858 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
plus water that comes into the land, but it is also an effective means of 
removing the alkali, which is simply brought to the surface by this 
accumulation of soil water. 
Mr. Bows. I want to ask you before you get away into another 
heading, while it is on my mind, this question: Congress has recently 
passed the irrigation act, of which, of course, you are advised. Since 
the passage of that act, what is the necessity of this work that youare 
doing now and for this appropriation? That act turns over all the 
proceeds of the sale of the land to be applied to irrigation purposes. 
Mr. Mzap. No, it does not turn it over to be used for those pur- 
poses at all. That money is to be expended entirely in the location 
and construction of works. What we are doing is aiding the farmers 
under ditches already built to use water to better advantage. 
Mr. Bowrz. That act does not apply to your work at all? 
Mr. Meap. Not at all. It does not authorize expenditures for that 
purpose at all. That deals with unirrigated countries. It is not only 
a different field, but it occupies a different geographical territory. It 
deals with the country where irrigation does not prevail. We are 
dealing with it where it is an issue. 
. The Cuarrman. This deals more particularly with what you might 
call the agriculture of irrigation. 
Mr. Bow. Private ownership? 
Mr. Meap. Yes. 
Mr. Scott. Your view of it, I presume, would be that the fact that 
the country is going into the business on a very large scale renders 
your work all the more important? 
Mr. Meap. I think so. I think the Government has the same 
interest asa private individual in having farmers educated to use water 
to the best advantage. 
Mr. Bowie. Undoubtedly. I was just trying to gather the connec- 
tion between the two lines of work. 
Mr. Meap. When I come to speak about drainage I will come back 
to the arid region on the question of seepage. Drainage is a separate 
proposition. 
- Mr. Brooxs. And alkali? 
Mr. Mrap. Yes, sir. 
Mr. Brooks. Let me ask you one question there in regard to this 
private ownership. As I understand it, your work is the application 
of the water to the soil after it has been collected and stored by the 
Government in the larger reservoirs? 
Mr. Mrap. At the present time we are dealing, entirely with the 
water after it has been collected and stored by private individuals. 
We are dealing with the development that has already been accom- 
plished by the individuals. 
r Mr. BRGoKs, But that would be your relation to the Geological 
urvey ? 
Mr. Mrap. Yes, sir. 
Now, coming to the semiarid region, there is a great belt of country 
that extends from Canada down to almost the Gulf of Mexico, that 
lies between the boundaries where you can get crops by rainfall and 
where youcan not. That region happens to be one of the most fertile 
regions of the whole country, and one of the places which is most 
attractive to the farmer, because it is a broad-plains country, which is 
just suited to the plow and the reaper. In certain sections of the 
