40 KEPORT OP OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



ing, and maintaining a canal system ; and the need for advice and 

 assistance along all these lines is urgent, especially in those sections 

 which have been settled up rapidl}^ by people, most of whom are with- 

 out experience in irrigating or irrigation management. The demands 

 upon this office for information along these lines are rapidly increas- 

 ing in number, and it is the intention of the office to devote consider- 

 able time during the next few years to a study of such features of 

 canal management as organization of enterprises, extensions, better- 

 ment, measurement and delivery of water, operation, maintenance, 

 water charges, and revenues and expenditures. 



BEAINAGE INVESTIGATIONS. 



During the year a plan hitherto applied onl}^ to those members of 

 the staff engaged in the investigation of the drainage of irrigated 

 land was extended to include the entire field force. This consisted in 

 assigning each of the field engineers to permanent headquarters. 

 These headquarters are well distributed over those parts of the coun- 

 try in which the drainage investigations of the office are mainly cen- 

 tered, and were selected Avith regard to their availability as bases for 

 operations. This arrangement not only effects a considerable saving 

 in the time and expense incident to traveling, but enables each repre- 

 sentative to become acquainted with the peculiar needs of his terri- 

 tory and to keep in touch with the local drainage situation ; the office 

 is thus enabled to render more efficient and economical service. 



The expansion of the work of drainage investigations, due to the 

 general increase of interest in the subject of land drainage, necessi- 

 tated an increase during the year in the staff of office engineers and 

 draftsmen. The members of the staff of some 25 field engineers 

 were constantly engaged in giving advice on concrete drainage jorob- 

 lems within their territories, in the collection of technical data useful 

 to engineers and others in planning the drainage of lands, in making 

 preliminary examinations and reports on prospective drainage under- 

 takings, or in carrying on detailed drainage surveys, formulating 

 plans, and making reports upon those projects in which the office 

 deemed it advisable to participate to that extent. The field repre- 

 sentatives of the office also assisted in the organization of drainage 

 districts, and rendered aid in the formulation of efficient State drain- 

 age laws such as are necessary before drainage undertakings can be 

 carried out. 



The main lines of work carried on Avere the same as in former 

 years, viz: (1) Improvement of farm lands now under cultivation; 

 (2) the drainage of swamp and marsh lands; (3) the reclamation of 

 land subject to damage by overflow of streams; (4) the drainage of 

 irrigated lands; (5) general technical investigations; and (6) the dis- 

 semination of information relating to drainage. The improvement of 



