CONCEPTS IN CONSERVATION—GABRIELSON 
levels and takes maximum advantage 
of the combined productivity of the 
land and water. To the complete 
surprise of many people it is being 
demonstrated that water can often 
produce a value per acre that com- 
pares favorably with that obtainable 
from the best production in farm 
crops. Slowly we are commencing to 
realize that there are better ways of 
utilizing this country’s natural re- 
sources than to drain water-covered 
areas solely to provide larger crops 
which may be already in surplus. A 
revolutionary change in the _ phi- 
losophy of the average farmer and 
land manager will be required, how- 
ever, before the detrimental effects of 
indiscriminate drainage are recog- 
nized; we shall also have to change 
some of our past engineering practices. 
Among students of natural-resource 
problems there is a conviction that a 
program combining good manage- 
ment of land and water over an entire 
watershed is the only possible way to 
stop the dissipation of the basic re- 
sources of the country. Obviously to 
carry out such a program it is un- 
necessary to advocate valley authori- 
ties, or the program of any particular 
organization or group of engineers. 
Regardless of which group or groups 
do the work, there should be no more 
piecemeal planning and construction 
of projects for flood control, hydro- 
electric power, or other purposes. 
Conservationists do not believe that 
it is either good planning or good na- 
tional economy to flood great areas 
of good farm land above a dam in order 
to furnish flood protection to the 
same or less acreage below the dam. 
They do not believe that big dams 
are the solution to this basic problem. 
They realize that big dams have a 
place but they believe that the best 
use that can possibly be made of 
water is for it to contribute the utmost 
from the moment it falls on the ground. 
They believe that these programs 
should come first; that control at the 
source will provide greater immedi- 
ate values than great impoundments 
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far downstream. ‘They believe that 
proper land and water management 
will render many flood-control dams 
unnecessary. They believe that such 
dams as are a demonstrated necessity 
will silt up much less rapidly and be 
of use for a much longer period if the 
management of water starts at the 
source. 
In other words, groups studying this 
problem from the over-all standpoint 
—conservationists, soil experts, biolo- 
gists—believe that the cart is before 
the horse when flood control and water 
management are begun far down- 
stream instead of at water sources. 
They believe that such programs as 
have been common in the past are 
more expensive, less efficient, and less 
productive for public good than the 
more logical but less spectacular util- 
ization of water, initially, from the 
time it first fallson the land. Conser- 
vationists believe that land and water 
management should be combined and 
started with the raindrop; they most 
certainly do not believe that the con- 
trol of water should be delayed until 
it becomes necessary to deal with great 
volumes of water which already have 
become destructive forces. 
Another great abuse is the pollution 
of water resources through the prac- 
tice of dumping untreated industrial 
wastes and domestic sewage into the 
streams and lakes ofthe country. ‘This 
abominable practice has been tolerated 
because it provided a cheap and easy 
way of solving an immediate problem. 
Yet the food and recreational values 
thereby destroyed would often show a 
loss of public values far outweighing 
the gains which the offending industry 
or community may have obtained by 
its shortsighted and thoughtless pro- 
cedure. Pollution has played a big 
part in the decline of the shad fisheries 
of the Atlantic coast, the oyster fish- 
eries of the Chesapeake Bay, the inland 
fresh-water fisheries of the Illinois and 
other rivers. Through dumping sew- 
age and industrial wastes the nation 
loses each year a staggering sum rep- 
resenting the value of the aquatic 
