THE CONSERVATION OF UNDERGROUND WATERS 
JAMES H. LEES 
Importance of Water . — Ranking with the soil and the atmos- 
phere, water is recognized as being one of the absolute essentials 
of existence. We are all familiar with the fact that where water 
is absent — or unavailable, which is equivalent — life likewise is 
absent or nearly so. It is difficult, perhaps needless, to decide 
which is the most necessary, soil, air, or water, all are so intimately 
interwoven into the complex relationships of life. Not only is 
that water which is exterior to the organic creation an essential 
to the continued well being of that creation but much the greater 
bulk of animal and vegetable tissue is composed of water. 
It is estimated that of annual plants, three-fourths of the sub- 
stance is water; of perennials, three-eighths is water. Eighty 
per cent of animal tissue is water, and this ratio holds good with 
regard to the body of man himself. The gray matter of the 
human brain — the most highly developed and specialized living 
material on the planet — is said to consist of 83.5 per cent of 
water, leaving only 16.5 per cent of solid matter, so called (Van 
Hise). 
The amount of water consumed by animals and plants in their 
growth and nourishment is truly remarkable. “The average man 
of 150 pounds weight ingests each year about 264 gallons of 
water or 35 cubic feet, the weight of which is more than a ton’^ 
(Van Hise). Do we of Iowa realize that to produce a bushel of 
our world-famed corn there is necessitated the evaporation from 
the soil and the transpiration from the plants of ten to twenty 
tons of water? Or that the pound of beefsteak about whose 
price we grumble so severely required from fifteen to thirty tons 
of water in its production (McGee)? Multiply these figures 
by the beeves grazing today in Iowa pastures and over the Great 
Plains and by the millions of acres of corn and grain waving in 
our fields or standing in orderly shocks and you gain some con- 
ception of the enormous volume of water that enters into the life 
of the world. 
Source and Distribution of Ground Water . — Of course the 
source of the water of the earth is the rainfall and it is interesting 
