The reclamation of Utah by the Mormons.

The development of the Imperial Valley of California.

The laws regulating the use of water for irrigation in your state (if an irrigated state).

The swamp areas in your locality or state.  Progress made in their reclamation.

The reclamation of swamp or marshy land on particular farms of your locality.

The extent of idle cut-over land in your locality, why it is idle, the uses to which it could be put if reclaimed.

CONSERVATION OF WATER POWER

By the construction of dams, reservoirs, and canals the waters of a few of our streams are turned to the work of reclaiming land.  Our unused water resources are very great.  Niagara Falls have been harnessed for industrial uses, and with only a small part of their power in use they light the streets and houses, run the street cars, and turn the wheels of industry in Buffalo and Toronto and the neighboring region.  But so far we are making use of less than 10 per cent of the power easily available from our streams.  “The water now flowing idly from our hills to the sea could turn every factory wheel and every electric generator, operate our railroads, and still leave much energy to spare for new developments.” [Footnote:  Arthur D. Little, “Developing the Estate,” Atlantic monthly, March, 1919, p. 388.] It is probably not too much to expect that when our undeveloped water power is utilized it will provide electric light and power for every farm in the land.  Our nation has allowed many of the best water power sites of the country to fall into the hands of private speculators who hold them undeveloped, as in the case of farmlands, forests, and other resources.

CONSERVATION OF FLOOD WATERS

Floods are not only immensely destructive of property, causing a loss of $100,000,000 along the Mississippi River alone in a single year, but they carry to the sea water that might be used for irrigation and for industry.  Reservoirs, such as are built for irrigating projects, regulate the flow of water in streams and prevent floods.  In New England and New York reservoirs have been built for this very purpose, and probably 10 per cent of the flood waters that originate in these states is saved in this way and turned to industrial uses.  Similar conservation of flood waters occurs in Minnesota, but it is estimated that for the country as a whole not more than one per cent of the flood waters is saved. [Footnote:  “Conservation of Water Resources,” Water Supply Paper 234, U.S.  Geological Survey, 1919.] There are areas in which the reservoir system is impracticable, as in the lower Mississippi Valley.  Here all that can be done is to protect the adjacent land by means of levees while controlling the floods farther up the valley.

FUEL RESOURCES