[oo8 



X \TI >X \l. i>K MX \C,F. C< INGRESS 



civa-ing the valur of the >alt marsh 

 that comes under our operations sev- 

 eral times the aim unit "f money ex- 

 pended, ami this will prove the- best 

 investment ever made bv .New Jer- 



sey." 



.Mr. II. X. Wilson, Chief Engineer 

 of the Inited States ( icological Sur- 

 vey, spoke of swamp peat as a fuel, 

 lie said. "I'eat is used extensively in 

 F.urope and in Canada as a power gen- 

 eral >r, and experiments are being 

 made with it in this country. A ton 

 of peat, when put into a gas produc- 

 er and converted into -'as for that sort 

 of engine, makes nearly as much 

 1 tower as a ton of bituminous coal un- 

 der a boiler. This peat could be found 

 and gathered in great quantities from 

 .swamps in this country; when made 

 into briquettes it provides good fuel." 



Senator Asbury C. Latimer, of 

 South Carolina, declared that the Xa- 

 tional policy of drainage was in line 

 with the broad. National policy of 

 conserving the undeveloped resources 

 of the country. Mr. Robert E. Lee. a 

 I'.altimore attorney and member of the 

 Baltimore Federation of Labor, spoke 

 on "Drainage from a Labor Stand- 

 point," showing that "the clearing of 

 this kind will necessitate the employ- 

 ment of thousands of laboring people, 

 both skilled and unskilled." Profes- 

 sor William Ihillock Clark, State Geo- 

 logist of Maryland, described the 

 swamps of that State, showing their 

 area to be 3_'S-(>S acres. (.)f drain- 

 ing these swamps he said, "The result- 

 ing soil will prove to be very rich. 

 I'mting the value at about S v> an acre, 

 which would be reasonable for land of 

 this quality, it would add ten million 

 dollars to the taxable property of the 

 State. Further, adjacent lands would 

 be improved." 



Senator Francis C,. Xewlands. of 

 Nevada, criticized the granting of 

 public swamp lands by the Nation to 

 States or corporations. Me said: 



"These swamp lands constitute, for 



the most part, the alluvial deposits 

 made bv the great river-. No proper 

 reclamation of them can be made \vith- 



uut takin- up in some compivheii-i\ e 

 way the treatment of the rivers of the 

 country and the control of their wa- 

 ters, with a view to Hood prevention, 

 stream control and the maintenance of 

 an equal and sustained How of such 

 rivers. These rivers, for the most part 

 are interstate, and all bear imp ulant 

 relations to interstate and foreign 

 c< immerce. 



"These rivers bear an important 

 relation to interstate and foreign com- 

 merce, and are subject to tin- regula- 

 tion and control of the National Gov- 

 ernment. It is important in the in- 

 terest of interstate commerce that the 

 waters of these' rivers should not be 

 permitted to waste themselves over 

 vast areas of lowlands, making 

 swamps and bavous useless for anv 

 purpose. It is important that th* 

 waters should be controlled by the 

 construction of levees and bv a sys 

 tern of bank protection that will re- 

 strain the erratic courses of rivers and. 

 bold their waters in a permanent cb. 

 nel. thoroughly secured, and kept open 

 bv a strong current, and thus made 

 useful for navigation. 



"The swam]) land question, there- 

 fore, is a part of the inland waterway 

 question now before- the American 

 people, and that question necessarily 

 involves the preservation and replac- 

 ing of forests, as conservators of mois- 

 ture: the construction oi reservoirs 

 which can hold the Hood waters above 

 and make them useful for irrigation, 

 and the watering of great plains by ir- 

 rigation which can absorb the Hood 

 waters and gradually give them back 

 to the stream by percolation when 

 they are most needed -luring period* 

 of dr; >uth. Irrigation is the antith< 

 of drainage, and while pos,jbly neither 

 can be engaged in under the .National 

 powers, except witli reference to G 

 eminent lands, there can be no qr 

 timi about the power of th> rn- 



ment to engage in both as a part of the 

 stream control so essential to navL 

 ti' m." 



Mr. Gifford Tim-hot. Forester. 



spoke of deforestation as one cause of 



