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Calif.; Huntley, Mont.; Mitchell, Nebr.; Fallon, Nev.; Hermiston, Oreg.; Newell, S. Dak.; Prosser, Wash.

Agronomic investigations on irrigation projects. In cooperation with the Reclamation Bureau of the Department of the Interior and the experiment stations of the States concerned, field experiments are carried on to determine methods of improving conditions of crop production under irrigation for the benefit of the settlers on the reclamation projects. These investigations bear directly on some of the fundamental problems of crop production and crop utilization on the irrigated lands of the western United States. There is a steadily increasing dependence on experimental work of this character on the part of farmers in the irrigated regions and on the irrigation projects. (Bureau of Animal Industry, Bureau of Dairy Industry, and Bureau of Agricultural Engineering cooperating. Boron investigations.-Work under this project consists of investigations relating to injury caused by boron found in irrigation water supplies of central and southern California, and in western Nevada, seriously affecting citrus and deciduous orchards as well as several of the important field crops, and impairing the productivity of these lands. These investigations are making it possible to find the sources of boron contamination in irrigation supplies and thus in some cases to eliminate crop injury from that cause. Interest in these investigations is very keen, particularly in California.

Irrigation and ground water investigations:-Work under this project consists of analysis of water used for irrigation and recovered by drainage in order to anticipate the danger of crop injury and to determine the effectiveness of drainage works in prevention of salt accumulation in irrigated lands. These investigations are being conducted on three large irrigation projects, the El Paso, Yuma, and Imperial Valley, and in the south coastal basin in California. The results of the salt balance studies on the three projects named are being directly used by the project managers in the operation of their projects. The investigation in the south coastal basin bears directly on the operations of the various organizations of irrigation farmers in that area who are utilizing and replenishing the underground storage of irrigation water.

Limitation on purchase of passenger-carrying vehicles.-The language authorizing and limiting the expenditure for purchase of passenger carrying vehicles is submitted in connection with the total for the bureau in order to provide for consideration of this item at the same time the general estimates of the bureau are under consideration. The purchase authorization of the bureau from the general departmental authorization for 1933 is $21,650. The authorization for 1934, $13,200, therefore constitutes a reduction of $8,450.

This reduction of $16,295 is on account of the legislative furlough to the extent of $8,345; secondly, the $2,730 decrease under agronomic investigations on irrigation projects and $1,800 under boron investigations to be effected by a general reduction of travel and other expenditures and in the third place $3,420 of the decrease is due to general reduction in travel and other expenditures under the project of irrigation and ground water investigation. This work was undertaken at the request of the Interior Department looking toward the development of sounder and more economic agriculture on the Government reclamation projects. A number of projects were located where there was inadequate information regarding the soil and climatic conditions and the crops and cropping methods best suited to the regions. In certain instances they were locations which private enterprise had shunned, because the prospects were not too attractive from the standpoint of an investment.

Mr. HART. Don't you think the Government should have shunned it, too?

Doctor TAYLOR. In a number of cases we thought so then and we have not changed our views in the meantime. They are there, however, and the people are there, and excellent progress has been made in the solving of a number of the more important problems with which the settlers have been confronted so that the work continues. In a large measure the field work is at the field stations on these Government reclamation projects.

Mr. BUCHANAN. There are eight of them?

Doctor TAYLOR. Seven is the number, I believe.

Mr. HART. The farmers back in my territory object to paying taxes for the Government bringing in new lands when they are already overproducing. I think they are right. If there was a shortage of food, the general welfare of the country would justify it; but with an overproduction, the levying of more taxes for the purpose of bringing new lands into production can not, as I view it, be justified. Of course I do not know conditions out there. You can not abandon a lot of people after you have got them out there, but if there is any way a curtail of this item could be accomplished, it ought to be curtailed.

Mr. BUCHANAN. A great many of these reclamation projects were erected or constructed a long time ago.

Doctor TAYLOR. All of them.

Mr. HART. We have another one out there, or will have, after the Hoover Dam is completed.

Mr. BUCHANAN. A great many of them during the war were needed for production.

Doctor TAYLOR. Yes, sir; when these projects were constructed, we did not have an over abundance of some of these crops. There was a world market for surpluses then, so that while I have stated what our view was, there were others who did not agree and as a national policy the work was undertaken.

