IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS. 497 



doiii*;- his work, aiicl it is inipossil)lc for an}' mmibor of thoiii to go over 

 the country investigatino- tho niothods of others. Tiie Department can 

 do them no oreater ser\'ice than to collect this information and place 

 it in available form for all who want it. 



The subjects taken up in this wa}^ during- 1903 were raising- water 

 with current wheels and preparing land for irrigation. The agents 

 sent in descriptions, drawings, and photographs of wheels seen by 

 them in all parts of the country, with statements of the quantities of 

 water raised, the area watered, and the cost of the wheels. A bulletin 

 compiled from these reports will soon ])e published and will be avail- 

 able for anyone applying for it. There are man}- places where small 

 quantities of water can lie raised in this way with almost no cash out- 

 lay, and this bulletin will serve to suggest the making of wheels to 

 parties living where they can be used and will tell them how to make 

 them. 



In the same way the reports on methods of preparing land for 

 irrigation will be combined and published. The operations discussed 

 are: Removing sagebrush, smoothing and leveling land, and laying" 

 out and constructing laterals, checks, embankments, etc. These are 

 practical operations which must be performed bj^ everyone bringing 

 land under irrigation for the first time. In addition, the persons 

 reclaiming such land are usually inexperienced in irrigation. The 

 l)ublication and distril)ution of a bulletin telling what must bo done 

 and how to do it will save such persons from making costly mistakes 

 and enable them to put their land in condition with the least possible 

 trouble and expense. 



The scope of this work for 1904 has been somewhat enlarged. It 

 has been proposed to carry on the work in cooperation with the agri- 

 cultural experiment stations of the States, as well as through our 

 agents. Looking to this end a conference was held in Washington, 

 during the meeting of the Association of Agricultural Colleges, between 

 the representatives of this Office and those of the stations interested. 

 At that meeting both the general plan and many of the details were 

 discussed and the plan was unanimously indorsed. In order to deter- 

 mine what ([uestions should be taken up it was decided that the chief 

 of irrigation investigations should prepare a list of subjects Avhich 

 shoidd l)esent to each station interested, and that the director of each 

 station should indicate on the list the order of the importance of those 

 subjects and any others which he wished to add and return the list to 

 the Oflice. The two sul)jects shown by all the lists returned to be 

 deemed most important will be chosen to betaken up the coming year 

 and will be studied by all the stations, this Department furnishing a part 

 oi- all of tlie funds and digesting and pul)lishing the results. In this 

 way the Department will secure the services of the expert staffs of the 

 S. Doc. 148, 58-2 32 



