and while that rests in part upon the treaty-making power it, nevertheless, indicates that the Supreme Court would be quite certain to sustain an act which has such a practical application to the wants of the people as the one you are now considering.

Cordially yours,

JOHN BARTON PAYNE.

STATEMENT OF MR. W. G. BAKER, SOILS SECTION, IOWA
EXPERIMENT STATION, AMES, IOWA.

Mr. BAKER. Some drainage districts 30 miles below Rock Island, Ill., located at Muscatine, Iowa, offer some splendid examples in trying to drain the bottom lands of the Upper Mississippi River.

The levees broke in this district in 1916 and 1920. Crops were a total failure in 1916, and almost as bad in 1920. Besides weed seeds and cut worms were brought in and flooded over the farms.

Drainage district No. 13 was installed south of Muscatine in 1916. From this area I wish to show the taxes on two farms. These farms are chosen because the soils are similar to that found in the Upper Mississippi River bottoms. One is a sandy soil and the other a rich bottom-land soil. There are other farms which might offer higher

tax assessments.

The tax assessments are taken from the county auditor's and county treasurer's books and do not include county or State taxes on these farms.

The farm representing the rich bottom land soil is known as the Kirk Milnes farm and comprises 240 acres. Mr. Milnes paid $150 per acre. Three parties owned the farm during a short period before he purchased it, and they may be classed as speculators. Mr. Milnes was formally a well-to-do upland farmer, who thought he saw a good chance in a bottom-land soil. A description of the property is, as follows.

SE. of SW. sec. 12, 40 acres; SW. of SW. sec. 12, 40 acres; NW. of NW. Sec. 13, 40 acres; NE. of NW. sec. 13, 40 acres; SE. of NE. sec. 14, 40 acres; SW. of NE. sec. 14. 40 acres; all in township 76. Muscatine County, Iowa. Drainage and levee taxes are as follows:

The following bond issues are levied over the property during the following years:

The total taxes levied against property since 1917 are as flolows:

Over $25,000 taxes means that there is at present over $100 against this farm for drainage and levee improvement. The drainage maintenance tax will not become less from year to year; if anything, it will become greater.

Taxes were sold on this farm for 1921, 1922, and 1923. A farm adjacent to this farm recently sold for $125 per acre.

The farm representing the Sandy type of soil found in river bottoms is the David Webster farm. Mr. Webster always made a good living off this farm and his son continued to do the same after Mr. Webster retired. The farm consists of 300 acres and was sold in 1920 for $90 per acre.

A farm adjacent to this farm, farm, recently sold for $75 per better farm than Mr. Webster's. 1917) is as follows:

and known as the George Ewing acre. This farm is considered a A description of the farm (year

W. Pt. N of Rd. NW. of SW. sec. 19, 19 acres, Fruitland Township, Muscatine County, Iowa; Pt. NW. of Rd. SW. of SW. sec. 19, 2 acres, Fruitland Township, Muscatine County, Iowa; NW. of SE. sec 24, 40 acres; Ex. Rd. NE. of SE. sec. 24, 39 acres; Pt. W. of Rd. SE. of SE. sec 24, 19 acres; Pt. NE. of Rd. E.SE. of SE. sec. 24, 9.51 acres; lot 2, sec. 24, 39.38 acres; lot 3, sec 24, 77.11 acres; lot 4, sec. 24, 55.50 acres; Pt. NW. Rd. NE. of NE. sec. 25, 2 acres.

The total taxes levied against this property since 1917 are as follows:

Over $11,000, or $37 per acre in taxes, has been levied against this sandy farm of 300 acres. The drainage and levee maintenance taxes will also be due each year for the future farmer owning this property to pay.

The taxes were sold on this farm for 1921, 1922, and 1923. Farmers state that this farm, like many other farms, have been injured by lowering the water table and droughty conditions prevail which injure the crops. The well points have been lowered 3 to 6 feet deeper for irrigation. One farmer expressed himself, as follows: "I have four taxes to pay-my regular taxes, my drainage taxes, my levee taxes, and my irrigation pumping taxes.'

The State of Iowa owns approximately 1,000 acres in former Lakes Odessa and Keokuk. The Secretary of State has offered these lands for sale for the taxes against them, but received no bids. The State legislature in 1923 appropriated $75,000 toward paying back assessments. The United States Government has paid $232,000 on recent levees in district No. 13 which is not assessed against the drainage district.

The Rayburn farm of 800 acres across the river from Muscatine recently sold as follows: 400 acres at 84, 400 acres at $104. There was around $40 back taxes which was deducted from the bill of sale. The man who tiled this farm stated Mr. Rayburn had paid $60 an acre for tiling on most of this farm.

The books of the city water commissioner at Muscatine were examined to determine the time of flood stages. Practically all flood stages are in the spring of the year and either interfere with putting in the crop or drowning it out after planted. The 10-foot stage is when seepage water occurs inside of the levees. The following riser stages show the periods of the year when the flood stage is over 10 feet in height-from 1907 to 1923:

1907. April 3 to May 1; July 11 to July 19.

1908. May 10 to July 28.

1909. April 17 to June 4.

1912. May 21 to June 11.

1913. March 17 to April 8.

1914. June 19 to June 26; July 9 to July 22.

1915. February 20 to February 28; April 22 to April 27; June 1 to June 10; August 5 to August 11.

1916. January 24 to February 5; March 28 to June 30.

1917. March 30 to May 20.

1918. March 22 to April 8; June 7 to June 22.

1919. March 18 to May 18.

1920. March 27 to May 2. 1922. April 8 to May 10.

1923. April 6 to April 12.

The drainage areas below Muscatine offer a much easier proposition for drainage than the riser bottoms of the upper Mississippi.

