clear and make ready for immediate cultivation. Their 

 pressing need was sustenance and some surplus income from 

 marketable crops. Later settlers selected as nearly similar 

 land as was available, but had to accept a larger proportion 

 of wet and denser forest land. The latest settlers had to 

 accept what was left; the most wooded, wet, sandy, or hilly 

 land. Because of their need for sustenance and of the ready 

 market for cereal, cotton, tobacco, and similar crops, the 

 immediate dominant motive was to clear the forests and 

 drain the lands. 



Also about the middle of the nineteenth century the 

 Swamp Act was passed by the Congress, whereby, to promote 

 both drainage and flood control, those portions of the public 

 domain which were too wet for cultivation were given to the 

 States in which they lay, with the understanding that the 

 States were to sell them and that the income would be applied 

 to control works. This, together with the granting of land 

 to railroads, which sold them to purchasers who immediately 

 wanted them drained, led to organized drainage on a large 

 scale. 



In this period also lumber became an important cash crop, 

 and denudation of the more accessible timberlands within 

 the reach of markets, created by the growth of villages and 

 cities, was accelerated by the operations of large companies. 



Thus developed a triple movement which adversely affected 

 the natural balance of land and water factors: Drainage of 

 ponds, swamps, and other wet lands; plowing under of nat- 

 ural sods; and removal of the forest cover with attendant 

 unfavorable influences which will be explained. 



The motivating factors were simple and are understand- 

 able. The population was increasing rapidly, both naturally 

 and by immigration; land is a possession and a farm is a home; 

 and it is obvious that the greatest immediate benefit to the 

 individual landowner of that generation was improvement 

 of his property. 



[a] DRAINAGE. 



In the more arid half of the United States, west of the 

 100th meridian, generally organized drainage is of minor 



21 



