46 



Conservation Reader 



H. W. Fairbanks 



The miner in his search for gold ruins the beautiful valley, leaving it a mass of 



boulders. 



SO many years that in many places the soil will scarcely 

 grow a crop worth gathering. Many farmers have never 

 thought of this, but the wise ones understand that they 

 must frequently add plant food to the soil to replace that 

 taken by crops. They understand also that it is a good 

 thing to change the crops grown upon any particular field 

 from year to year, since different plants take different sub- 

 stances from the soil. 



Water goes through a ceaseless round. It rises from the 

 sea and lakes to form the clouds, falls as rain or snow, and 

 then flows back down the slopes to the sea. Although we 

 have learned that we cannot change the quantity of rain 

 that falls in any place, we can influence the way in which 

 it runs back to the sea. This in turn affects the lives of 

 people. We can store water in reservoirs, and by building 

 canals have it to use on the land during the summer. We 



