LAND RECLAMATION BY DRAINAGE 



Great Government Drainage Projects Enlargement of the Old 

 Horns^ad Idea Nearly 1 00,000,000 Acres Can be Reclaimed 



BY 

 GUY ELLIOTT MITCHELL 



Secretary, The National Irrigation Association^ 



A NOTHER striking plan to provide 

 ** homes for industrious Americans 

 of small means is contained in Repre- 

 sentative Steenerson's bill now pend- 

 ing in Congress. This measure is real- 

 ly an extension of the old homestead 

 idea, embodying also the main features 

 of the National Irrigation Act, but in 

 this case to be applied to the reclama- 

 tion of our swamplands. 



There are in the neighborhood of 

 100,000,000 acres of swamplands in 

 the United States, some 70,000,000 of 

 which have been surveyed, and the 

 great bulk would make splendid farms 

 if the excess of water were drained off. 



The Steenerson bill provides for the 

 beginning of the work of reclamation 

 of these huge areas. The measure is 

 framed after the irrigation law ; it pro- 



Courtesy State Entomologist of New Jersey 



A New Jersey Drainage Ditch 



