DRAINAGE INVESTIGATIONS. 199 



men was occupied durino; the summer season in that field. This 

 work developed the fact tiiat this Office is able to make drainage 

 surveys at a less cost than is usually paid for work prosecuted by 

 private enteri)rise. Two thousand five hundred and fifty-eight miles 

 of levels were run besides work done on stream examinations covering 

 an area of 2,035 square miles, at a cost of $2.27 per square mile. 

 This included the fitting out and organization of the party and dis- 

 banding it at the close of the season. From the notes and field 

 nuips obtained we are making plans and estimates for the main 

 drainage of the more level portion of those counties. Such work, 

 preliminary to the construction of an adequate and comprehensive 

 system of drainage in a more complete and extended manner than 

 counties or individuals are usuall}'^ able to do, is sometimes of great 

 advantage in starting an enterprise in such a way that it will be 

 carried to a successful completion. Since drainage lines do not 

 follow land lines or boundaries of individual properties, it is desir- 

 able that regard should be had to topographical rather than artificial 

 boundaries. 



The leveeing of streams for the protection of farming land is a 

 problem of similar nuignitude yet characterized by somewhat differ- 

 ent conditions. This work is comparatively new to the farmers 

 and where done by them has been followed by many failures, which 

 have had a discouraging effect upon owners desiring to improve 

 bottom-lands. This Office has made careful investigation of this 

 phase of drainage both as regards the construction of levees and the 

 interior ditching and drainage of the protected land, and has given 

 in the report of 1904 valuable information as to the cause of fail- 

 ures and recommendations upon levee construction under different 

 stream and soil conditions. The Office has been called upon to lay 

 out farm levees in the Neosho Valley, in Kansas, for the protection 

 of lands which have been repeatedly overflowed and crops destroyed. 

 These lands are extremely fertile and their adequate protection along 

 that stream would be of great value to the owners and to the State. 

 It is creditably estinuited there are one-half million acres of fertile 

 bottom lands in this valley which should be protected by levees, and 

 this Office has been requested to prepare a plan of works which will 

 adequately control the waters of the Neosho River, in Kansas, for a 

 distance of at least 300 miles. Concerted action on the part of the 

 landowners benefited will be required in carrying out a project of 

 this character. 



It has l)een ascertained that levees constructed along streams in 

 the Middle West by private enterprise or under the provisions of 

 drainage laws have usually been inadequate and failed, resulting 

 in great loss of crops besides the destruction of the works them- 

 selves. It is an accepted fact that the improvement of a country by 



