BYBEE-MALOTT : THE FLOOD OF 1913 



211 



ington. In these states laws ha\'e Ijccn ciL-ictcd so as to pre\'eMt 

 the unnecessary waste of the underground waler. The fohowing 

 table wdll show to some extent the amount that the w^ater table 

 is being lowered in Indiana. This data was pul)lished in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science, for 1910, by ]\Ir 

 Charles Brossman. 



TABLE No. 5. 



City. 



iOTai uiop. 



1: ears. 



Feet per year. 





48 



5 



9 4-5 



Ehvood 



40 



12 



3 1-3 





40 



10 



4 





28 

 8 







Remington 



10 



4-5 





6 



20 



3-10 



Butler 



4 



10 



2-5 



Linton 



30 



6 



5 





15- 



15 



1 



These towns are pretty well distributed over the State and are 

 a fair representation of the State at large. The last column shoAvs 

 the average fall in feet per year. If this is a fair test, it will not 

 be very long, possibly it may occur even in this generation, until 

 the water table will be so lowered as to become a very serious matter, 



Mr. F. G. Clapp, of the United States Geological Survey, 

 believes that the decline of the Avater table is due to the following 

 causes, named in the order of their importance; 



1. Waste of Water. 



2. Surface drainage by ditching for cultivation. 



3. Over-development of the underground water. 



4. Deforestation. 



The people of the United States do not seem to realize that 

 the natural resources of this 'new country are limited. Resources 

 such as coal, oil, gas, timber and water,- — especially the first four, 

 are the result of many years labor on the part of Nature, and cannot 

 be replaced when once exhausted. 



Water, the most abundant of all our natural resources, is 

 becoming a luxury, and it behooves the present generation to con- 

 sider and start a movement for the conservation of it. In ^Madison 



