Topographic surveys.-The new area mapped during the year was 10,068 square miles, making the total area mapped in the United States at the end of the fiscal year 1,289,958 square miles, or 42.6 per cent of the country. In connection with these surveys, 4,206 linear miles of primary and precise levels were run and 1,420 permanent bench marks were established. Primary traverse lines, aggregating 4,217 miles, were run, in connection with which 611 permanent bench marks were set. Triangulation stations numbering 61 were occupied and 50 were permanently marked. In addition to 82 topographic maps and 69 accompanying tracings showing military information, a large wall map of the world was prepared for the use of the Shipping Board. Detachments of enlisted men of the Four hundred and seventysecond Engineers, who were detailed to the Geological Survey for training in topographic-map drafting, assisted in drafting military maps in the office of the survey or were assigned to similar duty in other offices. In all, about 100 men reported for instruction. Water resources.-Investigations of stream flow were continued by means of more than 1,200 gaging stations maintained in 38 States and in Hawaii and Alaska, and investigations of ground water were made in 12 States. Many investigations of the present and probable future use of both surface and ground water were made in connection with the classification of public lands, with special reference to their use for power under permit or for agriculture under the enlarged-homestead, desert-land, or Carey acts. Investigations made in cooperation with the United States Fuel Administration of problems relating to the operation of power plants, interconnection of transmission systems, and substitution of water power for fuel power led to improvement in service and conservation of fuel. Statistical studies of power resources and output were continued after the armistice was signed. Many reports based on special field investigations and office studies were prepared and submitted to the War Department and to boards and bureaus engaged in the conduct of the war, the work including the compilation of information concerning water supplies from springs and wells in different parts of the country, as well as maps and descriptions of water supplies along the international border and the Atlantic coast. During the war information and advice were given to the War and Navy Departments in regard to water supplies at about 100 military and naval establishments in the United States, such as cantonments, forts, navy yards, aviation fields, powder factories, arsenals, and supply depots. The manuscripts and maps for two reports on desert watering places were completed and work on other like reports was well ad vanced, this work being done under a comprehensive plan for mapping and marking the watering places in the arid region east of the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Range and west of a line running from eastern Oregon through Salt Lake City and Santa Fe to the mouth of Pecos River. Land classification.-Public lands aggregating 6,439 acres were classified as to their content of coal, 3,703 acres being classified as coal land and 2,736 acres as noncoal land. The coal land withdrawn from entry during the year amounted to 2,415 acres; the land restored to entry after classification and appraisal amounted to 3,331,552 acres. The probable oil land withdrawn from entry amounted to 239,946 acres; the land restored to entry as nonoil land amounted to 931 acres. The result of the year's work was an increase of the area of oil reserves from 6,519,819 to 6,758,834 acres. The net result of the withdrawals and restorations of oil-shale lands has been to reduce the oil-shale reserves 3,754 acres, leaving 128,267 acres reserved, practically all of it for the use of the Navy. In addition, 129,421 acres have been classified as to their content of oil shale, of which 4,080 acres were classified as nonmineral land and 125,341 acres were classified as lands valuable as a source of petroleum and nitrogen. A total area of 4,117,377 acres is now classified as oil-shale land and valuable for minerals, so that the grand total of oil-shale land now classified or withdrawn is 4,245,644 acres. The area included in phosphate reserves remains the same as it was a year ago 2,724,394 acres. The existing potash reserves were reduced by the restoration of 440 acres, leaving the area of outstanding reserves 130,029 acres. The land withdrawn for power sites amounted to 7,392 acres, and the land restored amounted to 6,037 acres, the total area now so reserved aggregating 2,565,727 acres. Lands amounting to 8,452,637 acres were designated as nonirrigable under the enlarged-homestead act, and designations of land amounting to 5,254 acres previously classed as nonirrigable were canceled on information that the lands are irrigable. The net increase in the area classified under these acts was 8,447,383 acres, and the total area so classified was 288,797,241 acres. At the end of the year 20,181,868 acres had been designated as subject to entry under the stock-raising homestead law of December 29, 1916, as the result of field examination and office study. The number of applications pending under the law on June 30, 1918, was 34,649, and the applications received during the fiscal