704 AKKUAL llEPOHTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION. 



The Washin<rlon ofllce has carried on extensive correspondence of 

 an advisory naliae in response to iiuiuirios relating to drainage prob- 

 lems throughout the United States, and through its corps of engineers 

 has rendered assistance by personal consultation with individuals an.d 

 oilicials of drainage districts. As samples of this class of work, may 

 be mentioned the following: 



Illinois: Cache River Drainage District. Missouri: Kincaid Farm 

 (St. Charles County). Nebraska: Jaekson Ditch (Dakota County). 

 Elkhorn Valley Drainage District. Oklahoma: North Canadian 

 Eiver (Oklalioma County). 



Public drainage meetings were addressed by different members of 

 the start' in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, 

 Louisiana, Mississippi, New JNIexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, 

 South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, AVashington, and Wyoming. 



WORK PLANNED FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1911. 



The requests for drainage surveys, plans, and reports have become 

 so numerous that it is possible for the Office to grant but compara- 

 tively few of them, and the effort is being made to make the prelimi- 

 nary examinations of projects complete enough, so that, where 

 possible, definite recommendations may be made as to the proper 

 methods of reclamation, in order that the local drainage districts 

 may carry out the drainage survey themselves. As will be noted 

 from the preceding summary of the work, three new fields of inves- 

 tigation have been opened up in New Mexico, AVashington, and 

 AA^'^'Oming, as the seeped and alkalied conditions had become so ag- 

 gravated in these localities that assistance was badly needed. The 

 work in Utah will continue and will be cooperative to a certain ex- 

 tent, the State sharing a portion of the expense. On account of the 

 urgent need of assistance in the Lower Rio Grande Delta, Texas, it 

 is probable that an engineer may be sent to that field during the 

 coming winter. Drainage surveys will be conducted in the South 

 during the severe season of the year, and the attempt will also be 

 made to take up projects in the States where there is urgent need for 

 them and where the Office has not as yet operated. The subject of 

 drainage by pumping will be investigated. Run-off investigations 

 will also be continued in Louisiana and elsewhere, and the determi- 

 nation of the water content of muck and peat soils will be taken up 

 in AA^isconsin and other States in continuation of the w^ork already 

 done on such soils in Louisiana and Florida. As forecasted in the 

 report of 1909, the scope of the advisory work in assisting districts 

 as to proper drainage methods will be enlarged. 



W^ORK PROPOSED FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1912. 



The increasingly widespread interest being manifested in drainage 

 matters will make more frequent the calls upon this Office for assist- 

 ance, and on account of the information and experience already 

 gained it will be possible to make the work more and more effective. 



There is an increasing demand for examinations of swamp lands 

 with reference to their value for agriculture and information con- 



