IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCE 
155 
a gravity outlet through the sub-soils into streams ; the further fact that 
these streams do not exist, we are again thrown back upon the problem 
of creating an outlet for these waters and controlling them in their pas- 
sa-ge to the main river channels. The reclamation service engineer, whom 
we can imagine with us in the balloon car, hitherto silent, speaks up, 
Avith the suggestion : 
‘ ‘ Save these Avaters and dam them in reservoirs, Avhere they can be fed 
off to irriate your lands in times of drouth, can be utilized for Avater 
power, Avith electric transmission, to control rapid transit, your manufac- 
turing and your domestic needs.” 
Drop again to earth, Avhere you can see things on the level, and search 
for valleys in the mountains, deep river channels, great lakes: or canyons 
where Avaters can be stored. They cannot be found. There is truth in 
the suggestions of the reclamation service engineer, AAmich may be worked 
out, but it is so remote as a practical possibility that it is out of the ques- 
tion at this period of industrial and agricultural development in this neAV 
section of our country. 
If Ave can secure the desired result of storing and feeding the Avaters 
gradually to the viyer, Ave have overcome the flood, Ave have gained the 
point the forester urges, Ave have accomplished the desires of the drain- 
age engineer, proAAided Ave do not need to overflow or submerge valuable 
lands in order to do this. It may be AA^ell, for a moment' AAfliile Ave are 
still on earth, to examine a feAV j)eculiar looking Spots AAfliich Ave noted 
from the balloon car. This black splotch over in Kossuth County is the 
unexpected result of one drainage ditch, running into Kossuth County 
from Winnebago County. This drainage ditch cost $86,000. Let me 
mention, in passing, that this $86,000 is approximately one-flA^e hun- 
dredth part of the total probable public drainage AAfliich Avill be con- 
structed in the tAA^enty-flve or thirty counties. This big black splotch 
upon the landscape Ave And, on close inspection, to be a deposit of fine, 
rich, black alluvial soil, av ashed from the surface of some of the richest 
land in loAva, into an open drainage ditch and carried to the outlet, Avliich 
fortunately happened to be upon an ancient river terrace, permitting 
the sedimentation of the ditch Avater load upon the river flats. Accord- 
ing to the engineer’s and the county supervisors’ estimates, 160 acres of 
land have been coA^ered Avith material carried by this one drainage ditch, 
to a depth averaging tAvo feet, since the completion of the ditch in June 
of 1908. Let us arise again in the balloon car and look at these thirty 
counties and imagine 350 such -splotches upon the surface of thirty 
counties — more than ten to a county. Ten quarter sections of the rich- 
est of loAva lands being carried aAA^ay annually. Industrially, could aa^c 
