WATER CONSERVATION 97 



stage of our civilization or industrial life, as regards the utilization of 

 fish. jSTot only ma}- we question if this condition is permanent and 

 inevitable, but we may be sure that the time will come when we will 

 want fish to eat much more generally than now, and will get them by 

 raising them in a larger way than is now done. We may have a familiar 

 science of aquiculture just as we now have one of agriculture. It is 

 interesting to note that, at the present time, there are sections of the 

 country and classes of people for which fish forms a really staple food. 

 This demand is so reflected in the commercial fishery that the coarser 

 fishes, which, only a little while ago, were regarded as entirely super- 

 fluous or obnoxious, have become the mainstay of the commercial fisher- 

 men. It is still more interesting to observe that, among all classes of 

 people, there is a noticeable awakening to the value of fish, and, con- 

 comitantly, a tendency to inquire if there is not some way to increase 

 the supply of good table fish. 



Let us now imagine that a great impetus could be given to the 

 rearing of fish for table use as an occupation or as an adjunct to or- 

 dinary farming operations, until the fish pond were half as familiar as 

 the poultry yard, and then let us inquire if there would be any effect 

 upon the matter of water conservation. 



The objects of flood prevention and navigation may be furthered 

 in a temporary way by the construction of levees, by restriction of chan- 

 nels, and by dredging. All of these menus are good; in fact they are 

 essential for immediate relief; but the final accomplishment of the de- 

 sired ends must be sought in the regulation of the flow of the rivers, 

 and this undoubtedly will come about through the conservation of water 

 at the sources. We sometimes think of this as being possible of at- 

 tainment only by the construction of large artificial storage reservoirs 

 at enormous expense, and often such a plan is called impracticable. 

 Leaving that question, as we must, to the engineer, we may look to 

 other and smaller measures which are certainly not impracticable. 

 Smaller measure, we say, but we know that the cumulative effect of 

 innumerable small efforts may in the long run be vaster than that of 

 more spectacular and expensive operations. 



It is said that much can be accomplished by the proper methods 

 of tilling the soil to prevent run-off s and to compel the filtration of the 

 rainfall into the soil. We are told of large farms that are so worked 

 as to prevent any water at all running off the farm, while at the same 

 time increasing the productivity of the farm with its cultivated fields, 

 grazing lands and forests. 3 The methods are said to be simple and 

 inexpensive, but an inquiry into them is apart from our present purpose. 



Besides increasing the absorbent qualities of the soil, there is 

 something which almost every farmer can do, that relatively few now 



s Wall, Jutfsoxi Gr., loc. cit. 



VOL. LXXXVII. — 7. 



