SCIENCE IN MAN'S STRUGGLE ON ARID LANDS 45 
above all is the question of how we shall divide the water without 
its overuse. 
At such an international conference it may not be out of place 
to emphasize again the need for international cooperation and 
joint planning. Many excellent opportunities can be realized only 
by the pooling of resources, including water, that are arbitrarily 
divided by country boundaries. For example, United States and 
Mexico and the United States and Canada have worked together 
for their mutual benefit. Going back again to the Near East, the 
agriculturist can only hope for full peace and cooperation so that 
the planning of combined resource use can become effective. 
Summary 
I have tried to create the impression that science has found out 
a lot about arid lands. Progress has been substantial during the 
last twenty years. But this progress has been mainly within 
individual disciplines. It is not balanced; some fields have pro- 
gressed more than others. Some lines of research have been weak 
on the fundamental side. I should say that this is true in biology. 
Here, for example, great potentialities for advances in plant 
breeding depend upon more fundamental researches in genetics as 
related to plant physiology. My experience leads me to the view 
that the economic and legal researches, basic to improved institu- 
tional devices, are less advanced than research in most fields of 
natural science. 
Great opportunities for science to serve the development of 
arid lands lie in more emphasis upon basic research, in the wider 
application of accurate methods for basic resource surveys, and 
in the integration of research results from the several disciplines 
in ways that make possible good predictions for combinations of 
resource use in communities and regions. Perhaps we need more 
team research. At least I think we do. And special emphasis should 
be given to joint research with both natural scientists and social 
scientists on the same team. 
REFERENCES 
1. Buttlar, von Haro, and W. F. Libby. 1955. Natural distribution of 
cosmic ray produced tritium II. ¥. Inorg. and Nuclear Chem. London. 