year 1919 amounted to 14,248, making a total of 48,897 in hand. Of this number 29,176 were disposed of during the year, leaving 19,721 cases on hand. The area added to the public water reserves during the year amounted to 22,422 acres, and the area eliminated from such reserves amounted to 1,375 acres, a net increase from 204,634 to 225,681 acres, The cooperation with the General Land Office, under which reports are submitted by the survey containing information as to the mineral value and water resources of lands for which applications under the public-land laws have been filed, was continued unchanged during the year. Similar cooperation exists with the Indian Office. In addition to 1,532 requests for information as to mineral character, power value, and value for public watering places pending June 30, 1918, 5,034 such requests were received during the fiscal year. Of these requests 4,259 were acted upon, leaving 2,307 awaiting action at the end of the year. At the beginning of the year 295 requests for information as to mineral character only were pending, and during the year 1,665 such requests were received. Reports were made on 971 of these requests, leaving 989 pending at the end of the year. During the year 151 requests for report as to water resources only were received, and 35 were pending at the beginning of the year. Reports were submitted on 151 requests, leaving 35 pending June 30, 1919. The survey also furnished to the General Land Office reports upon the feasibility of irrigation projects and proposed power developments under the terms of the general plan between the two bureaus. Closely related to this cooperation is the duty of the survey to classify land under the enlarged and stock-raising homestead acts and to prepare appropriate orders for departmental approval designating lands under those acts. Publications.-The Geological Survey's lithographic plant continued its war work for bureaus, boards, and offices of the War Department, the Navy Department, and other branches of the Government, the product including aviation maps and military maps of camps and other areas in the United States and abroad, charts, diagrams, and other work in editions aggregating several hundred thousand. Thirty new topographic war maps were photolithographed and printed and nine special maps showing Army camps and cantonments were compiled and printed with special texts on their backs. Regular topographic maps of areas in the United States numbering 140 were engraved and printed. Editions of 360 different maps, amounting to 945,293 copies, were published. Contract and miscellaneous work involving the printing of 2,935,543 copies was done, and the total number of copies of all work printed amounted to 3,884,849, an increase of nearly 20 per cent over the work done in the preceding fiscal year. The regular series of the survey's publications printed at the Government Printing Office included 147 reports, aggregating 11,644 pages. During the year the survey distributed 465,826 books, 8,865 folios, and 538,396 maps. RECLAMATION SERVICE. It is now 17 years since the passage of the reclamation act, during which the surveys, examinations, and construction therein authorized have proceeded under the provisions of that act and other acts amendatory thereof and supplementary thereto. During the present year the service is in position to deliver water to about 1,600,000 acres of irrigable land, covered by crop census, of which about 1,120,000 acres are now being irrigated. Besides this storage water is delivered from permanent reservoirs under special contracts to about 950,000 acres more. The projects that have been undertaken have been planned to provide for an area of about 3,200,000 acres. This latter figure is tentative and subject to variation in accordance with the development of plans as the work progresses. Drought conditions.-A large portion of the arid region has been subject to severe drought for the past two years, leading to heavy losses on the part of those attempting to cultivate the soil without irrigation and leading to shortage of water supply in many irrigated regions. The reclamation projects have been remarkably free from drought conditions, owing to the ample storage provisions usually made, the only notable exception being a small project in northern Washington where the drought conditions are so intense that shortage has been suffered on a few thousand acres of irrigated land. The general requirement for irrigation, together with the striking success of agriculture under the Government projects, has greatly stimulated demands for the extension and completion of existing projects and the construction of new ones. Investigations of new projects.-Investigations have indicated the feasibility of many large projects in various parts of the West. Many of these, however, require far more work in surveys and estimates to make them available for construction, and liberal appropriations have been made by various States for this purpose, frequently on the condition that an equal amount of money be advanced for the same purpose by the General Government. The major portion of the investigation work now carried on by this service is expended under such contracts, the local contribution being made in some cases by the States and in others by voluntary associations. |