and other large eastern cities offers a strong inducement for the further developments of the large potential water power.

Among the relatively minor though tremendously important uses of water in this area may be mentioned the hunting, fishing, and other recreational facilities which exist at many points on the Great Lakes, in the Thousand Islands section of St. Lawrence River and in the Adirondacks. Very few parts of the country offer recreational facilities comparable with those of this region and on account of their favorable location near the densely populated centers of the East their development is sure to assume constantly increasing importance. Mention should also be made of the importance of the commercial fisheries in the Great Lakes region. This industry has maintained its position and standing for many years and under proper encouragement and regulation should remain for all time an important activity. The fact should not be overlooked that the development of all of these important activities, the solution of interstate and international problems and the administration of the lake and river system for all purposes through future years depend upon adequate, reliable, and continuant information with respect to the stages of the Lakes, the stages and quantities of water flowing in the rivers and the ground water in the tributary ground-storage basins. It is only through the adoption of such basic data that the broad development of the basin along hydraulic lines can proceed in the most orderly and efficient manner. The estimated cost of ground- and surface-water investigations is $150,000.

SECTION II. NAVIGATION

1. General. Since the construction of the first lock in the St. Marys River in 1855, there has developed on the Great Lakes a system of transportation unique in the world's history. The magnitude of the commerce alone shows that except for their paramount use as a source of domestic supply, the greatest value and highest use of the waters of the Great Lakes are for water transportation. The net commerce through all our ports of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts and of the Great Lakes in 1929 was about 520 million tons of which 162 million tons, or 31 percent, passed through the United States ports on the Great Lakes. Duluth-Superior ranked second among all the ports of the United States, while Buffalo was seventh. The development of the greatest steel centers in the United States has been brought about by the cheap transportation of raw materials provided by lake carriers. The annual savings to commerce are more than the total capital investment in navigation improvements. Attractive as are the possibilities of a seaway which can be navigated by ocean vessels, the commerce between lake ports is, and will be, of first magnitude and importance, and improvements for its benefit must not be given second place.

2. Navigation improvements. To meet the increasing needs of navigation, to provide further economies in water transportation, and to connect the Great Lakes ports with the ocean ports of the world, the works listed below are recommended.

(a) FOR THE BENEFIT OF NAVIGATION WITHIN THE INTERIOR OF THE UNITED

(b) TO PROVIDE FOR NAVIGATION BY OCEAN VESSELS

NOTE.-Detailed data and information on all navigation items are on file in the Office of the Chief of Engineers, United States Army.

SECTION III. POWER

1. General.-Falls adequate for substantial power development exist in the St. Marys River, in the Niagara River, and in the St. Lawrence River along the international boundary between the State of New York and the Province of Ontario. The first two falls have been privately developed to the capacity permitted by international agreements on the diversion of water, 81,000 horse-power in the St. Marys River and 1,137,000 horsepower in the Niagara River. Power on the St. Lawrence is considered below. Data on the development of power in connection with flood control are given in appendix III.

A plan has been proposed involving the construction of a power house at the lower end of the "Maid of the Mist" pool in which, by utilizing 19,500 second-feet, wheels of a total capacity of 250,000 horsepower would be installed. The operating head would be about 74.5 feet and discharge would be through a tailrace tunnel into the Lewiston pool. The cost of this project was estimated at $38,000,000. The application for license which was originally made on March 2, 1921, was finally dismissed without prejudice by the Federal Power Commission on August 25, 1930, principally, it is understood, on account of the already involved status of the power situation at Niagara.

In Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and New York a number of small streams possess suitable heads which have been developed for power by private interests where existing market demands and reasonable cost of construction warrant. The remaining potential

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waterpower developments are not of sufficient size to be of value as elements in regional or national power planning.

2. Power on the St. Lawrence River. Except for the opportunity for further development of power at Niagara Falls, which is not permissible under the existing treaty, the international rapids section of the St. Lawrence River affords the opportunity to develop the cheapest block of hydroelectric power available in North America. The potential development may be summarized as follows:

Power installation (United States)..
Power investment required___

Cost per installed horsepower_.
Cost per primary horsepower-

-horsepower__

Generating cost per kilowatt-hour, at 80 percent load factor_mills_

SECTION IV. RURAL LAND-USE ADJUSTMENT

1, 100, 000 $89, 726, 750 $81.57 $115. 74

1. 5

1. Problems of rural land-use adjustment are of greatest magnitude in the western part of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin, in the States of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. As elsewhere, the region having common land-use problems has little relation to the drainage basin.

