83 
There is no country where drainage problems arc as important as in the United 
States. The swamp and overflowed lands of this country if reclaimed will equal in 
productive capacity practically the whole of France, yet the problems of drainage 
and diking, on which their successful reclamation depends, have as yet received hut 
little study, and the practice in both directions is susceptible' of great improvement. 
The construction of country roads is an essential feature of rural engineering. The 
great extent of our country, its recent settlement, and the necessity for extensive 
improvements in those directions make it an important factor in the work of the 
Department of Agriculture. The necessity for improvements in roads has been 
referred to above, bnt the study of the character of these improvements involves also 
a study of the kind of machines and vehicles that are to travel on them. Along with 
the study of road making should go a study of the limitations and requirements of 
traction engines, automobiles, and all of the new forms of transportation which are 
becoming an essential factor of American farm life. The relation of the problems of 
farm machinery to irrigation and drainage has already been shown by the necessity 
of including in these investigations a study of the applications of power to pumping, 
because pumping is the only means of supplying water for irrigation in certain dis- 
tricts and an essential means of removing water from over "rrigated lands in others. 
The study of pumping has, of necessity, led to a study of the relative economy and 
effectiveness of different forms of power for the operation of pumps. There is equal 
need of similar studies of the applications of the different forms of power, whether 
steam, gasoline, electricity, water, or wind power in the other branches of farm work, 
and these are being brought home each year with increasing force to both the manu- 
facturers and users of farm machinery. "We believe, therefore, that all these related 
lines of work should be brought together in the Department of Agriculture in a single 
bureau, exactly as all the related lines of instruction in these subjects should be 
brought together in one distinct course in our college-. 
The necessity for increased attention to those subjects has been recognized by both 
the Secretary of Agriculture and the Director of the Office of Experiment Stations. 
Doctor True has recommended that the name "irrigation investigations'' be changed 
to " irrigation and agricultural engineering" in order to more correctly indicate the 
nature of the work being done, and the Secretary of Agriculture, on the recommenda- 
tion of Doctor True, has included in his estimates to C mgress a request for this change 
and for an increase'! appropriation to be expended in making investigations in the 
applications of power to farm machinery, the direction of these inquiries, as indi- 
cated in Doctor True's report, to be: 
"(1) Preliminary work in the collection and publication of information regarding 
the evolution, character, and uses of farm implements and machinery in this and 
other countries. This is important because the available literature on the subject is 
scattered, fragmentary, and out of date. A small beginning has just been made in 
this direction in a bulletin on The Evolution of Reaping Machines, recently pub- 
lished by this Office, and another bulletin describing corn-harvesting machinery, 
which is being prepared. 
"(2) Laboratory and practical tests, involving a study of principles of construction 
and methods of operation of farm implements and machinery with special reference 
to efficiency and economy. These might very properly include certain strictly tech- 
nical inquiries regarding the fundamental nature of the various mechanical farm 
operations with a view to suggesting the best means of performing them with the 
implements and machines at present available, or with others, the construction of 
which will be indicated by the results of the inquiries. Such inquiries would require 
considerable laboratory equipment, but the results obtained would be useful to the 
farmer by securing for him the most efficient implement or machine for performing 
the desired operation, and to the manufacturer by assisting him in the construction 
of the desired implements and machines."' 
This committee recommends that the association declare itself in favor of the crea- 
tion of separate departments of rural engineering in the colleges, that it give its 
hearty support to the efforts of the Secretary of Agriculture to extend the work of 
his Department along these lines, and that the executive committee be instructed to 
urge upon Congress the importance of giving the Department liberal appropriations 
for these purposes. 
AY. E. Stone. 
A. R. Whetson, 
Samuel Forties, 
C. F. Curtiss, 
Elwood Mead, 
Committee, 
The report was received. 
