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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 853 



of strengthening the foundations of the 

 state. It is an attempt being made by the 

 federal government almost at the eleventh 

 hour of its opportunities to utilize the waste 

 resources still remaining at its command, 

 and to employ these in such a way as to 

 strengthen local communities and states, 

 and to create in the more remote parts of 

 the country many prosperous communi- 

 ties composed of independent, landowning 

 citizens, each family being resident upon a 

 farm sufficient for its support, and culti- 

 vating the soil intensively, under favorable 

 conditions of sunlight and of water supply, 

 such as to produce the largest crop yield 

 per acre, and to bring about the largest 

 individual success. 



The people thus placed upon the farms 

 are not merely producers. They not only 

 raise enough to support themselves, and 

 to sell to their neighbors, but indirectly 

 they stimulate all industries. They are 

 large consumers, as well as producers, and 

 it may be said that for every family placed 

 upon an irrigated farm on the desert, 

 there arises the possibility of another fam- 

 ily engaged in transportation or in manu- 

 facturing in the east or middle west. All 

 parts of the country are thus linked to- 

 gether. The success of the irrigator in the 

 west means larger cotton production in the 

 south, more boots made in Massachusetts, 

 more freight and passenger cars hauled 

 across the continent. 



The success already attained in applying 

 scientific methods to this great problem of 

 conservation of the waste resources of the 

 country may be attributable in part at 

 least to the Institute of Technology, and to 

 the instruction there given. The Recla- 

 mation Service, organized under the act of 

 June 17, 1902, includes among its princi- 

 pal men and guiding hands many gradu- 

 ates or students of the Institute of Tech- 

 nology. 



The training at the institute has been 

 peculiarly effective in building up in the 

 minds of its students a grasp of the larger 

 conditions, and a proper confidence in 

 ability to handle these. The first thing in 

 any undertaking, such as that of studying 

 the resources of a nation, is to gain a com- 

 prehensive view of these and to set on foot 

 investigations and measurements in detail 

 such that the conclusions will have direct 

 value and application to the larger prob- 

 lems involved. 



With a comprehensive and reasonably 

 accurate review of the conditions to be met, 

 it is then possible to bring to the solution 

 of the problem the principles and methods 

 of engineering and to put into play the 

 constructive ideas which are inseparable 

 from a technologic education. 



The great difference between the meth- 

 ods pursued at the institute and those at 

 many of the older institutions appears to 

 lie in this constructive idea in the inculca- 

 tion of the conception that the great work 

 of life is to initiate and to build on correct 

 lines rather than to simply know what 

 others have done, and to imitate those. 



The constructive faculty, the ability to 

 imagine or to picture desirable results, and 

 to turn these into accomplishment by 

 scientific methods is the foundation for 

 success in these larger lines of work. 



In the matter under consideration con- 

 gress in 1888 authorized an investigation of 

 the extent to which the arid lands might 

 be reclaimed. This problem is enormous 

 and its correct solution is fundamental to 

 the future growth and development of the 

 nation, because of the fact that one third 

 of its area is arid. In that third are poten- 

 tially some of the most valuable lands in 

 the world. 



The problem is to obtain water for these 

 lands. This in turn rests upon questions 

 of economics and engineering, in storage 



