The Use and Care of Water 



8S 



Although water sometimes seems the greatest blessing 

 that we have, yet it may prove a curse if it is not looked 

 after. If you give the water a chance to make gullies in 

 your fields, you lose not only the water but the best of the 

 soil also. If you cultivate your fields with care, most of 

 the water will soak into the ground. If you are a wise 

 farmer you know also that cultivation of the soil helps to 

 hold the water, for it caimot escape through loose soil as 

 it can through compact soil. Thus if you know how to 

 handle both the water and the soil, you can, with only a 

 Httle rain, accomplish a great deal. 



We can, then, hold or conserve the water, first, by leaving 

 the steeper slopes covered with vegetation; second, by 

 keeping the soil loose ; and, third, by building reservoirs to 

 hold the floods. We can make use of the conserved water 



Scene below an irrigation reservoir near Richfield, Idaho, showing a field irrigated 

 by means of canals and ditches. 



