REPORT OK THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. LXXXIX 



of its operation, and, in general, all the aid this Department can fur- 

 nish in determining in advance whether or not this kind of irrigation 

 will pay. 



The commercial importance of these inquiries can be understood 

 only by those who realize the immense sums of mone} r which in the 

 last two years have been invested in pumping projects to furnish 

 water. In the rice fields of Louisiana alone several hundred thousand 

 dollars have been expended. This work is as yet in its experimental 

 stage, and this Department is doing a very useful service in answer- 

 ing these inquiries. Another illustration of the manner in which the 

 investigations in irrigation are naturally going into a broader field of 

 agricultural engineering is shown in the way studies of the problems 

 in irrigation engineering have to be supplemented by a knowledge of 

 drainage engineering. Questions are also constantly arising regard- 

 ing systems of Avater supply and sewerage of farms and the methods 

 of engineering which will best promote the sanitary welfare of our 

 agricultural people. Many inquiries are coming from Eastern States 

 for information regarding the construction of reservoirs and advice 

 about the handling of water in order to prevent the destructive erosion 

 of hillside farms. We are beginning to realize that the wasteful 

 methods of tillage employed during the conquest and settlement of 

 this country must now give place to more scientific methods, which 

 will restore what is lost as well as preserve what remains. In many 

 parts of our country efforts are being made to improve the conditions 

 of rural, as well as city and village life, by beautifying the environ- 

 ment of the home and the community through attention to the artistic 

 laying out of gardens, lawns, large estates, and parks. For the per- 

 formance of this work in the best manner the services of expert agri- 

 cultural engineers are required, and already we find here and there 

 engineers who are giving special attention to these subjects. In 

 various other ways the aid of the Department is also being invoked. 

 Without doubt, agricultural engineering is destined to have as useful a 

 place in this country as it already occupies in European countries, 

 and it is time that the Department should occupy this field of research 

 and aid in the development of our agriculture along this line. 



NATIONAL AID FOR IRRIGATION. 



There is every reason to believe that irrigation will, in the near 

 future, become a subject for legislation by Congress, and there are 

 important reasons why it should have the attention of that body. 

 Hereafter the seekers for homes on the public domain must look for 

 them in that part of the country where cultivated crops can not be 

 grown by the aid of rainfall alone, and where the extent of irrigation is 

 the measure of settlement. It has been the policy of this country in the 

 past to dispose of its public lands on liberal terms, in order that men 



