2 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



be reclaimed through dikes and drains. This if reclaimed would have 

 a productive capacity equal to four times that of the State of Illinois, 

 and would considerably exceed the probable area which can be reclaimed 

 by irrigation, the extent of which appears to be diminishing with later 

 estimates. Indeed, considerable of this land lies within the irrigated 

 area, and its present condition has come about as a result of irrigation. 

 According to a recent report of this Office, " there is scarcely an irri- 

 gated valley in the State of Utah which has been cultivated for a term 

 of years in which some of the best land has not become too wet for 

 cultivation and abandoned, or from which only uncertain crops of 

 inferior value are now obtained." 



Similar conditions exist throughout the irrigated districts. In those 

 regions, therefore, irrigation and drainage necessarily go hand in hand. 

 Either through the leakage of canals or through lavish use of water 

 by irrigators, many thousand acres have become bogs and marshes by 

 the accumulation of surplus and seepage waters. The rise of the soil 

 water tends to drown out the roots of trees and plants, and the seepage 

 water, passing down from canals and overflowed fields, carries with it 

 the soluble salts of the soil, becoming more and more concentrated 

 until an alkalied condition is produced. 



The drainage problems of irrigated districts are not the same as 

 those of the eastern part of the United States, but involve many new 

 and complicated questions. The quantity of water to be removed can 

 not be estimated with the same accuracy as where merely the rainfall 

 is to be removed, for the source of the water supply is often obscure. 

 It is impossible, without a preliminary study of conditions, to give 

 reliable advice to farmers as to how they can restore their damaged 

 fields. The rapidity with which the soil water rises when irrigation 

 begins must be known in order to fix the capacity of drains, and the 

 sources of the accumulated water must be ascertained to determine 

 whether relief can be had Iry intercepting ditches, or whether a system 

 of open or under drains is required. 



But it is in the East that reclamation })j drainage finds its greatest 

 possibilities, owing both to the value of the reclaimed land and its 

 proximity to markets. Here extensive areas are to be found which 

 have either never been brought under cultivation, owing to their water- 

 logged condition, or have been seriously injured and often abandoned 

 by reason of overflow and conditions which have been brought about 

 artificially. Such conditions are found along the whole Atlantic 

 coast, and extend to the Gulf States as far west as Texas. In south- 

 ern Louisiana and southern Texas are vast areas of land which there 

 has either been no attempt to utilize, or has given discouraging results 

 under cultivation, owing to the nearness of the water table to the sur- 

 face. Such land, although located under climatic conditions which are 



