CORVALLIS HOST TO FARM SESSION
Speaker, Topics Announced by Those in Charge
OREGON STATE COLLEGE, Corvallis, March 27 (Special)-Tentative plans for the sixth annual conference of the Institute of Irrigation Agriculture scheduled here for March 30, 31 and April1, are nearly finished with the announcement here today of the speakers and topics, according to Dean William A. Schoenfeld, official host to the visiting delegates.
Mac Hoke, president of the Oregon Farm Bureau Federation, will act as general chariman of the affair to be held on the O.S.C. campus next week. Planned especially for a discussion of problems confronted by the irrigation farmer, the program includes speeches and forums led by technicians in the field.
Powers to Speak
Economic problems invovled in irrigation projects will be discussed by Dr. W. L. Powers, state college soil scientist, who is recognized as an authoirty in this phase of the work. Study of the economic feasibility of proposed projects before they are built is one of the principal activities of the institute.
More than 200 delegates representing all important water users' associations and irrigation districts were present at last year's conference in Salt Lake City.The institute has done effective work in forming public opinion on irrigation problems, Hoke indicates. This group was organized under farm bureau leadership in 1932 when depression conditions were bearing heavily on many irrigation farmers.
Engineer on Program
Colonel Thomas M. Robins, Portland, will analyze the proposed Willamette valley irrigatino project. A new type of work started by the bureau of agricultural engineering last year which enables engineers to forecast water supplies much more accurately, will be explained by R. A. Worth of the United States department of agriculture bureau.
Measurement of kind and density of snowfall are invoveld in the new method, it is understood here. Fighting drouth conditions by spreading water underground for storage is to be discussed by A. T. Mitchelson, also of the agricutlural engineering bureau.
Other major problems under federal supervision including soil erosion control, power disposal and correlation of range land use with irrigation project needs will be discussed by experts.