1906 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



135 



vides that the receipts from the sales 

 of public lands in the non-irrigation 

 states shall constitute a "drainage" 

 fund, to be expended by the govern- 

 ment in great drainage works, and 

 further, that the cost of such drainage 

 shall be prorated among the lands ben- 

 efited and paid back by the settlers into 

 the "fund," to be used over again for 

 additional reclamation work. 



WOULD CREATE THOUSANDS OE HOMES. 



This plan of developing the internal 

 resources of the country and making 



$100 and $150 an acre. Yet it is esti- 

 mated by the government surveyors 

 and engineers that the entire system 

 could be effectively drained at a cost 

 in the neighborhood of $10 an acre. 

 The same can be said of the lands of 

 the Red River Valley in Minnesota. 

 These include the finest grain and farm 

 lands in the Northwest, except that 

 they are frequently overflowed. It 

 would be worth millions of dollars to 

 the farmers and settlers who would 

 occupy these lands in small tracts to 



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.:' mm 



Minnesota Swamp Scene 



homes of waste places is splendid in 

 its scope, and appears to be entirely 

 practicable and profitable. Take, for 

 instance, the single example of the 

 swamplands of the Kankakee River 

 basin in Indiana and Illinois. Here 

 are some 400,000 acres of the very 

 richest of bottom lands, but subject 

 to overflow. They are worthless ex- 

 cept where they have been reclaimed 

 through expensive private drainage 

 works, when they have become worth 



have a perfect system of drainage pro- 

 vided. These extensive systems, how- 

 ever, especially where they are inter- 

 state, seem to be feasible for handling 

 only by the general government. 



The Steenerson bill places the entire 

 management of the work in the hands 

 of the Reclamation Service, and the 

 plan of operation follows very closely 

 the irrigation work now being done by 

 that branch of the Interior Depart- 

 ment. Government lands, ceded Tndi- 



