Geological Papers. 69 



immediate study into ways and means for preventing this 

 waste. Obviously, if the water can be kept on the land where it 

 fell as rain, most of the waste of soil fertility will be prevented. 

 Two ways of doing this will be stated very briefly. 



One, that of constructing dams for reservoirs to keep the 

 water awaj' from the rivers as long as possible, is already prac- 

 ticed hy our wisest farmers. Forests on the hillside serve the 

 same purpose. Both methods conserve stock water, and timber 

 as well. 



The second plan consists in opening up the soil and subsoil 

 very deeply, so as to make a reservoir of the fields. This plan 

 is also practiced by wise farmers, especially where rainfall is 

 scanty. The rainfall of two years is made to serve the crops 

 of one year. The one harvest is more than twice as bountiful 

 in the dry belt as two harvests where the old plan of a yearly 

 crop is followed. 



• With water properly conserved, rains will increase their 

 value to the people of Kansas, costly gullies and small creeks 

 will disappear, and the surface of the state will approach a 

 stability long absent from her borders. Man's kingship of the 

 earth will consist in the scientific mastery of his environment, 

 and not in the haphazard mastery so long practiced. This 

 scientific mastery must come, if it come at all, through a 

 thoughtful study of the geological development of the state, 

 given point by making such a study terminate in the present 

 condition and needs of the entire state. Man can not be truly 

 happy, he can not be truly prosperous, till he forgets what 

 seem to him to be his immediate personal interests, and works 

 for the good of all. When he does this he will strive earnestly 

 to conserve soil, rainfall, plants, including forests, the useful 

 lower animals, and the human race. 



