Our greatness in achievement is not confined to things material. A larger proportion of our public revenues is devoted to education than that of any other commonwealth. Five great normal schools, the State University, a higher educational institution for negroes, a State school for the deaf and a school for the blind, in addition to our public, denominational and private schools, offer to every boy and girl within the State an opportunity for a satisfactory education. Five State hospitals care for the deficients and those mentally impaired, and a State sanitarium is maintained for those afflicted with tuberculosis.

Our achievements in all of these regards are notable and comparatively satisfactory. But in the securing of material wealth, the development of natural resources and educational progress, in the working out of social problems, we have advanced farther and more satisfactorily than we have in the important public matter of the building of public roads. Less than five per cent of our 110,000 miles of public roads have been so improved as to be available for travel the year around. The people of Missouri have annually constructed less than fifty miles of public roads.

RAPID PROGRESS RECOUNTED.

A few months ago much of this great public highway that we dedicate today was in no better condition for travel than it was when Daniel Boone first traveled it from St. Charles to Old Franklin, or when Captain Becknell drove his first ox team from the banks of the Missouri to the land of the Mexican and the Spaniard. In the building of public roads we have almost stood still. But today I believe we make history, because I believe that today we dedicate to the people of Missouri a public highway which marks the beginning of the end of bad roads in Missouri.

For the first time in over half a century the citizens living along this road have voted public bonds for such a public improvement. Nearly half a million dollars has been provided by authorized bond issues and other available sources of public revenues for the construction of this road. Those who believe in it and announce their determination to build it, say that a million dollars will be available for this purpose by the time the grass grows next spring. With the exception of less than twenty miles, special road districts, or other forms of organization for the providing of public funds, have been formed along its entire course. I believe I do not unwarrantedly discount the

future, or indulge myself in the enthusiasm of this occasion when I say that the construction of this road is one of the assured results of the immediate future. Its completion will mean much, not only to those who have builded it and live along it; it will mean much to all the people of Missouri.

From it will be constructed tributaries serving adjacent territory; connecting with it will be constructed other roads reaching distant territory, and in imitation of it there will be constructed similar roads throughout the length and the breadth of the State. Along it the farmer and the business man will carry his products or his wares for profit, and along it the citizen will ride for pleasure and recreation and health. It will make for State pride and State consciousness; it will make for State pride because it will be an achievement, the beginning, in fact, of many public achievements, along similar lines, in which all the people may take a just pride and satisfaction.

It will make for State consciousness because it will bring to every citizen of Missouri a realization of the intimacy of their relations with each other, bring them closer together, make them better acquainted, and thus better qualified to deal with the problems which concern us and confront us. It will mean the upbuilding of the country schools, and it will save the country church. It will relieve the farmer from the burden of taxation that he has patiently borne for a century, a taxation greater than all that he contributed for the support of the State, county and city government and the public school. It will be an investment that will yield better return than money that could be invested in any public or private enterprise.

It will be a public work which will remain as a monument to those who constructed it. And you men and women who have today made the dedication of this cross-State highway, this old-trail route, an event of real public importance, will receive and deserve the gratitude of the generations of the future.

PART IV.

DRAINAGE.

1. Flood Losses in Missouri.

2. In Southeast Missouri.

3. Along Divers Small Streams.

4. Flood Prevention Association.

5. What River Improvement Means.

6. State Aid for River Improvement.

7. What Missouri Received.

8. Drainage Investigations.

9. Reclamation of Farm Lands.

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INTRODUCTORY.

A supplemental report of this department touching drainage and leveeing of Missouri lowlands was prepared by J. H. Nolen, deputy commissioner, and printed in pamphlet form as a part of the work of this department for the year 1910. But no part of this report was printed in the Red Book for that year. It is a valuable contribution on the general subject, and as the issue is now entirely exhausted and frequent calls for it are received at the department, the present Commissioner deems it proper to include a considerable part of said supplemental report in the report for 1911, eliminating all that pertained to reclamation by leveeing and some matters of general discussion. And the chapter on the great Little river project is also omitted. The matters have been omitted on account of their length, and for want of space. It is impossible to put into this report all that ought to go into it on this important subject, for there is no more important subject than the reclamation of our overflow and swamp lands. The great drainage project in Bates county is discussed in the able address of J. F. Kern of Butler, the organizer and promoter of that great enterprise. Reference is made to his address for the details and helpful facts stated, which carries not only the facts, but much of his experience and human nature.

