222 KANSAS UNIVERSITY (JUAR'IERLV. 



is 8^ miles long, 15 feet wide at top, 9 feet wide at bottom, 2 feet 

 deep, and has a grade of 2 J^' feet to the mile. There are places 

 along it where the uphill bank was not constructed, and the ditch 

 widened out into shallow ponds, the area of which was estimated to be 

 three acres with an average depth of 6 inches. When water was let 

 into it for the first time, it was fourteen days from the time the gates 

 were opened until the water reached the end of the ditch. The cross 

 section of the stream being 24 square feet, and the mean velocity 

 1.925 ft. sec, 55,884,000 cubic feet of water entered the fourteen 

 days, 1,177,000 cubic feet were in the ditch and ponds at the end 

 of the time, hence 54,706,000 cubic feet, or more than 50 ditchfulls 

 were lost while the water went a distance of Sj4 miles. Now, after 

 being used eight years, if the water is shut out for a short time and 

 again admitted into the ditch, it will flow the length of it in seven and 

 one-half hours. 



The valleys of Kansas are not favorable for the storage of large 

 quantities of water. They are broad and shallow as a rule, decreasing 

 in width and depth from the east toward the west. Their breadth 

 necessitates the construction of long and expensive dams and the 

 flooding of large areas, and this broad water surface increases greatly 

 the evaporation and the percolation losses. The soil in the larger 

 valleys is sandy, allowing water to pass through readily and making a 

 foundation difficult. 



The sub-surface of Kansas seems at first sight to be equally unfav- 

 orable to the storage of water. The surface slopes to the east, while 

 the sub-surface layers or strata slope or dip north and east. The 

 rivers flow over the edges of the upturned beds, and would lose part 

 of their water into them if other conditions were favorable. The 

 Smoky Hill river, for example, flows over the ends of the Tertiary, 

 Cretaceous, Permian and Upper Carboniferous formations. All of 

 these absorb some water. The Dakota Cretaceous and Lower Tertiary 

 absorb more than the others. But the condition of affairs is not so 

 bad as at first sight. The upper Cretaceous or Niobrara, although it 

 absorbs considerable water, will not allow much to pass through it; 

 and although its dip is north and east, its upper surface is eroded 

 and slopes a little to the east and south; so that the Lower Tertiary, the 

 most important water-bearing stratum in Kansas, dips east and south, 

 bringing water into the rivers instead of taking it from them. Most 

 of the streams in western Kansas have no permanent water in them 

 until they have cut through the Tertiary grit as it is called. 



Millions of cubic feet of water are annually going to waste in the 

 Arkansas River. Can this water not be stored on Kansas soil? Not 

 in the ordinary way by constructing a dam across the valley. Is 



