16 bulletin 83. 
occasion when the Pondre river was very high and was carrying 
limbs, stumps, trunks of trees, etc., I had a sample of its water 
taken to determine the amount and composition of sediment that 
it would yield. I found that it yielded 0.213 per cent, of its 
weight. This was a surprising result for one would have judged 
it to have held much more matter suspended in it than is here 
designated. The compositon of this suspended matter was quite 
as much a matter of surprise, for except in moisture and organic 
matter it was not very unlike the soil to which it would have 
been applied if used for irrigation. 
The results of these examinations may surprise the reader 
but I am convinced that the facts are as these examinations show, 
i. e., that the sediments carried by the waters are small in amount 
and so .similar to the soils in composition that they cannot be con¬ 
sidered of such benefit as to make their application a matter to be 
.sought after. 
This view was more than sustained by the examination of a 
silt taken from a reservoir filled with flood water from the Arkan¬ 
sas river, which carried less phosphoric acid, potash, and nitrogen 
than our average quality of soil contains. 
