Show t 1 d f fd r jr d- d much nuch- drainage drainage as they are irrigation projects In the Klamath project I acres or more than half of the area of the total project is rich tule tub land covered by eight or ten feet of water and Is to be drained and converted con Into over a thousand farms The topographic branch of the Geological Geological Geo logical Survey of which the Reclamation tion Service is also a a. branch has already already al al- al ready run its lines over many of the great swamp areas of the eastern states and as soon as the bill becomes a law the Geological Survey Survey Sur Sur- vey engineers will be ready to launch out into Immediate activity In drainage drainage drain drain- age projects Would Start with a Million 1 Dollars The fund provided by the bill would be small as compared with the Irrigation irrigation gation gatlon fund fund It It would approximate half halt a million dollars a a. year and would start off oft with about the receipts receipts re re- from the sales for the fiscal fisca year year- 1905 being included Included but but on theother the the- theother other hand the cost of drainage would not be so great as that of or irrigation The importance of or this work of or wholesale drainage in order to provide provide provide pro- pro vide homes for the increased Minnesota Swam Land When Reclaimed Under the New NewBill NewBill Bill Will be Converted Con Into Mum Num crous erous Small Farms I I ja jaM M Reclaimed Recta med Swamp Land When Tickled by bythe bythe the Farmer Produces Abundant ant nt Crops tion Is scarcely second In Importance to the irrigation work It means that tens of millions of acres of or the most fertile ferUle land imaginable which has lain idle for ages may be converted from dismal and pestilential swamps and useless bogs unto highly prosperous prosper prosper- ous homes to become the garden spots of the nation The Dutch have reclaimed vast areas In Holland from front the encroachments encroach encroach- ments of the ocean Thousands of families live H and farm fa below ow sea sea level e J b. b A au eatS ats of bf engineering and persistence They now contemplate the drainage of the Zuyder Zee reclaiming some 1 1 additional acres of ot meadow land American drainage In most cases would be far more simple and less expensive it Is simply a a. question question question ques ques- tion as to whether the nation will seethe see seethe seethe the wisdom of setting its hand to this work Another nother Inland Empire In Florida the everglades alone alone alone-al- al almost most solid muck beds would beds would afford an empire of or some 7 million acres in New Jersey and Virginia are vast swamps among them the famous Dismal Dis mal Swamp In Illinois which is generally generally generally gen gen- regarded as a well settled agricultural agri agri- agricultural cultural state there are 4 million acres of swamp land in Michigan 1 there are nearly 6 million acres Fertile FerUle Iowa has has about about 2 million acres of swamp land In Minnesota there are almost 5 million acres of rich surveyed swamp swamplands swamplands swamplands lands and huge swamp areas not yet surveyed Arkansas has tremendous swamp areas which could be drained and made habitable and In all there is a swamp area In the eastern half of 1 the United States which is equal in extent ex cx- tent to the great agricultural states of Indiana Illinois and Iowa with three or four smaller eastern states thrown In If u the bill demonstrates that the government can transform I DRAINING SWAMP LANDS a. a swamps Into fertile ferUle farm land and that the settler or owner will pay payback payback payback back to the government the relatively small cost of the improvement there seems to be no reason why this work of creation of value out of worthless waste should not go on and provide homes for millions more of ot rural population |