community industries based on the raw materials of the 

 community, such as gristmilling, woodworking, weaving, 

 and canning. Of course, small hydropower sources of the 

 kind under consideration are not dependable as to the con- 

 stancy of the volume of water supply, the head of water 

 and the energy generated; and under present conditions the 

 kilowatt cost might be too high. These things would have 

 to be taken into consideration in any planning. But the 

 time is apparently not distant when all sources of electric 

 energy in an area will be hooked together by high-tension 

 transmission lines into great circuits or pools of power into 

 "grids" as the technicians call them and when that is the 

 case, even small and irregular power sources may be hooked 

 into a system on a variable give-and-take basis, and with 

 new conditions of cost, to the advantage both of the entire 

 system and of the individual consuming centers. Of greatest 

 importance for rural development, however, is not the energy 

 which small power sites could contribute to the intercon- 

 nected system, but the low-cost energy which the system 

 could offer to the rural communities. 



In a few instances also a community may by cooperative 

 arrangements undertake a land-selection development wherein 

 is arranged restoration of swamps, marshes, and other natural 

 wet lands of poor soils, reforestation on uplands, and pastur- 

 ing on intermediate slopes; undertakings for the purpose 

 primarily of promoting infiltration, building up the ground- 

 water supply, increasing the seepage into the now regulated 

 small streams, and eliminating erosion. But on the whole, 

 undertakings of land selection and allocation to use on an 

 extensive scale are a responsibility of authorities of larger 

 areas under general permissive legislation; which is fortunate, 

 for such community undertakings should be in accord with 

 plans for larger areas. 



At this point, as an example both of individual farm man- 

 agement and of community cooperation, certain European 

 practices may be of interest. We cite the Upper Rhone 

 Valley in France as an example. 12 Its characteristics are in 



From unpublished notes by Dr. George W. Field, consulting biologist. 



65 



