the soil and subsoil and adjacent rocks, for it is during this stage that 

 the water is available for the needs of plant and animal life. 5 



Second, for utilization of waters that now go to waste in 

 large volume, the establishment of ponds and backwaters 

 on individual farms, and the establishment of lakes and larger 

 backwaters sometimes even the restoration of marshes and 

 swamps by communities on the larger headwater streams 

 by means of check dams and in some instances small masonry 

 dams. Such retardation of the flow of waters to the large 

 rivers will have beneficial results, in some instances building 

 up the ground water and thereby affording a better well 

 supply; in others offering means of individual-farm and com- 

 munity supplementary irrigation, and clear streams for 

 additional water supply and for fish, wild fowl, and recrea- 

 tion. On the larger tributaries below the headwaters, flood 

 crests may be reduced and a better flow maintained through- 

 out the months of moderate or no rainfall. 



[a] THE INDIVIDUAL FARM 



The waters on the individual farms come mainly as rain 

 and snow, and they proceed oceanward in the form of rills, 

 rivulets, creeks, and rivers. Aside from the part absorbed 

 by the soil, varying amounts are intercepted and retained, at 

 least temporarily, in marshes, bogs, swamps, lakes, ponds, 

 the sites of former ponds, and in natural depressions. Wise 

 handling of waters, and of land in relation thereto, in connec- 

 tion with the primary forms of water on land, can solve most 

 of the erosion problems and contribute much to obtaining 

 new benefits from waters that now flow rapidly and waste- 

 fully to the seas. As George W. Field has observed, "Dirt 

 farming must now be coordinated with water farming to 

 provide a balanced food ration for a well-balanced nation." 6 

 Balancing the biological budget helps to balance the financial 

 budget. 



6 W. J. McGee, Wells and Subsoil Water, Bulletin No. 92, Bureau of Soils, U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, p. 8. 



6 Hearing before the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, 71st Cong., 

 3d Sess., Feb. 6 and 13, 1931, to Conserve Run-off or Flood Waters, Consideration of 

 Wildlife Conservation, p. 34. 



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