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 $50 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 the necessary field ditches. Hence, 
in some places the total cost of putting the land into profitable culti- 
vation may be as high as $50 per acre. The success that has attended 
drainage of this character is awakening the interest of those in many 
parts of the United States who own valley lands subject to overflow; 
