THE IKBIGATION AGE. 



273 



A STUPENDOUS DRAINAGE PROPOSITION 



If Congress Passes the Flint Bill it Will Mean the Reclamation of Swamp Lands of an Area Larger Than the Com- 

 bined Areas of Iowa, Indiana and Ohio. 



If business interests of the United tSates can be 

 increased one billion five hundred million dollars an- 

 nually from the swamp land districts, many of which 

 are contiguous to the great commercial cities, is not 

 the effort worthy the attention of the business men of 

 the country? 



There are swamp and overflowed lands in 33 states 

 in the union, a total of at least fifty million acres an 

 area larger than the states of Ohio, Indiana and Iowa. 

 If these swamp lands could be drained and divided 

 into 40-acre farms they would afford homes to 2,500,000 

 families and would put 12,000,000 people on the lands 

 which are now practically worthless. If people moved 

 on these' lands they would expend approximately $2,000 

 for houses and equiments on their farms. This would 

 mean an expenditure on the waste lands of today of 

 more than $5,000,000. An average family of five will 

 spend $600 per year. This will mean to the business 

 interests an increased trade of $1,500,000,000 over 

 what is now enjoyed. 



These figures may be startling, but they are from 

 government sources and easy of verification. Drainage 

 is not a new subject ; it has been seen tried by states, 

 counties, townships and individuals. The results have 

 never been satisfactory. The acres to be drained are 

 so enormous that it will require government aid to 

 bring about the reclamation of these lands, and when 

 reclaimed, they are most productive, and, in many 

 cases, close to the best markets in the world. If the 

 dismal swamp of Virginia was reclaimed, it would in 

 a few years more than pay for the cost of drainage 

 and then forever after pay handsome returns in the 

 shape of varied and continued crops. The state of 

 Virginia cannot accomplish it, but the general govern- 

 ment can. If it has been legal for the federal govern- 

 ment to appropriate over $33,000,000 to reclaim arid 

 lands, is it not just as legal for the government to ex- 

 pend its funds for the twin hand-maid of agriculture, 

 drainage? 



Under the wise provision, of the Flint bill, which 

 has received a favorable report from the public lands 

 committee of the United States Senate which augers 

 well for its passage during the sixtieth congress, some 

 of the very wisest provisions prevail and permits of vast 

 drainage projects, which states, counties, townships or 

 individuals cannot accomplish. 



So fraught with importance was the subject of 

 drainage that it attracted widespread attention through- 

 out the country. This attention resulted in calling a 

 conference at Oklahoma City, Okla., December 5, 6, 

 and 7, 1906. At that conference seventeen states and 

 territories were represented. After a full discussion of 

 the great advantages to the entire country to be obtained 

 from a general drainage law, it was determined to 

 organize an association which should be more than local 

 in its nature and workings. It was finally determined 

 that an association should be formed which would be 

 national, one that would study the interests of every 

 locality, one that would endeavor to have such legis- 

 lation enacted, as would baring about beneficient results 



to all states or territories having swamp or overflowed 

 lands within its borders. 



The National Drainage Association was organized, 

 with a president, two vice-presidents, a secretary, treas- 

 urer, and an executive committee composed of six. The 

 congressional work was placed in charge of the chair- 

 man of the executive committee with headquarters at 

 Washington. 



So much thought has been given to the subject of 

 drainage by the members of the Senate committee on 

 public lands that a favorable report on the Flint bill 

 was obtained during the last days of the session. When 

 it is remembered 'that it took over 12 years to pasp a 

 reclamation law, and the expenditure of vast sums of 

 money, the friends of drainage have every reason to 

 feel highly encouraged over what it has accomplished 

 in such a short time and confidently believe that a gen- 

 eral bill will be passed during the sixtieth session of 

 Congress. 



Drainage has been most successfully carried on 

 for a long time in Europe and some of the eastern 

 states. The Dutch have reclaimed vast areas in Holland 

 from the encroachment of the ocean. Thousands of 

 families live and farm below the sea level, gaining 

 their security by magnificent feats of engineering and 

 persistence. They now contemplate the draining of 

 the Zuyder Zee, reclaiming some 1,350,000 additional 

 acres of meadow lands. American drainage, in most 

 cases, would be far more simple and less expensive. It 

 is simply a question as to whether the nation will see 

 the wisdom of setting its hands to this work. 



This infant movement in a great cause ought to 

 be encouraged and expounded until it becomes an 

 accomplished fact. Like the irrigation movement, it is 

 entitled to the earnest support of every American, 

 whether or not he is a present or prospective land 

 owner, since by adding to the real worth and producing 

 capacities of the country it would decidedly tend to 

 maintain and even increase the present season of un- 

 paralleled prosperity. To subdue and render fruitful 

 one's country, is far better than conquering empires or 

 acquiring far distant lands. The swamp lands of the 

 United States can be made to produce hundreds of mil- 

 lions of dollars annually. 



Agricultural lands are becoming scarce; we are 

 not making new lands, but the population of the coun- 

 try is increasing at the rate of one million annually. 

 We must provide homes for these people, and where can 

 better farm homes be found than upon the reclaimed 

 swamp lands of the United States? 



The question may arise why do not the several 

 states owning swamp lands do their own reclaiming? 

 This is being tried and tried and in a number of in- 

 stances with most unsatisfactory results. The state 

 having taken hold of the subject, it soon became evi- 

 dent that it was unable to cope with it, because of 

 complications due to the possession of these lands by 

 private individuals, by the "federal government and by 

 the states themselves. 



As demonstrated by the history of irrigation de- 



