388 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



campaign has met with much success, with prospect of material bene- 

 fit in the near future to h\nds heretofore farmed with indifferent 

 results by dry-farm methods. 



A serious condition of wide extent had appeared in this section. 

 An area 600 miles in extent north and south and over 400 miles broad 

 in w^estern Texas and southern New Mexico had been in the grip of 

 an unprecedented drought for more than two years, which brought 

 great hardshi]) to the farmers, reduced crops in some sections to the 

 vanishing point, and threatened to ruin the previously thriving live 

 stock industry of that region. Relief from the drought has been 

 sought in the development of underground sources of water, and it 

 is believed, from results already attained, that a considerable exten- 

 sion of the irrigated area will be the outcome of the present activity 

 along this line. 



Strong efforts have been made to bring about the efficient drainage 

 of lands which have been water-logged or seriously injured by the 

 rise of alkali through faulty methods of irrigation, this activity 

 taking form not only in surveys and the supervision of installation 

 of drainage systems on individual farms, but in the urgent encour- 

 agement of the formation of irrigation districts under State laws; 

 and organizations so formed within the year have included in their 

 boundaries many thousands of acres, the fertility of which should 

 show immediate improvement upon the installation of the drains. 



A new line of work appeared in the investigations undertaken at 

 the instance of the Capital Issues Committee of the Treasury De- 

 partment into proposed bond issues by irrigation and drainage enter- 

 prises. It was necessary, of course, for the committee to take into 

 account the engineering and agricultural feasibility of the projects, 

 the latter being considered to depend upon the clrtiracter of crops 

 to be grown under the reclauu\tion proposed and the promptness 

 with which they could be brought to the country's markets. During 

 the spring of 1918, 19 such projects were investigated, usually by 

 employees upon the ground. Approval of bond issues totaling $11,- 

 372,000 was advised, these involving the proposed reclamation of 

 255,800 acres. 



Progress in the purely technical investigations of the division 

 included the completion of an extended report on the flow of water 

 in concrete pipes, the beginning of a study of the efficiency of siphon 

 spillways for use in storage and canal systems, and the devising of 

 a new type of meter for measuring flowing water. 



DRAINAGE INVESTIGATIONS. 



The wet areas in cultivated farm lands usually are the most fertile 

 when the soil moisture is properly controlled, because generally they 

 are depressions into which more or less of the richest soil from sur- 

 rounding fields has been washed. Farm drainage transforms these 

 unproductive places into highly productive land, thus increasing the 

 profitable area and the average yield per acre, while at the same time 

 removing obstacles that increase the time and effort required for 

 farming operations. Recognizing the importance of this possible 

 conservation of man power, the Drainage Division during the year 

 has given first consideration to these projects looking to the improve- 

 ment of lands already under some degree of cultivation or needing 

 only drainage to prepare them for the plow. 



