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Conservation Reader 





U. S. 0£ice QJ Farm Management 

 The soil of this valley has been washed to its present location by flood waters. 



you see it today. Now the slopes about the head of the 

 river are not so steep as they were once. Our waters do 

 not run away so rapidly and the river seldom overflows. 

 Thus the farmer can use the land for his crops, which grow 

 so luxuriantly that he is envied by his less fortunate 

 neighbors who live upon the hills. 



Upon the slopes about the valleys we rivulets did not 

 leave so much soil. The farther one goes up the slopes the 

 thinner one finds the soil, until at the top the bare rock may 

 appear. 



But our work, says the muddy rivulet, was not finished 

 with the making of the fertile valley lands. We carried a 

 part of our load of sand and mud on to the mouth of the 

 river. Here in the bay into which the river empties we 

 began another great task. It seemed hopeless at first to 

 try to turn the bay into dry land, but year after year 

 we kept at work, through a time so long that I have 

 forgotten when we began. At last we succeeded in bring- 

 ing so much material to the bay that the waters became 



