on the one hand accomplish certain things that cannot be 

 undertaken by the individual landowner some things are 

 done best and most economically by cooperation and on 

 the other hand they can stimulate, encourage, and reenforce 

 the undertakings of individuals. This may be particularly 

 the case where an agricultural community centers on a rural 

 hamlet. 



In a rural community of progressive characteristics, or in 

 a community among whose members are two or three leaders 

 possessing manifest qualities of leadership, much may be 

 accomplished; especially where the leadership is such as to 

 have the vision, understanding, and energy to enlist on behalf 

 of the community the ready services of county agents, and 

 through them of specialists from experiment stations, agri- 

 cultural colleges, and the various agencies of government. 



The opportunity of organized community effort is, on the 

 one hand, to bring friendly pressure to bear on individual 

 landowners to do all that is practicable on their respective 

 properties, and on the other hand, to undertake measures 

 that lie beyond the capacity of the individual. Perhaps for 

 the small community the biggest opportunity lies in the 

 regulation and control of the larger creeks or small rivers 

 which may form the boundaries between different ownerships, 

 or if concerned with a single ownership, have potential uses 

 which would be of benefit to a community and require new 

 uses of land or works, as for a reservoir, beyond the capacity 

 and interest of an individual to undertake. 



In respect to these larger creeks and small rivers the first 

 consideration of the community should be the construction 

 of numerous check dams which will retard stream flow, 

 create backwaters, and in general promote infiltration. 

 These check dams may be of the same nature and size as 

 those on the smaller creeks of individual farms, but some of 

 them would be larger. They may be constructed by felling 

 interlocking trees, the dumping of large boulders, and the 

 building of a line of posts across streams, the plugging of 

 openings by hay, cornstalks, straw, and other materials. If 

 properly spaced the force of a stream will be broken even 



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