House, and in support of Mr. Cooley's views with reference to the importance of revetments as a means of maintaining the navigability of the Mississippi River, append to Mr. Cooley's statement a communication from Maj. T. G. Dabney, which was presented to him at a hearing of the Committee on Rivers and Harbors of the House on December 3 and 4, 1913.

I will also add, with the consent of the chairman, statements of Mr. Lyman E. Cooley (Appendix B), Mr. George H. Maxwell (Appendix C), and myself (Appendix D), upon the subject of river regulation and food control, and ask that they may be printed as an appendix to this hearing.

The CHAIRMAN. It is so ordered.

(The statements referred to will be found printed in full as follows: Appendix B on page 75, Appendix C on page 105, Appendix D on page 141.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will now adjourn.

Thereupon, at 5 o'clock p. m., the committee adjourned subject to the call of the chairman.

APPENDIX B.

STATEMENT OF THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF SOILS.

SOIL INVESTIGATIONS IN RELATION TO CONTROL OF FLOOD WATERS.

A flood condition presages the precipitation of water more rapidly than the soil is able to absorb it, and the consequent accumulation of excess water into sheets, rivulets, and streams. The amount and rate of surface run-off is influenced by a number of soils factors, such as the physical character and condition of the soil, the slope, and the vegetal covering. Certain soils under excessive rainfall show marked susceptibility to erosion. Streams flowing through regions containing such soils may carry a heavy burden of silt and debris. Erosive material from some soils will carry farther than from other soils. Erosive material will carry farther in some waters than in other waters.

A soil survey of the watershed, accompanied as it is by laboratory investigations, would reveal the physical character and condition of the soil, showing the texture and structure of the soil, would indicate the presence of hardpan, would show the absorptive capacity of the soil for water, the character of the vegetal covering, the susceptibility to erosion, and would indicate the drainage and topography of the country. This data would indicate the relative capacity of the different soil types for furnishing a reservoir for rain, would reveal the areas of excessive erosibility, and would indicate the needs and remedial measures required to put the different soil types into the best possible condition for the ready absorption of the rainfall and to prevent as far as possible excessive amounts of water and of silt material from finding their way into the streams and rivers.

Methods of control through soil management and by soil cover of flood waters and of the silting of streams differ with the character of the soil, the topography, and the use to be made of the soil. Wild areas or areas not now being utilized for crop production should be kept in forest or in grasses for hay or grazing purposes. If peculiarly susceptible to erosion special treatment may have to be followed to secure the desired needs. Steep slopes should not be cleared of native growth without due consideration to the results that are likely to follow. Steep slopes that are now without sufficient native cover may require intelligent planting.

The treatment of cultivated areas where the slope is great or where the soil is not naturally sufficiently absorptive of water should be planned with reference to the possible injury from flood and to the possible excessive erosion of the soil under flood conditions. Continued clean cultivation over large areas is notoriously conducive to erosion. The introduction of cover crops, particularly winter cover crops, is desirable and often necessary to make the soils more absorb

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ent and to prevent excessive erosion. The method of contour farming is a fundamental necessity on certain soil types having only moderate degree of slope. On certain soils care should be taken with the first evidence of erosion to use brush or stone obstructions to prevent the formation of new and excessive drainage ways. The use of land near the streams for hay or pasture rather than for cultivated crops to form a catch basin is indicated.

There is a great deal of evidence to show that without intelligent care in the handling of soils and of the soil cover that flood damage and the silting of streams is increased and, conversely, that with careful and intelligent handling of the soil and of the soil cover that the damage from these causes may be greatly reduced.

State and municipal governments under State laws regulate and control the drainage districts of their water supply for domestic purposes. The Federal Government, through the Office of Engineers, already controls many mining operations, the building of bridges, wharves, jetties, and all artificial operations of like character to prevent the excessive silting of streams, and it is at least conceivable that such supervision might very well be exercised in the interest of the general good where farming operations are known to be unfavorable to the control of flood waters or to the excessive silting of streams and rivers.

APPENDIX C.

STATEMENT OF MR. LYMAN E. COOLEY, OF CHICAGO, ILL., BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON FLOOD CONTROL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Mr. COOLEY. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I came to Washington on the most innocent mission in the world, and found myself conscripted for this hearing without proper or adequate preparedness. I would have been glad, in justice to the committee, to the subject, and to myself, to have spent two or three weeks in indexing my mind and refreshing my memory in regard to the particular matters which I am called upon to speak to you about. Something has been said about my achievements. I do not know whether the speaker mentioned the matter seriously; he probably expects me to submit the proofs, rather than to admit it.

I graduated at the Polytechnic School at Troy, N. Y., in 1874, with the degree of civil engineer, and have been in the practice of my profession 42 years. Last year I was honored with the degree of doctor of engineering by the University of Michigan for special research and achievements in the domain of our water assets.

During my lifetime I have been professionally identified with every division and section of a waterway from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, and to New York Bay, and also with problems relating to many of the tributaries of such a trunk waterway.

On the eastern part of the route, in connection with the Great Lakes, I made a study as early as 1888 and 1889 in relation to the proposed diversion at Chicago. In 1896 and 1897 I was on the International Waterways Commission, which compiled and brought together all the information in regard to routes leading from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic seaboard, our instructions being to consider the effect upon the transportation interests of the country of extending ocean navigation to the head of the Great Lakes and making them virtually arms of the sea.

In 1898 I was the advisory engineer of the investigating committee on the canals of New York, and became personally familiar with the water system of New York State, representing some 700 miles of internal waterway development.

Within the last four or five years I have had occasion to review for the city of Chicago and the sanitary district of Chicago, in an elaborate report, the problems of the Lakes as sources of supply for low-water navigation on the Illinois River and the Mississippi River in connection with the diversion at Chicago. I have also been one of the leading experts in the Federal courts upon that subject.

Coming to the other division of the route, I was for six years connected with the Missouri River work, with assignments on the Mis

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