As showing what may be accomplished by irrigation, the report of the last census says: "The construction of large irrigation works on the Platte, Yellowstone and Arkansas Rivers would render fertile an area equal to that of some eastern states. Engineers are grappling with the great problems of conserving the flood waters of these streams, which now are wasted and help to increase the destructive floods of the Mississippi. The solving of these problems will change a vast area of country, now practically worthless, into valuable farms." The "Great Bend" country, drained by the Columbia River, contains several million acres of land which only requires water to make it of great agricultural value. The Gila River basin contains more than 10,000,000 acres of fertile land, capable of producing immense crops if irrigated, but without irrigation it is a desert land where only sage-brush and cactus flourish. From arid lands capable of producing excellent crops but lacking in the magical element of water, we pass to the consideration of lands where the richest of soils are shut off from productiveness because they are covered with water. On the lower Mississippi the soil is richer than in any other part of the United States, but much of it is overflowed so frequently that it is unfit for cultivation. Dykes and levees have reclaimed thousands of acres of such overflow land. Many states control large marshy sections that have been or may be reclaimed. In southern Florida lie the Everglades, a vast country which has been worse than valueless; a malarial region abounding in alligators, rattlesnakes, scorpions and other dangerous animals and insects. The state of Florida has undertaken the work of draining this great swamp, and when the task is completed, Florida will have added to its resources 3,000,000 acres of the richest soil for the raising of winter vegetables and fruits. Florida is engaged in another great project--the digging of an inside passage connecting its inland tidal waters by a canal system which will open to navigation a continuous inland waterway six hundred miles in length. In digging these canals through the marshes bordering the coast, thousands of acres of exceedingly fertile land have been reclaimed and are now producing valuable crops. The Kankakee marshes in Indiana have been drained, adding many thousands of acres of rich soil to the agricultural area of the state. In all, about 80,000,000 acres are so wet that they must be drained in order to make them produce good farm crops, but which, while now covered only with marsh grass or undergrowth, is capable of being made the most fertile of all land. This swamp land is ten times the area of Holland, which supports a population of 5,000,000 people. It is therefore easy to see how greatly we may add to our productive territory and our national wealth by reclamation through drainage.