First. The Mississippi River Commission show the elevations by contour lines to be from 5 to 20 feet above the water level, while the upper Mississippi is only 5 feet above the river level.

Second. A settled community occurs in this area with homes, farm buildings, schools, bridges, and public roads, while the upper Mississippi bottom lands do not have these improvements.

Third. The farms are chiefly assessed for partial benefits, while the upper Mississippi River bottoms would be assessed for total benefits. Fourth. Not much clearing of timber or tilling of land was necessary in this area, while much would be needed in the upper Mississippi.

The upper Mississippi bottom lands from 15 miles north of Rock Island northward are much different geologically than the river bottoms southward.

Soil boring and well-water boring made in these bottom lands find gravel or sand underlying the present covering of silt or clay. All bottom land through this gorge are first bottoms, subject to overflow, except for a few narrow terraces scattered along some of the bluffs.

Geologists tell us the most recent geological disturbance of much consequence was around 20,000 years ago, when flood waters from the Wisconsin glacier swept through this area. The Wisconsin glacier was the last glacier of the Pleistocene period. Although it did not override this immediate area, lobes from the glacier entered Iowa on the west and Wisconsin on the east.

The Mississippi was located between these two lobes in such a position that all the flood waters either entered it directly or from its tributaries. Immense volumes of ice were melted during the advancing and receding of this glacier and flooded into the Mississippi River. The flood stage reached such a height that it cut a steep-sided, flat-bottomed gorge through this section 600 feet deep, 400 feet above the present stream level, and 100 to 200 feet through the bedrock below the present stream level.

The Wisconsin glacier reworked its load quite extensively and ground up much of its rock into gravel and sand. The transporting power of a stream is great, especially during such flood times as caused by these large glaciers of ice and snow. Every time the velocity is doubled the carrying power of the stream is increased 64 times. This means that if a stream is just able to move a stone a stream with double that velocity will be able to move a stone of the same shape 64 times as large. In this way streams flowing out from the glacier were able to carry away much coarse material. When the flood waters commenced to subside the velocity of the river slowed down and deposition begun. A stream always unloads its heavier materials as gravels first and carries the finer materials of sand and silt along until the waters are subsided. In this way the gravels were deposited on the rock floor of the upper Mississippi in this section and the finer materials as silts, clays, and colloids were scattered in like manner along the flood plains to the Gulf of Mexico.

With this information at hand it is quite evident that there are from 100 to 200 feet of gravels underlying the entire bottoms of the upper Mississippi River. Any rise of water in the Mississippi River is immediately felt throughout the bottom lands, because the

water will flow through this underlying strata of gravel readily and seek the same level as the main stream of the river.

If levees are constructed to stop overflow from the river the same weight or pressure of water pulling downward on the outside of the levee will be pushing upward inside of the levee. In the upper Mississippi River bottoms under the present system of diking nothing can stop this inflow of water under the levee into the area inside, unless some method can be devised to close up the gravel for 150 to 200 feet below the levee to the bedrock below.

Another important problem in the upper Mississippi River bottoms is the amount of run-off from the adjoining bluffs and valleys caused by sheet water during sudden precipitations of rain.

The surrounding topography is mature. The uplands are hilly, well drained, and well dissected by streams. In almost every square mile there is more than 100 feet of relief or fall. The streams have V-shaped gorges and little basin room for water. There is only a shallow mantle of soil covering the upland as the soil has been eroded from the sides of hills and bluffs and exposes the limestone rock. All these factors provide for a rapid run-off of water from the adjoining countries of Iowa and Wisconsin surrounding this upper Mississippi area. During a sudden downpour of rain the larger streams break out through the narrow gorges while the smaller streams leap down the precipitous ledges or valley walls. The two streams together inundating the Mississippi bottom lands. This run-off water will be slow in leaving the bottom lands because the slope of the river is two inches per mile as shown by Government River Commission reports.

The banks of a river, slough, or old river channels viewed from the stream appear to have quite a high bank when in reality a natural levee has been constructed on the bank and the area behind the bank is still under the water. A natural levee is caused at flood time when a stream overflows its banks. The immediate bank is the site of active deposition, for it is here that the velocity of the overflowing water is first notably checked. On the banks of a stream, therefore, low alluvial ridges called natural levees are built up. They may be narrow or hundreds of feet in width, and are often several feet above the area behind them, giving the latter a slope away from the channel of the stream. It is noted that there are many natural levees along the old channels of the upper Mississippi River bottoms, with lakes or areas under water behind them. These natural levees make a river bottom appear to have more land above the normal river level than what actually occurs.

STATEMENT OF MR. R. S. SMITH, CHIEF ILLINOIS SOIL SURVEY.

Mr. SMITH. The overflow land of the Mississippi bottom, in Illinois, not including terrace or bench land which rarely overflows, from Rock Island to the northern boundary of the State comprises approximately 42 square miles or 26,880 acres.

The following table indicates the general location of this land and something of its agricultural value. By the term "good" is meant land which, if effectively drained would compare favorably with the cropped land of the region in productivity. By the term