82 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



vey was completed. A joint commission was chosen 

 .by President Hill and the counties, which should have 

 direction of the work and of the expenditure of the 

 funds jointly contributed. It was estimated that the 

 work required in six counties would cost $10,000. 

 Only five counties united at this time in the work, 

 Marshall, Polk, Norman, Clay and Wilkin. The com- 

 mission organized as the Red River Valley Drainage 

 Commission and offered the writer the place of chief 

 engineer of the survey. This was accepted and im- 

 mediate steps were taken towards getting parties in 

 the field. 



It was desired by the Commission to have the 

 survey completed and report ready to submit before the 

 close of the coming December. How to accomplish 

 the work within the time required no little thought 

 and planning. There were 'but few available engineers 

 in the locality, and to get any from a distance required 

 time. The plan was to get one party in the field 

 at the earliest possible moment and from that draw 

 a chief of party for the second and so continue until 

 four parties should finally be in the field. The general 

 plan of work adopted was as follows : Copies of town- 

 ship plats, as found in the U. S. Land Office, were 

 made to be used as a basis of the survey, and as field 

 maps. These plats were constructed on a scale of two 

 inches to one mile and showed every topographical fea- 

 ture found by the U. S. government surveyors in sub- 

 dividing the townships. It was proposed to follow 

 the section lines east and west to and from the river, 

 taking levels at every quarter mile and at such in- 

 termediate points as might be necessary, and to trace 

 out to the right or left of this line any depressions 

 which might be found, taking and recording levels on 

 the natural surface and also in the bottom of all de- 

 pressions. The original government corners could be 

 located in most instances, for but a comparatively small 

 part of the country had been fenced and but few of 

 the corners had been obliterated. They were invariably 

 "post in mound," the post part of the corner, in many 

 cases being a mere stake. The survey was to be a level 

 survey with estimated distances between government 

 corners. 



A party consisted of four levelmen, four rodmen, 

 one teamster and one cook. One of the instrumentmen 

 held the position of chief of party, and was charged 

 with the direction of the party, comparing and checking 

 of field notes, and the daily entries on the field map. 

 The outfit consisted of one team and wagon which 

 were furnished by the teamster, two wall tents without 

 flys, one 12x14, used as a sleeping tent, and one 9x12, 

 used as a cook tent; a cooking outfit consisting of a 

 light iron cook stove and tin and iron utensils. In 

 all but one of the parties the cook was employed by 

 the month and provisions were furnished by the Com- 

 mission. In one party the cook furnished the outfit 

 and provisions and boarded the men at $5.00 per week. 

 The difference in expense of the two plans .was but 

 slight. Sea level elevations were obtained from bench- 

 marks furnished by the railroad company, and closing 

 elevations were taken and noted wherever it was pos- 

 sible to reach them. 



In field work each man started from a common 

 point and ran his independent section line with the 

 necessary offsets during the day, the four in the party 

 ma-king a sweep four miles wide. At the close of 

 the day the men on the outside lines ran a check line 

 to the center and the four closed on the same point, 



the chief of party noting the disagreements of ele- 

 vations. It .was then his place to record all elevations 

 on the field map and fill in such topographical fea- 

 tures as each instrument man had noted in his book. 

 The camp, according to instructions given in the morn- 

 ing, had moved forward to the estimated closing point 

 for the day. The following day the programme was 

 repeated. Each man carried his noon lunch with him 

 and pulled into camp at night checking on the levels 

 taken by one or more of the party. The closings of 

 the levels of the four we're usually within one-tenth of 

 a foot, though two-tenths- were allowed. These dis- 

 crepancies were not carried on but were adjusted each 

 day and the entire work checked up on the next bench- 

 mark found which was at the crossing of the lines with 

 the railroad. In this way any errors made were not 

 permitted to accumulate, thus keeping all of the lines 

 within reasonable limits of accuracy. 



Four parties such as described were placed in the 

 field and continued work until the last of November. 

 They were made up of county surveyors, student engi- 

 neers, railroad engineers and one veteran U. S. gov- 

 ernment surveyor. Levels of six different makes were 

 used, each man furnishing his own instrument. The 

 weather during the time the field work was done was 

 unusually pleasant so that there was no delay on that 

 account. 



The field maps and note books were turned into 

 the office, and from them was made a map of the 

 part of each county covered by the survey. The ele- 

 vations were transferred to the county map, those 

 indicating the bottoms of streams or drainage depres- 

 sions being placed in parentheses, thus showing at a 

 glance the depth of any channel which was outlined. 

 No contour lines were placed upon these maps for 

 the reason that there were tracts which for a mile or 

 more were practically level, and others where there 

 were local slopes of varying degrees to such an extent 

 that contour lines would be misleading, and of no value 

 in planning systems of drainage. After all elevations 

 and topographical features had been entered upon the 

 map, the plans for drainage were worked out from 

 the data; at hand. The area was divided into dis- 

 tricts, main drains located and designated by numbers, 

 estimates of sizes and cost made out, and the whole 

 tabulated. The limits of this article will not admit 

 of a description of the results developed by the sur- 

 vey or the numberless details connected with the esti- 

 mates required, nor can adequate credit be given to 

 those whose untiring labor and faithfulness made these 

 results possible. The convention was called for Dec. 

 20th, at which time the Drainage Commission reported 

 to the convention that the survey had been completed 

 and presented the maps and estimates showing the 

 feasibility of the work. Mr. J. T. Fanning, C. E., 

 consulting engineer for the Commission, made an elab- 

 orate report endorsing and commending the plans 

 which had been evolved from the survey. The reports 

 and copies of the maps were soon published in pam- 

 phlet form, and thus made available for use in the sev- 

 eral counties. The subsequent work done by the peo- 

 ple of the valley in their efforts to obtain state aid in 

 carrying out the work and in securing the passage 

 of a drainage law, together with a description of the 

 work accomplished in the valley during recent years, 

 would make a most interesting addition to drainage 

 literature. 



