444 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



in each the mistakes are covered up in the ground out of sight. Just 

 as if employing a physician, we mtist select the best, because his mis- 

 takes, once made, can never be corrected, so in drainage we should not 

 employ merely some engineer, but a competent engineer. Having employed 

 such a man. we should take his advice. 



Speaking of the necessity that the drainage engineer employpd 

 should be thorotighly competent, leads us to the subject of what quali- 

 fications are required to make him competent. In this c'onnection it 

 may be said, in the first place, that the common impression that the 

 most important part of a drainage engineer's work consists in survey- 

 ing, and that his principal necessary qualification consists in being a 

 good surveyor, is a great mistake. It is true that complete and accurate 

 surveys are absoltitely essential in drainage work, and especially is this 

 true in regard to accurate levels. No piece of drainage work should be 

 undertaken without stich surveys and levels, which will therefore con- 

 stitute a considerable and important part of the drainage engineer's 

 work. But after all by far the most important part of drainage engineer- 

 ing is of a greatly higher grade than the mechanical work of mere sur- 

 veying. It consists, first, in the planning of the system, so as certainly 

 to secure the best results in spite of all the disadvantages to be over- 

 come with the expenditure of the least possible sum of money, and, sec- 

 ond, in seeing that the plans are faithfully carried otit in construction. 

 This kind of work can be well done only by the aid of the best training, 

 the best intelligence, the best common sense, the strongest will power 

 and integrity. As we must pronounce the brain of man a more delicate 

 and wonderful instrument than the transit, and as a strong human char- 

 acter is more priceless than the finest level of precision, so we must 

 acknowledge engineering to be on a correspondingly higher plane than 

 mere surveying. The competent drainage engineer will guard against 

 mistakes in his surveying by readily applied checks, but the only check 

 against mistakes in design and construction, the fatal mistakes, is the 

 ability and strength of character of the engineer himself. 



Someone has defined the engineer as "a man who can do with one 

 dollar what any man can do with two." In drainage engineering we 

 need to modify this and say, "the drainage engineer is the man who can 

 do with one dollar that upon which the average man will spend two 

 and still fail." 



The competent drainage engineer, therefore, reqtiires the highest 

 qualifications. First of all he must be an able, honest, faithful, indus- 

 trious, tactful but strong-willed man, possessed of the best judgment. 

 Second, he must have a thorough training as a civil engineer, for there 

 is no branch of that great profession which may not at some time have 

 a direct relation to drainage work. Third, he must have had an exten- 

 sive experience at actual drainage work, for no man can properly be 

 entitled an engineer in any special line until, in addition to his general 

 knowledwge, however extensive, he has had thoroughly impressed on his 

 mind by actual experience the thousand special applications and modifi 

 cations which are absolutely essential in' each line of engineering work. 

 The most skilful pilot could not safely guide his ship on an unknown 

 coast. 



