LAND DRAINAGE BY MEANS OF PUMPS. 55 



The keeping of proper records for a pumping plant is as important 

 as is bookkeeping for a merchant. Failure to do so will mean loss, 

 just as surely in the first case as in the second. Many districts have 

 already suffered from this omission, and unfortunately very few of 

 the districts are profiting by this costly experience. The landowners 

 within the districts should demand of those in charge that such records 

 be kept. 



Many districts have followed the shortsighted policy of employing 

 a cheap man to operate the plant during the pumping season and then 

 allowing the plant to be without an engineer for a large part of the 

 year. Such plants have deteriorated very rapidly and are becoming 

 increasingly more expensive to operate. In the end it is much 

 cheaper to employ a competent man by the year, furnish him with a 

 good house, and make conditions attractive enough to hold the same 

 man for a term of years. The plant on the Louisa-Des Moines Dis- 

 trict has been operated for about five years; it has been in charge of 

 the same man for the entire period. While the salary paid the engi- 

 neer has been twice the amount that many other districts pay, it has 

 been money well invested, as the plant is now in almost perfect condi- 

 tion and has the appearance of a new plant. Figures already quoted 

 show that the economy of the plant was better in 1913 than it was in 

 1910. If by careful operation and maintenance the depreciation of 

 such a plant could be decreased from 6 per cent to 5 per cent, a saving 

 of $500 a year would be effected. It is certain that the depreciation 

 on many plants which have been carelessly operated during the 

 pumping season and neglected the remainder of the year is at least 

 10 per cent. On a plant of this size this difference in rates of depre- 

 ciation would easily pay the salary of a first-class engineer. 



PRESENT STATUS OF DRAINAGE BY PUMPING. 



Experience on the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers shows that the 

 total cost of adequate general district drainage improvements, 

 including levees, ditches, and pumping plant, has varied between $20 

 and S50 an acre. An average figure for all the districts examined on 

 the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers is about $30 per acre. The ten- 

 dency has been in the last few years to take in the more expensive 

 districts and a considerable increase may be expected in the unit cost 

 of reclamation, particularly on the smaller district. The cost of 

 clearing the land and installing field drainage lies between $5 and $20 

 per acre. These figures do not include the cost- of tile-draining the 

 land, but merely of providing I lie necessary field ditches. Hence, 

 in -(.me. places tin- total cost of putting (lie land into profitable culti- 

 vation may be as high ;is $50 per acre. The success that has attended 

 drainage of this character is awakening the interest of those in many 

 pari a of t he I fnited Si ale-, who own valley binds subject to overflow; 



