NEWS AND NOTES 



121 



the well-being not only of the farmer but of 

 the whole Nation must depend. First of all 

 we must have food. But after that has been 

 achiever, is there nothing more to be done? It 

 seems to me clear that farmers have as much 

 to gain from good organization as merchants, 

 plumbers, carpenters, or any of the other 

 trades and businesses of the United States. 

 After we have secured better crops, the next 

 logical and inevitable step is to secure bet- 

 ter business organization on the farm so that 

 each farmer shall get from what he grows 

 the best possible return. 



Consider what has been accomplished in 

 Ireland through agricultural cooperation. 

 The Irish have discovered that it is not 

 good for the farmer to work alone. Since 

 1894 they have been organizing agricultural 

 societies to give the farmer a chance to sell 

 at the right time and at the right price. The 

 result is impressive. In Ireland there are 

 354 creameries producing about half the but- 

 ter exported. There are 40,000 farmers in 

 the societies for cooperative selling, which, 

 as we know, in this country, means better 

 prices. There are 261 agricultural credit so- 

 cieties with a membership of 15,000, and a 

 capital of more than $200,000. There are 

 other agricultural societies with 20,000 mem- 

 bers. In a word, in Ireland, which we have 

 been apt to consider as far behind us in all 

 that relates to agriculture, there are 925 ag- 

 ricultural societies with an annual business 

 of $50,000,000. Since 1894 their total business 

 was more than $300,000,000. 



But after the farmer has begun to make 

 use of his right to combine for his advan- 

 tage in selling his products and buying his 

 supplies, is there nothing else he can do? 

 As well might we say, that after the body 

 and the mind of a boy have been trained, 

 he should be deprived of all those associa- 

 tions with his fellows which make life worth 

 living, and to which every child has an in- 

 born right. Life is something more than a 

 matter of business. No man can make his 

 life what it ought to be by living it merely 

 on a business basis. There are things 

 higher than business. What is the reason 

 for the enormous movement from the farms 

 into the cities? Not simply that the business 

 advantages in the city are better, but that 

 the city has more conveniences, more excite- 

 ment, and more facility for contact with 

 friends and neighbors — in a word, more life. 

 There ought then to be attractiveness in 

 country life such as will make the country 

 boy or girl want to live and work in the 

 country, such that the farmer will understand 

 that there is no more dignified calling than 

 his own, none that makes life better worth 

 living. The social or community life of the 

 country should be put by the farmer, for 

 no one but himself can do it for him, on 

 the same basis as social life in the city, through 

 the country churches and societies, through 

 better roads, country telephones, rural free 

 delivery, parcels post, and whatever else will 

 help. The problem is not merely to get bet- 



ter crops, not merely to dispose of crops 

 better, but in the last analysis to have hap- 

 pier and richer lives of men and women on 

 the farm. 



I have ventured to lay this statement be- 

 fore you because irrigators are natural lead- 

 ers in this great movement, and to urge 

 you to add this problem to the others in 

 which the interest and activity of the Na- 

 tional Irrigation Congress have been of such 

 effect and value to the whole Nation. 



With all good wishes for the success of 

 the Albuquerque meeting, and with renewed 

 regret that I cannot be with you, I am, 

 Very sincerely yours, 



(Signed) Gifford Pinchot. 



«? tt' «i 



Investigations of Water Resources of the Ohio 

 Valley 



THE United States Geological Sur- 

 vey will continue its investigations 

 of the water resources of the Ohio Val- 

 ley during the fiscal year beginning 

 July I, 1908, and will add several im- 

 portant special researches in this area. 



The work involved consists princi- 

 pally of the daily measurement of the 

 flow of rivers and their small tribu- 

 taries, in order to get an authorita- 

 tive record of the amount of water that 

 passes otit of the rivers into the main 

 stream during the several seasons of 

 the year. Data of this character must 

 from the basis of all important water- 

 stipply developments, such as improve- 

 ments for the prevention of floods, the 

 development of water power, and the 

 improvement of navigation. 



The Ohio Valley work has become 

 so important that the area has been 

 included in a special district, which 

 during the coming year will have the 

 exclusive attention of a picked corps 

 of men. Headquarters for the work 

 have been established in the Federal 

 Building, at Newport, Ky., which is 

 close to the geographic center of the 

 area and is in convenient comnumica- 

 tion with all the tributaries of the 

 Ohio. 



For a long time it has been evident 

 that more minute; studies of stream 

 flow should be made in the tributaries 

 of the Ohio that run ofif the Appa- 

 lachian Mountains. With the funds 

 at the command of the Survey it is 

 not possible to undertake all of this 



