46 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



which have so affected the areas that immediate action is the only 

 ahernative to complete abandonment. 



W. W. Weir has continued investigations begun by J. C. Carpenter 

 in 1910 in the Yakima Valley, Wash. More than 6,000 acres of 

 seeped land in the jNIoxee Valley were studied and drainage plans 

 worked out which have been adopted by the landownei-s. Also, con- 

 siderable work of a consulting nature has been done in reference to 

 a number of smaller tracts. 



Investigations were made of several areas injured by seepage and 

 alkali in the Big Horn Basin and Shoshone Valley, Wyo. The Bench 

 Canal project, near Germania, was studied by AV. A. Kelley, repre- 

 senting Drainage Investigations in that State, who worked out plans 

 for reclaiming and benefiting 2,400 acres. Other tracts in the vicini- 

 ties of Powell, Byron, and Lovell were visited and assistance rendered. 



TECHNICAL INVESTIGATIONS. 



The relation of run-off to rainfall, topography, and other fa(;tors 

 has been studied quite extensively during the year. In making the 

 investigations it was endeavored to select, so far as was practicable, 

 locations typical of the varying climatic, topographic, and soil con- 

 ditions Avith which the drainage engineer must deal. As representa- 

 tive of a watershed of rolling character the Forked Deer Eiver in 

 Jackson County, Tenn., was selected, and there J. V. Phillips made 

 run-off investigations for several months, keeping rainfall records, 

 making measurements of flood flow, and collecting other data. Fred 

 F. Shafer and W. J. Schlick made similar investigations in the flat 

 swamp land of southeast Missouri. C. W. Okey studied run-off con- 

 ditions in the Yazoo Delta, Miss., and in the prairie lands of southern 

 Louisiana. D. L. Yarnell obtained run-off data in the Boggy Baj^ou 

 district near Arkansas City, Ark. The results of these investiga- 

 tions, thoroughly digested, will be prepared for general distribution 

 and will, it is believed, constitute a valuable addition to the meager 

 data noAv extant upon this important subject. 



S. M. Woodward, after extensive study of the subject, prepared a 

 report upon drainage by pumping.^ Prof. AVoodward made a thor- 

 ough stud}' of past experience and present practice in this method of 

 draining, to determine the proper size, location, arrangement, con- 

 struction, and management of pumping plants and methods of 

 interior drainage, and the costs of this kind of reclamation. 



The excavation of ditches by the use of dynamite was the subject 

 of some study by J. R. Haswell, F. G. Eason, and Sidney W. Cooper, 

 who participated in several experiments in the endeavor to deter- 

 mine the practicability and cost of this method of constructing 

 ditches. 



» U. S. Dept. Agr., Office Expt. Stas. Bnl. 243. 



