274 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



need a constant supply of water in all seasons. These two pur' 

 poses are contradictory. However, if you build a series of dams 

 with one feeding the other, it is possible to keep the power dams 

 always properly full, and, at the same time, regulate the 

 amount of water in the flood dams. The system works like this. 

 In the spring all the dams are full. During the summer water is 

 let out of the flood dams to keep the power dams full. By winter 

 the flood dams are practically empty, but the power dams have 

 had a constant supply of water from the slowly emptying flood 

 dams. 



Since the federal government has produced the electricity 

 as a byproduct, the Supreme Court said that it has the 

 right to sell that electricity. In order to sell electricity, it is 

 necessary to have a market. In the Tennessee Valley, a large 

 part of the population consisted of farmers living on sub' 

 marginal land who couldn't afford to buy power. The job of 

 the Tennessee Valley Authority was to make it possible for 

 these people to use electricity. The Tennessee Valley Authority 

 system has been to reduce the cost of electricity. By reducing 

 the cost they have increased the market. It happens that when 

 electricity is produced by water 'power, it costs just about as 

 much to produce a little electricity as it does to produce a lot. 

 Therefore, if you can sell a lot of electricity at a low price, you 

 will still make more than if you sell a little electricity at a high 

 price. 



Once dams have been built, the next great problem is to 

 prevent their filling with silt. The Tennessee River runs 

 through hilly country. Many of these hillsides have small farms 

 on them from which the soil has been eroding for years. Conse' 

 quently, if silt was to be kept out of Tennessee Valley dams, 

 something would have to be done about erosion. The Ten' 

 nessee Valley Authority approach to that problem was to be 

 a large educational campaign. They didn't tell anybody they 

 would have to practice strip-cropping, or contour plow 



