THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



39 



ignorant of the intricacies of the irrigation business, 

 nor does he generally have the means to secure com- 

 plete financial and engineering data concerning the 

 project in which he invests. 



This move is along the line suggested by the 

 meeting of the railroad colonization agents held 

 at Chicago and later on at Salt Lake City in Octo- 

 ber of this year, with the difference that the plan 

 suggested there was that a general clearing house 

 of information be established where each state could 

 supply data concerning projects within its limits 

 to this central institution, which would, in re- 

 turn, furnish sufficient information to intending 

 settlers to permit them to go about the purchase of 

 a farm-home intelligently. 



Primer of 



We note in a recent copy of the 

 Omaha Bee, a statement concerning 



A recent bulletin of the United 

 Wearing Out States Geological Survey informs us 

 of Earth's that the earth's surface is wearing- 



Surface Shows out and we are presented the state- 

 Appalling ment that 783,000,000 tons of mat- 

 Figures, ter are carried away annually by 

 streams. 



The surface of the United States is being re- 

 moved, according to this bulletin, at the rate of 

 thirteen ten-thousandths of an inch a year, or one 

 inch in 760 years. 



Though this amount seems trivial when spread 

 over the surface of the country, it becomes stu- 

 pendous when considered as a total, for more than 

 210.000,000 tons of dissolved matter and 513,000,000 

 tons of suspended matter are transported to tide- 

 water every year by the streams of the United 

 States. This total represents more than 50,000,000 

 cubic yards of rock substance or 610,000,000 cubic 

 yards of surface soil. To illustrate more clearly, 

 this quantity, the bulletin states, "if this erosive ac- 

 tion had been concentrated upon the Isthmus of 

 Panama at the time of American occupation, it 

 would have excavated the prism of an 85-foot level 

 canal in about seventy-three days. 



Amounts removed from different drainage 

 basins shows interesting comparisons. In respect 

 to dissolved matter the Southern Pacific basin heads 

 the list with 177 tons per square mile per year, the 

 northern Atlantic basin being next with 130 tons, 

 while the rate for the Hudson Bay basin is only 28 

 tons. Amounts are generally lowest for streams 

 in the arid and semi-arid regions because large areas 

 there contribute little or nothing to the run off. 

 The Southern Pacific basin is an important excep- 

 tion to this general rule, presumably because of the 

 extensive practice of irrigation in that area. 

 Amounts are naturally highest in the region of high 

 rainfall. 



in Hawaiian 

 Schools. 



is 



Union Pacific railway of the PRIMER 

 OF IRRIGATION, published by the IRRI- 

 GATION AGE. 



The article states that although not in the 

 school book publishing business, the Union Pacific 

 railway is supplying free of cost, the public schools 

 of the Hawaiian Islands with some of their text- 

 books, particularly the PRIMER OF IRRIGATION, a 257- 

 page publication. 



The PRIMER OF IRRIGATION, many thousands of 

 which were purchased from the IRRIGATION AGE by 

 the Union Pacific people, not only deals with irri- 

 gation in all countries and under all conditions of 

 circumstances, but discusses the kinds and varieties 

 of crops best adapted to different localities. 



In the agricultural department of the Hawaiian 

 schools the PRIMER OF IRRIGATION has been adopted 

 as a recognized authority of all subjects treated and 

 discussed. 



The Union Pacific railway is also sending out 

 other literature among which is "Fossil Discoveries 

 in Wyoming." This work has been adopted as a 

 text-book in the colleges of the United States and 

 abroad. 



It is very gratifying to learn from the Bee 

 that this work is being carried along, as it speaks 

 well for a book that the IRRIGATION AGE has been 

 publishing for the past nine or ten years. We have 

 already sold 30,000 copies of this work and the de- 

 mand is rapidly increasing. It is hoped that later 

 on, as the work becomes better known, it may be 

 adopted as a text-book in schools throughout other 

 countries. 



In the annual report of Secretary of 

 Secretary the Interior Fisher is found many 



Fisher recommendations and, taken alto- 



Offers gether, is an interesting docu- 



Recommend- ment. 

 ations. The principal recommendations 



made by the Secretary are the adop- 

 tion of a comprehensive water power policy for all 

 streams of the United States; comprehensive classi- 

 fication of public lands and administration in ac- 

 cordance therewith ; enlarged application of leasing 

 principle to the public domain generally; amend- 

 ment to mining law giving prospector exclusive 

 right for a term of years of possession and prospect- 

 ing within a limited area; legislation for develop- 

 ment of transportation facilities and coal lands of 

 Alaska; comprehensive leasing law for coal, oil and 

 other mineral lands; withdrawal from entry of all 



