THE 1RRIGA TION A GE. 157 



is through an arid or semi-arid region, and as the necessity for water 

 transportation increases in direct ratio to the productiveness of the 

 land through which the river flows, it seems logical and right that 

 the attention of the Federal authority should now be given to the 

 conservation, for irrigation purposes, of its surplus flood, which does 

 such great damage along its lower course when, swelled by melting 

 snows, its mighty volume bursts through its expensive confines. 



The National Government has appropriated, to June 30, 1900, for 

 expenditure by the Mississippi River Commission, $37,647,780.17, of 

 which $15,403,901.87 were expended for levees. There must be added 

 to this latter item over fifteen millions of dollars contributed by the 

 states, making thirty and one-half millions expended in efforts to 

 confine the surplus wealth of vitalizing fluid contributed by moun- 

 tains until it is lost in the great ocean. Think of the thousands of 

 farms that could be made productive by the judicious expenditure of 

 only a part of this great sum. There are able engineers who even 

 question the wisdom of constructing artificial banks, claiming that 

 sooner or later the restless flood will break through, and when it does 

 the damage will be a thousand-fold greater than it would were the 

 waters allowed to spread as nature permitted. 



But there is no question as to the utility of storing up a portion 

 of the flow of water that runs away in non-irrigation seasons that it 

 may be available for use during the growing periods. As a distin- 

 guished United States engineer, referring to the arid region of the 

 West, reports, ' 'In no other part of the Uuited States, or anywhere 

 else in the world, are there such potent and conclusive reasons, of a 

 public as well as a private nature, for the construction of a compre- 

 -hensive reservoir system." 



