IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE INVESTIGATIONS. 41 



In Genesee and Orleans counties, in New Yorlc, general plans were 

 made for the drainage of the Oak Orchard Swamp, covering about 

 10,000 acres. 



For a number of years the Sanitary and Drainage Commission of 

 Charleston County, S. C, has been draining the lowlands in the 

 vicinity of the city of Charleston, but this work has been more or less 

 fragmentary. During 1906 the cooperation of this Office in extend- 

 ing this work was asked, and surveys have been made covering an 

 area of 3G square miles of Christ Church Parish and a part of St. 

 Andrews Parish. The surveys in the latter parish are not yet com- 

 pleted. Plans were also made for the complete drainage of a 300- 

 acre tract which may be used as a substation of the State experiment 

 station. 



For a number of years the drainage of the Florida Everglades has 

 been under discussion, and the legislature of that State at its last ses- 

 sion created a drainage commission to undertake the drainage of the 

 State lands within the Everglades. This Office has been asked to 

 assist in this work, and is making survej^s to determine the feasibility 

 of making and maintaining channels to relieve the Everglades of 

 their surplus water. Along with these surveys observations of the 

 depth of soil and other conditions which will determine the agricul- 

 tural value of the lands drained are being made. The Everglades 

 cover an area of 4,000 square miles, or 2,500,000 acres, which promise 

 to be ver}^ valuable for the raising of sugar cane if they can be 

 relieved of the surplus water. 



The tidal marsh lands along the Atlantic coast are estimated to 

 have an area of about 1.000.000 acres. Part of these lands are near 

 large cities, and would have a very high value for market gardening 

 and the raising of fruit if they could be protected from the inva- 

 sion of salt water and relieved of the water draining onto them from 

 higher lands. The reclamation of these lands requires the building 

 of levees to protect them from the sea and the providing of internal 

 drainage to remove the excess water coming from higher lands. 

 The removal of this internal drainage water requires the construc- 

 tion of tide gates which will allow the escape of water at low tide 

 and also the installation of pumping plants to remove the water 

 below the level of low tide. Plans for the drainage of a small area 

 of tide marshes on Long Island were made in 1906 and examinations 

 of a number of levees which had failed were made to determine the 

 causes of failure. A discussion of this subject is found on page 373. 



The carrying out of drainage plans in most instances requires the 

 cooperation of a number of landowners, and it has been found by 

 experience that such cooperation can seldom be secured except under 

 drainage-district laws providing for the organization of the land- 



