
 everj' State in the Union there is a demand for preliminary surveys 
 and the gathering of data necessary to the carrying out of drainage 
 improvements in an effective manner. The question of the adaptabil- 
 ity of different methods of drainage and the study of the legal and 
 economic asisects of its problems is destined to form an important 
 feature of this work for many years to come. 
 
 o 
 
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS OF THE OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS ON 
 IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE-Continued. 
 
 Bui. 124. Report of Irrigation Investigations in Utah, under the direction of Elwood 
 
 Mead, chief, assisted by E. P. Teele, A. P. Stover, A. F. Doremus, J. D. 
 
 Stannard, Frank Adams, and (i. L. Swendsen. Pp. 330. Price, SI. 10. 
 Bui. 130. Egyptian Irrigation. By Clarence T. Johnston. Pp.100. Price, 30 cents. 
 Bui. 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, chief. Pp. 51. Price, 60 cents. 
 *Bul. 133. Report of Irrigation Investigations for 1902, under the direction of Elwood 
 
 Mead, chief. Pp. 266. Prii'e, 25 cents. 
 Bui. 134. Storage of Water on Cache la Poudre and Big Thompson Ri\eis. By C. 
 
 E. Tait. Pp. 100. Price, 10 cents. 
 Bui. 140. Acquirement of Water Rights in the Arkansas Valley, Coloradn. By 
 
 J. S. Greene. Pp. 83. Price, 5 cents. 
 Bui. 144. Irrigation in Northern Italy— Part I. By Elwood Mead. In press. 
 Bui. 145. Preparing Land for Irrigation and jMethuds of Applying Water. Prepared 
 
 under the direction of Elwood i\Iead, chief. In press. 
 Bui. 146. Current Wheels: Their Use in Lifting Water for Irrigation. By Albert 
 
 Eugene Wright. In press. 
 Bui. 147. Report on Drainage Investigations, 1903. By C. G. Elliott. Pp. 62. 
 
 Price, 5 cents. 
 Bui. 148. Report of Irrigation Investigations in Humid Sections of the United States 
 
 in 1903, under the direction of Elwpod Mead, chief. In press. 
 
 FAEMEHS' BULLETINS. 
 
 Bul. 46. Irrigation in Humid Climates. By F. H. King. Pp. 27. 
 
 Bui. 116. Irrigation in Fruit Growing. By E. J. Wickson. Pp. 48. 
 
 Bul. 138. Irrigation in Field and Garden. By E. J. Wickson. Pp. 40. 
 
 Bul. 158. How to Build Small Irrigation Ditches. By C. T. Johnston and J. D. 
 
 Stannard. Pp. 28. 
 Bul. 187. Drainage of Farm Lands. By C. G. Elliott. Pp. 40.