go THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



WATER CONSERVATION, FISHERIES AND FOOD 



SUPPLY 1 



By Dr. ROBERT B. COKER 



U. S. FISHERIES BIOLOGICAL STATION, FAIRPORT, IA. 



A National Problem 

 "~VTO subject of national economy has broader significance to-day than 

 -L-^l that of water conservation. Every one knows that unrestrained 

 floods wreak yearly an enormous destruction of property. Our flood 

 losses have, indeed, been computed at 200 millions of dollars per year. 

 All are aware that the demands of power are contributing to the 

 gradual exhaustion of our coal deposits, while the possibilities of 

 deriving power from the flow of water remain at our grasp. A single 

 water power of recent development has been estimated to effect a yearly 

 saving of 365 thousands of tons of coal even at the very outset of its 

 operations. Every intelligent conservationist, whether farmer, business 

 man or student, observes that over the country-wide the soils are being 

 impoverished by the wash of surface waters, and the fertile lands are 

 being carried away to enrich the sea. If we seek figures again, we are 

 told that one and one-quarter billion tons of silt are deposited annually 

 in the Mississippi River, one half of which serves to impede navigation 

 and the other half to extend the state of Louisiana out into the Gulf of 

 Mexico. One who has observed the soils of the middle west in a state 

 of productivity, and again the same or similar soils in the form of use- 

 less and rapidly broadening flats at the tip of the delta of the Missis- 

 sippi, can not but be deeplv impressed with the ultimate wastefulness 

 of permitting the transfer of soils from a place where they are useful 

 to a place where they are injurious. 



If we view only the most obvious losses, we begin to realize the 

 significance of water conservation; but still we may be far short of 

 comprehending the magnitude of the forfeit that we regularly pay for 

 an inadequate policy or practise with regard to our supplies of water. 

 While agriculture, and consequently the flood supply of the future, may 

 suffer from the erosion and leaching of soils, economists assure us that 

 there are immense areas of farming lands which are diminished in pro- 

 duction, because at the critical season they lack the moisture that might, 

 with different methods of tillage, have been conserved in the soil from 



i Published by permission of Dr. Hugh. M. Smith, United States Commis- 

 sioner of Fish and Fisheries; the author alone is responsible for the opinions 

 expressed. 



