SO OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



either state or federal government. Until 1850 all 

 the great swamp tracts except those included in the 

 thirteen original states (Dismal, Okefinokee, eastern 

 seaboard plane, Jersey marshes and tidal lands of 

 New England) remained in the national estate. 



"Not only is this work of reclamation of great 

 importance to the health and prosperity of the United 

 States as a whole, and immense sums of money be- 

 yond the ability of states or individuals to furnish 

 needed to carry on operations until returns com- 

 mence to come in from the reclaimed lands, but the 

 drainage problem offers better opportunities from a 

 practical economic standpoint than does that of irri- 

 gation. The average cost of irrigation is thirty dol- 

 lars an acre; that of drainage is about five or six. 



"Swamp areas are more generally in the midst 

 of populous territory with already developed trans- 

 portation facilities, the engineering problems as a 

 rule are more simple and the land is usually richer in 

 itself than arid land. Then, too, the federal govern- 

 ment is already well prepared to undertake such ac- 

 tivities, for the United States Geological Survey, as 

 the result of hydrographic and topographical sur- 

 veys covering nearly a million square miles for sev- 

 eral years, has been gradually accumulating a great 

 mass of maps, charts, statistics, and information re- 

 lating to rainfall, drainage and water sheds. 



"There is a considerable number of large 

 swamps that lie* in river basins extending through 

 more than one state, and they cannot be drained ef- 



