fits: A larger supply of ground water for growing crops, and 

 of stored and pumped water for supplementary irrigation; 6 

 pure water at all times for stock in fields and barns, and 

 for domestic use; sewage and garbage disposal in a manner 

 that utilizes aquatic micro-organisms to provide feeding 

 places for grazing species of fish and wild fowl; hydro- 

 power on a large or small scale; navigation; and recreation 

 based on water in an age when recreation is becoming a more 

 indispensable social need. On the negative side the run-off 

 would be less flashy and the damage from floods and siltation 

 reduced. 



Not all the apparent gains of agriculture reflected in the 

 statistics of increase of acreage and of production are genuine 

 gains. Most of that which is gain could under wise policies 

 and practices have been realized without such a huge sacrifice 

 of benefits potential in water resources. In addition, as we 

 shall see shortly, there has been an enormous loss of the rich 

 soils of many of the lands that have been opened and tilled 

 the loss from erosion. 



Said George P. Marsh, a half a century ago: 



The vengeance of Nature for the violation of her harmonies, though 

 slow, is sure, and the gradual deterioration of soil and climate in such 

 exceptional regions is as certain to result from the destruction of the woods 

 as is any natural effect to follow its cause. 7 



2. EROSION 



THE LOSS of the service of waters and collateral losses to 

 which attention has been called are indeed important, but 

 they represent a loss of income rather than of permanent 

 assets. So long as the total quantity of water about the 

 earth remains fairly constant and the hydrologic cycle con- 

 tinues, ground water, ponds, lakes, creeks, and rivers can be 

 restored. There is, however, another loss resulting from 

 Man's failure to adjust himself to Nature's forces which is 

 an irreparable loss of assets. This is the washing of the top 

 soils essential to agriculture into streams, rivers, and the 



8 See p. 60 for explanation of supplementary irrigation. 



7 Man and Nature; or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, New York, 

 1864; p. 216. 



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