49G liKl'UKT OF UFFicK OF FXTFJlilMl-lNT STATIONS. 



iirst ten veins. 2 por ccnl for (lit- second ten years, and 1 por cent for 

 the third ten years, so that the interest payments ]ty the Govern- 

 ment end with the expiration of the watcM' rij^lit. When the rij^ht 

 expires it may he renewed just as fi-anchises are renewed in this 

 country. 



In many sections u{ Italy canal companies ha\ e experienced the 

 same losses and farmers suti"er(>d the same injury from seepag^c as arc 

 met with in this country. In some instances canals have liad to he 

 cemented for their entire length. Drainaj^e has also had to follow 

 canal buildinj^, as the seepage water tills the farmers' fields and the 

 cellars of houses in towns. In recent years the granting of rights to 

 ])uild canals is freipiently conditiotied on the canal company construct- 

 ing, along with its irrigation works, a complete S3^stem of di-ains to 

 carry otf the surplus water. In some districts drainage works have 

 been built under an agreement wliereb}' the canal company pays 40 

 per cent of the cost of drains and receives the water they collect, the 

 farmers and the municipality pa3'ing the remainder. 



The results of irrigation in Italy encourage the belief that it is 

 destined to be a large factor in the agriculture of humid parts of the 

 United States, especialh^ in those sections where streams have fall 

 enouoh for w^ater to be diverted and distributed bv gravitv and in the 

 Southern States where the long, hot seasons will make irrigation of 

 great value to farmers in the growing of hay and forage crops and in 

 the production of fruits and garden products. 



Irrigation is not for the arid West alone. The conditions which 

 have led to its adoption in the humid parts of Germany, Switzerland, 

 France, and Jtah' are beginning to appear in the Eastern States and, 

 with increasing population and high land values, canal and reservoir 

 building will .soon become as important a feature of farm improvement 

 along both slopes of the Alleghenies as it is now^ along the southern 

 and western slopes of the Alps. 



PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE. 



During the past year the collection of information as to methods 

 emploj'ed in the practical operations of irrigation farming has been 

 begun. All agents of the irrigation investigations were requested to 

 collect and send in descriptions of the best practices in performing 

 certain operations observed by them in the sections where the}' were 

 working, accompanying their reports with drawings and other illus- 

 trations made in the field. These reports are all brought together in 

 the Office, and bulletins on the different operations are being prepared 

 giving the results of the experience of the whole country' on these 

 particular lines. New subjects wull be taken u^^ each year until the 

 whole field of irrigation practice is covered. It is a slow and expen- 

 sive process for each farmer to work out for himself the best ways of 



