from the mouth of the Brazos river through West bay to Galveston is already open to navigation and river boats are making regular voyages as far as old Washington, which lies 250 miles up the river. With the completion of the work already under way and provided for, boats will be enabled to navigate the river to the city of Waco, more than 500 miles from its mouth. The present service is appreciated by the inhabitants of the Brazos river valley and vessels carry large cargoes of merchandise to up-river points and return loaded to capacity with cotton, cordwood, truck and other farm produce. Trinity river connects with the proposed canal at Galveston bay. This river has a depth of twenty to twenty-five feet for many miles from its mouth, and at the present time the government is building locks and dams in the upper river to make it navigable to the city of Dallas, the chief city of north Texas. There are several other navigable streams in Texas emptying into the Gulf along the route of the canal, among them the Guadalupe and Colorado, both of which extend into the most productive sections of the great Southwest. The benefit of an intercoastal canal which will connect these

rivers with a deep water port and allow the transportation of the products of millions of acres of fertile land at water rates, to the sea for export can hardly be expressed in figures. Not only is it the scheme to transport by steamers, but to inaugurate a system of light draft barges to be towed by powerful but light draft steamers, thus several times doubling the amount of freight transported at a very slight increase in cost.

The Texas and Louisiana coast countries are among those sections which are rapidly developing, but which are capable of producing many times over the amount of rice, grain, cotton, vegetables and fruit that they do at the present time. There are yet millions of acres of fertile land, not within reach of rail transportation, which would attract settlers if water transportation was available, and those who have already broken land and started their orchards and cultivated fields would greatly increase their acreage.

As an illustration of the rapid development of this coast country may be cited the extraordinary increase in the cultivation of rice. In the year 1890 there was raised, in round numbers, about 78,000

pounds of rice. In 1900, 800,000 pounds; and in 1903, 400,000,000 pounds of rice valued at $7,500,000. In 1903 there were about 250,000 acres under cultivation and in 1904 about 400,000 acres in rice. Since that time the acreage and the production has constantly increased. Between the Rio Grande and Sabine Lake there are, in round numbers, 4,000,000 acres of rice land and in a few years fifty per cent, or 2,000,000 acres, of this will be under cultivation, which will produce a crop valued at $75,000,000 annually. In the Louisiana coast country there are many more thousands of acres yet uncultivated which will be benefited by the intercostal canal.

The construction of this canal, making it available for light draft inland navigation, would not only meet the demand for the removal of the large crops referred to, but would furnish transportation for lumber and coal and afford a cheap outlet for the immense oil products of this region. The canal when completed will be in easy reach of the largest oil fields of the world.

The lumber industry of Texas and Louisiana would be greatly benefited. There are in Texas within easy reach of the canal, or the navigable rivers emptying into it, 30,000,000,000 feet of standing pine and in Louisiana 45,000,000,000 feet. In Texas and Louisiana it is estimated that there are 8,000,000,000 feet of standing hardwoods. Fifty-five sawmills in this territory have an approximate output of 1,500,000,000 feet of lumber annually, and of this amount there are exported through the port of Galveston alone over $3,000,000 worth of lumber, logs and other wood products per year. The total value of exports of all commodities through the port of Galveston for the year 1905-06 amounted to $166,239,884. These millions of tons of cargo were brought to the port by rail and much of it originated in territories through which some navigable river flows. Had these rivers been connected with the intercoastal canal and thereby connected with the port of Galveston, the producers of the state of Texas alone would have been saved almost enough in

freight rates the past year to have completed the canal. The United States government has spent a little over $10,000,000 in making Galveston a deep water port of the first class. The citizens and corporations of Galveston have spent as much more in providing wharves and port facilities, a total of $20,000,000. Yet, figures recently gotten out by Secretary Kitchell of the Galveston Chamber of Commerce show that the producers of the territory served by the port of Galveston have already been saved the immense sum of $40,000,000 on three items alone, which sum will be increased from year to year.

The presentation of the above figures is only one argument in favor of the canal. While Texans and Louisianans

are deeply interested in the development of their own states, they realize that a canal connecting the Rio Grande river on the Mexican border with the Mississippi river, thus forming one great system of light draft waterways, will benefit the nation as a whole. It will open up Southern markets to Northern producers and

will lower the rates of transportation from the great grain belt to the Gulf ports. There is no way of estimating its immediate benefits, and no mind is great enough to calculate the benefits to come to succeeding generations from such a project.

The Intercoastal canal is no longer a pet scheme of the citizens of Texas and Louisiana, but is now a matter of national importance. Congressmen are interested; surveys have been made and the government has approved.

It is certain, beyond a peradventure, that the great work will be carried out at some time in the near future, for the pressure of the people's demand will be

irresistible and the forces which are now

opposed to the enterprise for selfish reasons must give way.

In a few years the whistle chimes of steamboats will again be heard on the rivers of Texas, and the rivers of the entire country, like those of England of the present day, will be changed to busy channels of commerce.

OW to kill standing weeds in fields of grain without injuring the crop is one of the gravest problems that confronts the agriculturist of any country. It is impossible to cultivate them out and, unless the farmer tramps through his grain field, pulling up each weed by hand -an impossible task-they must be left to grow with the grain, drawing in the moisture, spreading rank leaves for the sunlight and extracting nourishment from the soil.

The most persistent weeds occurring in the grain fields of the United States are the wild mustard, Canada thistle and rag weed. The wild mustard of which there are over eighty species is considered by farmers the most troublesome. It is of so hardy a character that its seed

will survive in the soil for ten years. The mustard is also a weed that harbors numerous vegetable pests and parasites. Through large areas of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Dakotas it infests fields to the extent of giving the appearance when in bloom of being a field of mustard.

The grain farmers of the Northwest have a continual battle with wild mustard. A few seeds will cover an entire field in two years if not kept down. It is impossible to eradicate it where it has once taken hold. In some fields where it has not grown too strong Minnesota and Dakota farmers spend several days with all the children and women obtainable picking the weeds from the fields during the month of June.. It is of no benefit to turn the ground into meadow or pasture for the seed will lie dormant

the yield of grain in this country at least twenty per cent. Under these conditions agriculturists have for several years occupied themselves in the attempt to discover a chemical that can be used for spraying grain fields. To make it a success it is necessary that the chemical should destroy the weeds but leave the cereals uninjured. Dr. Frank has carried on extensive experiments in Germany. Yorkshire College, Leeds, has also made several tests on farms in England. Numerous methods of extermination have been tried and abandoned