BORON IN IRRIGATION WATER

Now, additional to these localized projects upon the reclamation projects, we have two important lines under this subappropriation. One of those deals with the occurrence of boron in irrigation water, which was not recognized as harmful to plants until quite recently. Often it occurs in such very minute quantities that the water analyses did not take it into account. The determination of the presence of boron was difficult, and the proportion of it was so insignificant as compared to other components, that it was not considered worthy of taking into consideration even in drinking water or irrigation supplies. When, however, four or five years ago, large acreages of lemons and walnuts and more recently as studies have proceeded farther, some of the decidious fruits, such as peaches and grapes, were found to be suffering and the cause was traced to these very minute quantities of boron, the matter became serious. Investments were large and important districts were threatened with being wiped out of their production, and we then undertook a very thorough study of that subject, and that is what boron investigation means here.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Boron is not the substance that hardens the ground, is it?

Doctor TAYLOR. No; that is not the thing that causes the so-called alkali trouble, which is prevalent in some irrigated districts. Boron causes mottling of the leaf and a slowing down of growth, and productiveness and eventually the death of the trees and crops which are susceptible to these minute quantities. Some crops are not. Beans, in the California country, thrive under the same water, between the rows of walnut trees that are being killed by it.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Maybe, doctor, it is because it affects only those crops that live from year to year and develop from year to year until

a sufficient quantity accumulates in a tree to affect it? Maybe these annual crops are not affected by it.

Doctor TAYLOR. The annual crops eventually do break down as the excess accumulates in the soil or soil solution.

Mr. BUCHANAN. That is because of the accumulation in the ground? Doctor TAYLOR. One of the practical effects growing out of this work has been the locating of the contaminating springs and small streams which appear to be the sources of most of the boron content of the main irrigation canals. A certain hot spring which turns in a very small percentage of the total flowage of the reservoir or canal and carries a higher boron content has to be cut out and has to be replaced by an equal volume of good water in order to maintain the supply required for that canal to irrigate. But very great curative effects have already come out of this work in those particulars. In some cases, where the source of irrigation water is from wells, one well out of half a dozen which were all flowing into a particular canal for distribution, was found to carry the boron. They cut that one out and in some way get pure water to take its place.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Or maybe another well that has not that boron content in it?

Doctor TAYLOR. Yes; in the field of the tree fruits and nuts, another possibility that is quite likely, is locating suitable understocks which will stand more boron than the stocks now used.

Mr. BUCHANAN. It looks like they would give way too?

Doctor TAYLOR. That is the danger, but it is a highly important and financially important line of investigation.

Mr. BUCHANAN. What area does this cover?

BORON FIRST DISCOVERED IN CALIFORNIA

Doctor TAYLOR. The first discoveries were in the lemon and walnut sections of California and it was not known that any boron existed north of Tehachipi Range. More recently, further scouting and testing has disclosed that considerable areas, including portions of the San Joaquin Valley, have in recent years, lost their planted orchards. They were not able to account for it then, but it is now accounted for and found to be due to boron content of water. Still more recently in the Sacramento Valley, portions of that section were regarded as fertile and productive, have been found to contain contaminated water sources. In certain portions of Nevada, likewise.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Do you know how many projects this boron exists in?

How many irrigation projects, Government irrigation projects? Doctor TAYLOR. So far as known the Newlands project is the only This one is the only one. Most of this trouble has developed outside the Government reclamation projects.

one.

SALT ACCUMULATION IN SOIL PRODUCES HARDNESS

Mr. BUCHANAN. Did you ever find the source of that hardening substance that produced hardness in the soil?

Doctor KELLERMAN. It was the result of accumulation of sodium salt from irrigation with water very low in lime.

Mr. BUCHANAN. That was from borax, was it not?

Doctor KELLERMAN. No; you never get borax in that concentration.

Mr. BUCHANAN. What was it?

Doctor KELLERMAN. It will happen from either common salt, sodium sulphate, or sodium bicarbonate, if the water is soft.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Some years ago we had an irrigation project on which the irrigation water would harden the ground so that you could not plow it.

