The history of iron in the United States is most interesting. It shows that one by one many of the small districts were abandoned for the richer fields of the Lake Superior region, the Birmingham and Guernsey districts. The States that lost out in this change now realize that production may again return to their borders when the richer and larger deposits are exhausted. In consequence of this several States are beginning investigations looking to the future utilizing of low grade ores. At the smelters more than usual thought is given to the quality of output, making it more durable or otherwise better suited to the use for which it is intended. Experiments are under way for the purpose of testing out hydro-electric smelting in parts of California and other western States where the ore is distant from coal.
Much of the iron and steel conservation is directed by corporate interests in whom the ownership of ore and the development based thereon are definitely established.
WATER RESOURCES.
Dr. W. J. McGee, whose death we mourn, once said that “water is the prime necessity of life.” He also discussed its importance for drinking, in navigation, for power, and in the production from the soil of such materials as food and clothing.
The drinking water of the country and small towns is obtained principally from underground through wells and springs. A few States are trying to improve their domestic water supply by making sanitary surveys, noting the relation of the wells to drainage from lots, privies and other dangerous sources. Typhoid epidemics, due to sewage entering the water system, occurred in several towns. More than usual activity was manifest in making careful studies of streams in their relation to floods, drainage, power, sewage, water supplies and navigation. The Lakes and Rivers Commission of Illinois has gathered and published more data than other States in this line. The subject, “Navigation of Inland Waterways,” with special reference to the Mississippi and its “Lakes to the Gulf Route,” received new impetus principally because of its relation to the Panama Route. The Gulf States are now supported by Illinois especially in a campaign for larger attainments in this development.
Irrigation had a good year, especially so in the Rocky Mountain and Great Plains regions. The irrigation development is an important contributor to the larger industrial life of the whole country.
LAND AND SOIL.
The United States has vast areas of land of many kinds. The soil of this land is our greatest physical resource. Its fertility feeds the crops and is therefore of fundamental importance in agriculture and industrial development based thereon. Nevertheless, it is true that many disregard this great fact in their farm management. They conserve their own selfish interests and not the state. Just how to develop the State’s view point in land management is not known. The southern States, in co-operation with the United States Department of Agriculture, are making progress in the solution of this problem. In many places there, the farmers are showing rapid improvement in crop rotation and methods of cultivation.
In Texas and Florida, much of the wet alluvial land is being improved by drainage. The Levee and Drainage Board of Texas surveyed over 300,000 acres last year and constructed 100 miles of levees. Land valued at twenty dollars an acre became worth seventy-five dollars to one hundred dollars at a cost of thirty dollars per acre. Deep floods of the Mississippi River did great damage in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Kentucky, causing the Delta region to put forth a plea for National aid in draining the wet lands of the South. It does seem that their plea for support should not go unheeded when such a vast, fertile area lies unreclaimed.
Nearly every State is studying soil erosion, the tenant system and land taxation. Dr. E. N. Lowe, State Geologist of Mississippi, reports that his survey endeavored to secure the enactment of a law that would tend to check the great losses in the northern part of the State caused by soil erosion. The bill was opposed by a prominent senator on the ground that it would interfere with the personal rights of land owners. The bill did not pass, but Dr. Lowe is to conduct a campaign of education before the next Legislature is convened. The difference in viewpoint here shown, is the difference between the meaning of “legal” and “right.” Does any one have the right to ruin the land?