50 Conservation of Natural Resources in California. 



more moisture, which in turn produces more vegetation. The great 

 circle of the conservation of forces is a simple and beautiful thing. 

 Slope, water supply, organic action, all these govern soil as in the days 

 of the Saurus family. That is the Hymn of Life. Good plowing is 

 good religion. Good politics is good religion. Good business is good 

 religion. Good geology is good religion, too, and the circle runs around 

 and around, beautiful and complete, if only we care to look at it in that 

 way. 



When the Government gets the little drops of water regulated in Wall 

 street, and when we begin to understand the relation of those little 

 drops and little grains on our farm, we shall begin to see in America 

 the arrival of a golden age, one of growth in art, in beauty, in mentality, 

 in altruism. Even at this stage of our development we ought to have 

 intelligence equal to that of the average Ichthyosaurus. What Uncle 

 Sam is trying to show us is, that without water there is no civilization, 

 and that without proper relation of water and soil there is industrial 

 anarchy. Bad handling of water means less crops, less soil, more 

 polluted streams, more choked up channels, more floods, more waste and 

 ruin, the balance of things thrown out of plumb, and the world literally 

 turned upside-down. The Hymn of Life is one which in time the great 

 Teacher of the Universe is going to force us to remember, whether we 

 wish to remember it or not. It is not Washington, but the Universe, 

 which is handing a message to us. 



What, then, ought we to do to get out of the Ichthyosaurus class and 

 to give our beneficent protective tariff something to protect? In the 

 first place, it is not up to Uncle Sam, but up to us. Louis XVI said, 

 "The State, it is myself!" That was in France, and some time ago. 

 The State, it is ourselves, here in America. The remedy does not begin 

 with your neighbor, but with yourself, and with you it begins as soon 

 as you realize that no bank account will stand perpetual checking 

 against it. Uncle Sam is willing to help any one of us begin the study 

 of the soil to-day. 



The soil experts of the Government are no more able to classify farms 

 than the average farmer every farmer knows that there may be heavy, 

 sticky soil! thin, light, sandy soil; clay soil; open and friable mould. 

 Any farmer knows that the great idea is to retain the natural moisture 

 under the soil and not let it run off on the surface. The experts show 

 that deep plowing is a good thing in certain soils, to get the -water down 

 into the earth. If the land is very flat, deep tilling may be necessary to 

 get this surplus water out, so that the soil may drain dry and disinte- 

 grate. Most farmers know that, in a general way ; but Uncle Sam can 

 teach the average farmer a wrinkle or so as to the right balance of the 

 little drops and the little grains. 