In this case the part of the drainage basin having most urgent problems has these problems in common with a large adjacent region lying in the Mississippi watershed. A land-use plan applicable to the region having common problems should be administered for the entire region, avoiding the division of the region into two parts by the irrelevant drainage boundary.

2. The problems of rural land-use adjustment in this region arise from the rapid removal of the forest resources, and from the attempt to convert cutover land into agricultural land without proper discrimination between the desirability of different kinds of land for agriculture. The rapid removal of the accumulated forest resource has left communities with a greatly diminished source of income. A large proportion of the region is tax delinquent and in many townships the financial basis of local government has vanished. Uneconomic attempts at agricultural settlement of poor or scattered bodies of land have resulted in rural poverty, farm abandonment, and excessive burden on communities to relieve or maintain such settlement.

3. Desirable measures to effect readjustment are (1) a classification of lands to determine their socially and economically most desirable use and (2) bringing into effect these desirable uses by rural zoning, public acquisition, control of credit, or other means, and the reorganization of local government and the fiscal and institutional pattern to adjust them to the changed pattern of land use and ownership.

4. The problem of land utilization in this region is related only in a very indirect way to the main objective of the project, namely, the improvement of navigation in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Waterways.

5. Some adjustment in land use along the hilly headwaters of tributary streams in the eastern and southern part of the drainage basin may be necessary in connection with stream flow regulation and the control of soil erosion, but the extent of such adjustment will be local and of small magnitude.

SECTION V. FORESTRY

1. General. More than 40,000,000 acres, or approximately half of the land area of the United States portion of the drainage system, is forest land. Because of the large proportion of water surface, and the sandy soils and slight relief which characterize much of the region, the problems of water conservation, floods, and soil erosion are generally less serious than in other regions. There are, however, numerous local exceptions. There are also many streams which are utilized to generate power or for domestic water supplies where the maintenance of forest cover undoubtedly contributes to regularity of flow and prevents silting and pollution. The high recreational value of the water resources of this region depends to a very considerable degree on the existence of forest cover. Regardless of its direct water relations, the productive utilization of the forest land of the region is of major importance from the standpoint of providing permanent employment to many thousands of persons, supplying raw materials for many important industries, and furnishing a large volume of revenue-producing traffic for the waterways. Forest products at one time constituted an important part of the freight carried on the Lakes as well as from the Lakes through the Erie Canal. They can do so again. As far as forest conditions are concerned the region may be divided into three subregions:

(a) The Great Lakes drainage area in Minnesota, Wisconsin north of Green Bay, and Michigan north of Muskegon-Bay City. (b) The remainder of the Great Lakes drainage area, from Wisconsin to New York.

(c) Those portions of New York and Vermont draining into Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence.

2. Upper Lakes. In the first subregion forests (including swamps) Occupy some 27,000,000 acres, or about 85 percent of the land area. The original forest has nearly all been cut, and the land is in various stages of restocking. Most of it has been burned over repeatedly, with the result that there are large areas of denuded land and land more or less restocked with light stands of relatively low present or prospective commercial value. The area used for agriculture, never large, has tended to decrease with the decline of lumbering. Much of the farming has been, and still is, on a part-time or subsistence basis, supplemented by work in forests or mines or on highways, or by in come from recreational activities. There are national forests as well as State forests in this subregion in all three States, besides county forests in Wisconsin. The Federal program includes considerable further additions to the national forests, and the State and county forests will undoubtedly be greatly enlarged as a result of tax delinquency (and perhaps also by purchase). Existing policies of the States and the Federal Government contemplate extensive reforestation of denuded and poorly stocked lands, and provide for fire protection on both public and private forest lands. Preservation and development of recreational values of forests and waters are an important objective of all of the public forests, and the major objective in some (e.g., State parks and portions of the Superior National Forest). It is not practical at this time to estimate just how large an area should be acquired by the public, or what should be the