A distinguished scientist has said and when he speaks of 

 the land he refers to all elements of Nature: 



A harmonious relation to the land is more intricate and of more con- 

 sequence to civilization, than the historians of its progress seem to realize. 

 Civilization is not, as they often assume, the enslavement of a stable and 

 constant earth. It is a state of mutual and interdependent cooperation 

 between human animals, other animals, plants, and soils, which may be 

 disrupted at any moment by the failure of any of them. Land despolia- 

 tion has evicted nations, and can on occasion do it again. As long as six 

 virgin continents awaited the plow, this was perhaps no tragic matter 

 eviction from one piece of soil could be recouped by despoiling another. 

 But there are now wars and rumors of wars which foretell the impending 

 saturation of the earth's best soils and climates. It thus becomes a 

 matter of some importance, at least to ourselves, that our dominion, once 

 gained, be self-perpetuating, rather than self-destructive. 1 



The words "mutual and interdependent cooperation" 

 indicate the key to solution of land and water problems. 

 Nature renders great service to Man by putting vast 

 forces at his disposition. But he must observe certain basic 

 conditions which have been established. He must be 

 cooperative. 



These conditions pivot on the natural circulation of waters, 

 and the relations to it of soils, forests, and other vegetative 

 cover. 



If the unfavorable trend which has been emphasized in our 

 discussion 



were the result of natural forces at work in an unknown manner, there 

 would remain nothing but to allow blind fate to reign and to consign 

 future generations to their inevitable doom. This is, however, fortu- 

 nately not the case. * * * It is therefore possible to prevent the 

 threatening calamity or to defer it for an incalculable period of time by a 

 rational effort and by a unanimous, tireless resistance on a suitably large 

 scale. 2 



To know the limitations of rainfall and how our run-off waters behave 

 under varying conditions of climate, cover and topography, and having 

 acquired this knowledge, to apply it with wisdom in making them serve 

 present and future needs most effectively to aim to make our waters 

 our servant and not our master is water conservation. 3 



1 Aldo Leopold, The Conservation Ethic, Journal of Forestry, Vol. XXXI, No. 6, October 

 1933, p. 635. 



2 Revision of translation by G. Weitzel, 1881, pp. 5 and 6, of Gustav Wex, "First Treatise 

 on the Decrease of Water in Springs, Creeks, and Rivers" (1873). 



8 Outline of a Proposed Water Conservation and Utilization Plan, Department of Con- 

 servation, State of Minnesota, October 1932, p. 9. 



4 a 



