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. electric generating units have delivered 101 billion kilowatt-hours of energy to the Pacific Southwest. The gross revenues that have accrued to the Federal Government for this energy, including inter- est on the investment, have totaled $192 1/2 million--which is more than the total estimated expenditures for the entire Boulder Canyon Project. Irrigation water stored in Lake Mead during this same quar- ter century has irrigated up to 3/4 million acres of farmland in Cali- fornia and Arizona annually. These farms have produced a cumula- tive crop value of $2-1/2 billion, roughly 15 tiITles the total project cost. During the past year, 900,000 acres of irrigated project lands in the lower basin produced crops valued at $1/4 billion, for an average gross return of $261 per acre. Reclamation hydro plants in the same area have generated 5-1/4 billion kilowatt-hours of energy, for a revenue to the Treasury from the sale of power of $14-1/4 million. During this quarter century, as you are well aware, the world has literally beaten a path to Hoover Dam, constructed in the once- isolated inaccessible Black Canyon Gorge of the Colorado River. Some 8 million persons have since toured Hoover Dam and more than 39 mil- lion have visited the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Hoover Dam, as I indicated, was the key that unlocked develop- ment of a literal stairway of dams and powerplants on the lower Colo- rado River after removal of the flood hazard, In addition to this vast flood control contribution, and the direct agricultural and hydropower benefits of Hoover Dam, the lower river has supplied water for the domestic and industrial needs of some 8 million residents in the Pacific Southwest. This is a major factor accounting for at least in part and supporting the burgeoning population and industrial expansion in Southern California in the 1940's and 1950's. These are concrete accomplishments of the regulation of the lower Colorado River that are well known to each of you and which are becoming increasingly familiar to engineers and land utilization and water experts from all over the world who are journeying here to inspect the engineering works on the river. This was impressed upon me particular- ly last spring when I attended sessions in Madrid, Spain, of the Inter- national Commission on Irrigation and Drainage, and the World Power Conference. Delegates to both of these international meetings expressed considerable interest in and knowledge of Colorado River development and other aspects of the Reclamation program. The 1961 fiscal year construction program in the lower basin will - 17 -