Doctor KELLERMAN. That has been occurring in the southern portion of the San Joaquin Valley in California, the Gila and Salt River Valleys of Arizona, and the Newlands irrigation project of Nevada. These conditions may be improved by occasional heavy irrigations and drainage of the excess salts.

Mr. BUCHANAN. I should think if salt existed in sufficient quantity to harden the ground, it would kill the vegetation.

SALT HARDENING OF SOIL CURED BY RINSING SOIL

Doctor KELLERMAN. No; you can get the hardening result from these salt accumulations that will not hurt the plants. If the salt in the irrigation water is composed almost entirely of sodium salts, the ground will harden long before the total quantity of salt in the soil is sufficient to injure plant growth. If the irrigation water contains salts of lime and magnesium as well as sodium, hardening of the soil will not occur although eventually the accumulation of all the salts may be sufficient to injure or prevent plant growth. The general salt problem is of much larger extent than the boron problem. In the effort to save water, if each year they use just enough water to make a crop, the excess salt remains in the land and accumulates from year to year. Every few years in these slightly salty waters where they are used for irrigation, it is desirable to apply a very heavy irrigation for the purpose of rinsing the excess salt out, that irrigation water is largely wasted as it is used more for soil rinsing than for growing a crop, and if irrigation is handled that way we believe that one of the most serious difficulties in maintaining the productivity of our irrigated lands will be eliminated.

Doctor TAYLOR. That is the work that is done on reclamation projects. You see, on the reclamation projects, until the farmers and settlers take over the full operation of the district, the Reclamation Service maintains its supervision and distribution of water and their people act, in a measure, as advisors of the farmers with reference to many things. Our cooperation with the Reclamation Service does. not cost the Department of Agriculture any money. Our work is the experimentation and determination of the crops that can be grown and how to grow them most effectively. Possibly you may have in mind there the item of demonstrations on reclamation projects, which, up to some years ago, was carried in the Bureau of Plant Industry, but this is now a feature of the extension service, and there is cooperation there in that. But that has no fiscal relation to the Bureau of Plant Industry.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Do you know what part, if any, of this sum, is diverted for use in the distribution of water?

PURCHASE OF AUTOMOBILES

Doctor TAYLOR. Under the limitation on the purchase of passenger carrying vehicles, which, in 1933, was set at $21,650, we show a reduction of $8,450.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Well, will all of this be used for the purchase of new cars, or will some of it be used in the purchase of new cars through exchanges?

Doctor TAYLOR. Some of it will be used for exchange cars; where the car gets too old for economical operation, it is found advisable to exchange them for new ones.

Mr. BUCHANAN. But not any of this is used for exchanges?
Doctor TAYLOR. No, sir.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1932.

FOREST SERVICE

STATEMENT OF MAJ. R. Y. STUART, CHIEF FORESTER

Mr. BUCHANAN. We will take up next the estimates for the Forest Service.

GENERAL STATEMENT

Major Stuart, have you some general statement you want to make? Major STUART. Yes, sir; if I may.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Well, proceed.

Major STUART. The committee will notice in connection with the appropriation items as a whole, that the reductions made apply to practically all of our items. The reason for that is in order that we can continue a well-balanced program, our items being so closely interrelated.

In summary it amounts to this, that every effort is being made within the limitations of the funds provided to afford reasonable protection to our forests from fire and to conduct the other work essential to the national forest enterprise and the other duties required of the Forest Service by congressional act. The work to be done therefore admittedly has its limitations, particularly as the budget carries reductions in those funds, such as for roads and trails and other capital investments, which ordinarily furnish employment which is auxiliary to our forest protection force.

There is one item of increase to which I should like to call your attention in this connection, to be discussed in more detail later, namely, that of forest planting. This increase would simply put us in a position where we could use the stock that has accumulated in our nurseries during the past year, which will otherwise have to be destroyed, such accumulation having been occasioned by the reduced appropriation for forest planting for the current year.

It will be helpful also to bear in mind in considering the appropriation for the Forest Service that there is no intent to approach National Forest work or other Forest Service activities form the standpoint of unemployment except as it may be involved in the employment of personnel needed to carry on the absolutely essential National Forest work and to meet our prescribed obligations.

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