460 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



October 



also gives methods for their control. urers of basket willow, aiid of great 

 The bulletin should prove invaluable to interest to farmers who desire to add 

 all present producers and manufact- willow-growing to their other crops. 



CONTROL OF THE KANSAS RIVER FLOODS 



TREE PLANTING ADVISED BY THE BUREAU OF 

 FOREvSTRY LAST YEAR'S LOSS OVER #20,000,000. 



THE Kansas River floods have 

 called new attention to the 

 methods recently advocated by the Bu- 

 reau of Forestry for controlling the 

 course of the stream and for repairing 

 the damage to inundated farm lands. 

 The high-water mark this summer is 

 10 feet lower than that of last season, 

 nor is the property loss comparable to 

 that of a year ago, when the damage 

 wrought exceeded $20,000,000 and 

 whenever 100 lives were sacrified. But 

 in permanent injury to the productive 

 capacity of the region it may well be 

 said that the river has delivered a second 

 blow as serious as was the first. The 

 flood of 1903 was the greatest since 

 1844. Until a year ago the valley of 

 ' the Kaw was as fertile as any on this 

 continent. For centuries the strips of 



woodland along the banks of the river 

 bed impeded the rush of overflows, and 

 the silt that built up the rich land had 

 been precipitated. But under agricult- 

 ure the trees were gradually cut down, 

 in many cases right to the water's edge. 

 The result was inevitable. In its natu- 

 ral course the river runs rather slowly 

 and with many windings through its 

 flat meadows. But when it overflowed 

 the water swept straight down the val- 

 ley. Unimpeded by trees, it increased 

 its velocity, in some places cutting for 

 itself new channels, and for almost the 

 whole 120 miles of the valley not only 

 deeply eroded the river banks, but 

 played havoc with the valuable farm 

 lands. In some places the rich soil was 

 cut away to the barren sands or gravels; 

 in others coarse sand was laid 6 and 8 



RAILROAD TRACK ON TOP OF COAL CAR, NEAR LAWRENCE, KANSAS. 