The department is glad to be able to present a valuable, scientific discussion of soil drainage in the chapter prepared, by request of the department, by F. F. Shafer of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, now stationed and working in Missouri.

The department trusts that the subject, in so far as it is possible to present it at this time, may be found interesting and helpful to all citizens who own or are interested in lands needing drainage of any character.

FLOOD LOSSES ENORMOUS IN MISSOURI

The destruction in Missouri during each flood year is enormous and startling. Until the first of August, 1909, no effort had ever been been to compile statistics showing the financial loss in Missouri from floods. In order to convince the landowners that a concerted movement should be made to protect their land from the heavy floods, this department began then to compile figures to show that it was time for action. To secure reliable information, blanks were sent to conservative men in the various counties of the State where floods occurred during July, 1909, and the results of this special investigation in the forty-three counties above the Missouri river and the ten counties bordering on the south side of the river are herein given. The reports showed that a total of 1,485,290 acres of land were overflowed last July in these fifty-three counties, and that the crops destroyed were worth $18,896,340. A map, indicating the land overflowed at that time, is printed this report.

The destruction in many counties was extremely heavy, while in others it amounted to only a few thousand dollars. Howard, Livingston, Carroll, Daviess, Atchison, Charlton, Grundy and Holt counties reported losses ranging from $500,000 to $1,500,000.

Howard county headed the list, with a loss of $1,500,000; Livingston county was second, with $1,200,000, and Grundy third, with $1,059,840. Daviess lost a round million dollars; Carroll, $960,000, and Holt, $825,000.

The loss in the Missouri river bottom, because of the 1909 overflow, was not so great as that of 1908. This was because many farmers were able to thresh and haul their wheat from the lowlands in 1909 before the flood, which came about the middle of July. The 1908 overflow caught the farmers just before wheat harvest, and destroyed all the crops except on a few high points. The same was true of the flood of 1903. Had the 1909 rise come ten days earlier, the loss along the Missouri river would probably have been augmented at least three million, if not five million, dollars.

The estimates secured for this report places the destruction to crops along the Missouri river alone at $8,629,750. The destruction in 1903 and 1908 being each greater than that of 1909, it is evident the loss to the farmers along the Missouri river for each of these years has averaged at least nine million dollars. Supposing three overflows occur during every ten years, the destruction in that time will amount to $27,000,000, and in thirty-seven years, which is an average lifetime, it will reach the enormous sum of $100,000,000.

The foregoing figures represent only the crops that were destroyed, and do not include the amount of loss caused by soil and fences being swept away, and other property damages.

The channel of the Missouri river, from the Iowa line to the river's mouth, north of St. Louis, is said to be about 575 miles long. This indicates the loss each flood year to every mile of river channel amounts to $15,600, or $46,800 during ten years, and $140,400 during thirty years. The average cost of constructing new channels for small rivers and building levees will not exceed fifteen dollars per acre of land benefited. The average loss in one flood year is from eighteen to twenty-five dollars per acre.

It is not wisdom or economy for our property owners to longer neglect their land and leave it at the mercy of the floods. Landowners are committing an unpardonable sin by not conserving the land which our Creator placed here for the use and support of not only the present owners, but future generations. They should not feel as did the profligate French King who often declared: "Things will outlast our time." The Lord no longer speaks to the people by word of mouth and warns them of the deluges that are coming, as did He to the patriarch of old, but He has taught us by example that floods will visit our lowlands, and we should prepare for their coming, not as did Noah, by building an ark, but by constructing levees and other forms of protection to keep