EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XVII. September, L905. No. I 



Public interest in the reclamation of land for agricultural purposes 

 has become quite generally aroused. It is one of the topics upper 

 most i" connection with the settlement of the newer portions of the 

 country, and represents one of the most prominent features of agri- 

 cultural development. Its most familiar form is reclamation by irri- 

 gation, which has already greatly extended the area of agricultural 

 production, and is rapidly spreading under the influence of Federal and 

 private enterprise. Another form closely allied to it is the extension 

 of dry-land or arid farming, carried on with crops which, tinder 

 improved cultural methods, can he grown with a minimum of arti- 

 ficially supplied water, or with the natural rainfall of tin 4 country. 

 Extensive areas are being brought under cultivation in this way which 

 were formerly considered unadapted to farming and practically useless 

 except for grazing. 



There is another class of reclamation work whose practicability has 

 largely been lost sight of in the rush for new lands, hut which is hound 

 to increase in importance and magnitude as the public mind becomes 

 aroused to its possibilities. This is reclamation by drainage. It 

 embraces tracts which, owing either to natural or artificial conditions, 

 have been rendered practically waste land or unsuitable for cultivation 

 except in favorable seasons. Large areas of such land await the 

 development of the drainage engineer north, south, east, and west. 

 These areas are not confined to any section, hut are found at the coast, 

 along river courses, in the level countries of the Middle West, and in 

 the arid and semiarid regions of the West. Some of the land has 

 been under cultivation and abandoned, while other has remained in a 

 wild state and received no attention because of the supposed difficulties 

 it presented. 



The area involved i> sufficient to make this phase of reclamation 

 second to none in importance. I n many cases these lands lie at the 

 very gates of the eastern markets, and can be reclaimed at far less cost 

 than new lands can be brought under irrigation. It is estimated that 

 there are about one hundred million acres now unproductive which can 



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