May, 1913.] Control of Aquatic Resources. 137 



liability of destructive floods, checking the erosion of banks and preventing 

 much of the formation and shifting of sand bars and the pollution of water 

 which the presence of sediment means. At the same time it provides a way 

 of actually paying for itself in short order, aside from all idea of the savings 

 to shippers and river interests in general which would be in excess of the 

 cost. The importance of this latter consideration is emphasized best by a 

 brief comparison with the system now being followed. The levee-revet- 

 ment system, as mapped out, calls for an expenditure of $60,000,000 for its 

 completion. From the engineers themselves comes the statement that 

 the average life of a levee is not over twenty years, which means this and no 

 more; in two score years, at the most liberal estimate, the present system, 

 completed, will have disappeared entirely and a new series of levees con- 

 structed at the cost of another $60,000,000 will have taken its place, with 

 conditions then no better than they are now. Considered solely on their 

 own merits from the standpoint of control afforded, the present system has 

 nothing, and the reservoir plan has everything, to recommend it. 



"In order to bring the river route to its highest possible degree of effi- 

 ciency, it would be necessary to combine the reservoir system with a 

 straightened course for the lower river, by which combination every evil 

 would be removed and absolute control for all time would be insured. The 

 reservoirs would make it possible to regulate the flow of the streams, pre- 

 venting both floods and very low water, and at the same time, through 

 developed horse power, pay for the improvements. The corrected or 

 straightened course would shorten the route and effectively put an end to 

 caving of the banks with all the difficulties arising from it at present. 

 Together the reservoirs, with the necessary forest conservation and cor- 

 rected course, would remove the sand bar problem — the one greatly lessen- 

 ing the actual amount of sand carried into the river, the other giving the 

 current increased power to sweep its own channel clean." 



While it is probable that some of the advantages claimed may 

 not be entirely realized, especially in the case of extreme flood 

 there is, it appears to me, so much of virtue in what this author 

 claims that it should be given great weight in any general plan of 

 flood control. It appears, however, that such a method should 

 be strongly re-enforced not only by the conservation of forests 

 and thickets on uplands and hill sides in the head waters of 

 streams, but that the stream valleys should, to as large an extent 

 as possible, be planted in willow and other inoisture loving shrubs 

 or trees, which serve as a natural check to the stream currents 

 and therefore retard the flow and serve to distribute it through a 

 longer period of time. 



There is another phase of the subject, and the phase which 

 appeals directl_v to me. That is the biological side of the problem 

 of utilization of water. While this phase seems to have been 

 largely neglected, it appears to me that it is worthy of fully as 

 much consideration as the utilization for povrer or navigation 

 and particularly in connection with its bearing on flood control. 

 The neglect of this phase is probably due to the fact that in our 

 ordinary processes of culture we have come to consider water in 

 excess as undesirable and make efforts to eliminate it rather than 

 to conserve it. For tb.e culture of our ordinary crops it is, of 

 course, true that an excess of moisture is detrimental, and tile 



