PEOGRESS IN RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS IN THE 

 WESTERN UNITED STATES.^ 



By J. B. Beadle, 

 V. S. Reclamation Service. 



[With 13 plates.] 



The reclamation of arid lands by the Federal Government has 

 moved steadily forward since the passage of the Newlands Act in 

 1902, in spite of the numerous and intricate problems arising, many 

 of which could not be foreseen prior to the enactment of the funda- 

 mental law governing the operations of the Reclamation Service. 



The Service has added some notable structures to the engineering 

 monuments of the country. It has built the highest dam in the world 

 on the Boise River, Idaho, and the one storing the greatest quantity 

 of irrigation water on the Rio Grande, New Mexico. Its reservoirs 

 are capable of holding 6,500,000 acre-feet, or two thousand billion 

 gallons of water. It has excavated 130,000,000 cubic yards of earth 

 and rock, placing 12,000,000 yards in dams and forming conduits ag- 

 gregating 10,000 miles in length, including 25 miles of tunnels and 

 85 miles of flumes. Its canals placed end-on would circle the United 

 • States. Its structures of all kinds, large and small, dams, bridges, 

 canal drops, checks, and the like total over 70,000 in number. 



The works so far constructed make water available for 1,500,000 

 acres, and the projects under Avay when completed will provide for 

 nearly as much more. For this greater area the principal works have 

 in large measure already been built, such as storage reservoirs, di- 

 version dams, and main canals, leaving to be added the necessary 

 extensions to the distribution systems. 



As incidental to the construction of large irrigation works the 

 Service has engaged in a wide variety of engineering effort, includ- 

 ing the construction and operation of roads, telephone systems, power 

 plants, transmission lines, and even railroads. On one project Port- 

 land cement was manufactured and on several others the material 

 known as " sand cement " has been produced and used to advantage. 



But as varied and intricate as are the engineering problems in- 

 volved in Government reclamation work, of even greater difficult}^ 



1 This article is in continuation of papers printed in the Smithsonian Reports for 1901, 

 pp. 407 to 423 ; 1903, pp. 827 to 841 ; 1904, pp. 373 to 381 ; 1907, pp. 331 to 345 ; 1910, 

 pp 169 to 198. 



467 



