‘DISCUSSION : FORESTS, RESERVOIRS, AND STREAM FLOW 429 
part of this great river. Fourthly, its directly beneficial effect in the Mr. Pickett. 
construction of that grand work “The Lakes to Gulf Waterway,” a 
work of such national importance that the public already appears to 
have decided that it shall be constructed. 
Once confine the channel of this mighty river to fixed bounds, by 
such works as the River Commission has devised, and the solution of 
the problem would seem to be easy. The writer believes that there 
has always been a navigable depth of 5 ft. over the bars below Cairo. 
It is understood that by certain works to confine the channel, and by 
vigorous dredging, the Mississippi River Commission will be enabled 
to increase this depth to 10 ft. It would seem that by using all the 
appliances of modern engineering, and by forcing the river to assist 
in scouring out its channel, the additional cost of increasing the 
depth to 14 or 16 ft. would be inconsiderable when compared with 
the immense benefit to be derived by the commerce of the nation. 
The essential part of the problem is the prevention of the merging 
of the spring floods of the Ohio with the June rise of the Missouri. 
That being accomplished, the third and fourth problems are easily 
solved, as far as engineering questions are involved. 
As to the benefits from irrigation to be derived by the arid belt 
by this reforesting, the writer, from personal knowledge of the lands 
to be reclaimed, is confident that every gallon of water that may go 
to waste during the irrigating season could be used beneficially in the 
various parts of the belt. ; 
The financial benefit to the nation, together with increased popu- 
lation and numerous other advantages, will make it certain that within 
a reasonable time every acre of this part of the arid belt, susceptible 
of crops, below an elevation of 6500 ft., will be brought under culti- 
vation. 
According to a report of Elwood Mead, M. Am. Soe. C. E., in regard 
to irrigating works in the valley of the Po, in Northern Italy, that 
kingdom has expended millions of dollars in the construction of 
immense dams, reservoirs, and ditches for irrigation. The annual 
rainfall of that valley is about 48 in., or slightly more than that in 
the valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi. When a nation like 
Italy can afford to expend millions on a part of that kingdom in which 
the rainfall is greater than in the States east of the Missouri, this 
great and wealthy nation will certainly, within a seasonable time, re- 
claim this extensive arid belt which, 60 or 70 years ago, was called 
“The Great American Desert” and was believed by some statesmen 
to be the western boundary of the country, as fixed by Nature. 
In October, 1908, when in Montana and Northern Wyoming, the 
writer investigated the value of the lands in the arid belt when brought 
under the influence of irrigation and when there was a ready sale for 
the products of the soil. In Billings, Montana, in connection by rail 
