HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 201 
provide the necessary funds for the river service so greatly needed in Kansas and 
many other localities. ; 
The demands for the extension of the river and flood service are utterly beyond 
the ability of the Bureau to supply. The majority of these demands are necessary 
for the well-being of the agricultural and commercial interests of the country, and 
the cost thereof would be comparatively insignificant. A new service should be at 
once inaugurated on the Kansas and its tributaries, on the Delaware, and in other 
localities, and additional stations supplied to many of the already existing districts. 
The telegraph service should also be extended in order that the daily reports, so 
necessary in many localities for accurate forecasting, may be furnished the various 
river centers. 
The work of the service should also be broadened so as to embrace other and very 
necessary coordinate branches. The volume of water in the rivers corresponding to 
given stages in feet from the lowest water level to the highest flood plane should be 
measured. Information of this character affords a truer index of the real conditions 
than do the ordinary expressions in feet, which are at best the measured height of 
the water above arbitrarily assumed points, and are used chiefly because they are the 
most convenient vehicle for the conveyance of information to the general public. 
During recent years no connected series of discharge observations has been made in 
the large rivers of the country. An opportunity for doing a great service was lost 
through want of money during the spring floods of 1903, and it is hoped that another 
instance will not find us unprepared. 
I am strongly of the opinion that the time has come when the river and flood 
service should be raised from its position asa part of a division and given the rank of 
a division, with such a complement of officials and clerks and such an increase in the 
funds allotted to its purposes as will enable it to still further perfect and extend the 
river and flood work so as to meet the needs of agriculture and commerce. The new 
division— 
We now come to the necessity of the $3,000 man— 
if created, should, as is now the case, be closely affiliated with the forecast divi- 
sion, and the official in charge, in so far as the issuing of flood warnings is concerned, 
remain under thegeneral supervision of the professor in charge of the forecast division. 
I therefore have the honor to recommend that Congress be asked to appropriate for 
one additional professor, at $3,000; one clerk, at $1,800; one clerk, at $1,200; one 
clerk, at $1,000, and one copyist, at $840. But $17,000 is now spent for the pay of 
special river and rainfall observers and for the building of river gauges, and there are 
no measurements made of the sectional discharge of rivers. In order to extend the 
river and flood service, as hereinbefore outlined, I would also recommend that Con- 
gress be asked to increase the amount allowed for ‘‘general expenses’’ of the Weather 
Bureau outside of Washington by $30,000. This additional amount will enable the 
Weather Bureau to do a splendid service for the interior commerce of our country. 
The plan recommended would give to the chief forecaster of the Bureau $3,000, 
and the $2,500 professorship now held by him would be given to the chief of the new 
river and flood division, and one district forecaster at $2,000 would be dispensed 
with. 
The Cuarrman. You recommend that the chief of the division be 
increased to $2,750? ; ; 
Professor Moore. No, sir; that is another case entirely. 
The Cuarrman. Where does that appear in the estimates, the one 
you propose to promote? : : 
Professor Moorz. This is a new professor. You will find a little 
farther down on the page the $2,000 forecaster whom we propose to 
drop. 
: The Cuarrman. I am referring to the division, $2,750. 
Professor Moors. We ask for an additional professor at $3,000, and 
we cut out a district forecaster at $2,000. The $3,000 position will go 
to the chief forecaster of the Bureau, and the $2,500 to the chief of the 
river and flood service. 
The Cuatrman. Where have you estimated for him in the estimates? 
I see ‘one district forecaster, a decrease of one” ? 
Professor Moore. Just above that. 
The CuarrMan. That is the same as last year, with the increase of one? 
Professor Moore. Yes, sir. 
