NATURAL WATERWAYS IN THE UNITED STATES — HARTS. 565 



no systematiq improvement was ever adopted until the project of 

 1884 was commenced, providing for revetting the banks, regulating 

 the widths to fix the channels in location, and removing snags. In 

 all, $14,175,378 has been expended on this river up to. 1913. The 

 work has not served to stimulate commerce, as was hoped, for the 

 tonnage of the river remains noticeably disproportionate to the length 

 and size of the stream. It has merely shown that a navigable chan- 

 nel can be obtained, although at a very gi-eat cost. The main efforts 

 of the engineers have been directed toward the contraction of the 

 river where necessary, rectification in other places, and securely hold- 

 ing the channel in place by using revetment on the banks and per- 

 meable dikes in the stream to collect and impound sediment at previ- 

 ously selected places. This disproportion between the high cost of 

 an adequate channel and the small use being made of it during late 

 3^ears has reduced the interest in this river, and until recently the 

 work has consisted principally in maintenance of existing conditions 

 by protecting caving banks and removing snags. For eight years, 

 1884 to 1892, the river was under the direction of a commission simi- 

 lar to the Mississippi River Commission, but this method of adminis- 

 tration has not been altogether successful, and it was abandoned on 

 the Missouri in 1892. Notwithstanding these discouraging tend- 

 encies, in 1912 a project was adopted to provide a 6-foot channel, 

 within 10 years' time, from the mouth in the Mississippi up to Kan- 

 sas City, nearly 400 miles, at a cost of $20,000,000. This work 

 is now under way, the principal reliance being put on dikes and bank 

 revetment assisted by dredging. 



The commerce of this river below Sioux City, Iowa, has been as 

 follows : 



Tons. 



1895 154, 334 



1900 268, 114 



1905 343, 345 



The foregoing analysis of the largest and most important rivers 

 in the Mississippi River system will illustrate the tendency, so much 

 more noticeable of late years than a decade or two ago, of the dimin- 

 ishing part the rivers in this great basin are playing in the up- 

 building of this important region. Many other smaller rivers would 

 accentuate this important fact still more strongly. Nowhere in this 

 country are the products of the farms more abundant; nowhere are 

 the mines more productive; nowhere is the industry of the popula- 

 tion accomplishing more than" in this vast area. Commerce is in- 

 creasing by enormous strides, and rail lines have multiplied their 

 branches. The total commerce at St. Louis, receipts and shipments 

 combined, was 1,265,592 tons by river, in 1890, and 15,240,141 by 

 rail. In 1906 it was 416,855 by river and 44,964,623 by rail. During 

 73839°— SM 1916 37 



Tons. 



1910 876, 130 



1912 249, 599 



