Evening star., 1914-04-26
BY RUPERT BALCH


halcyon period of the old oaken bucket.
Year by year, however, the level of the
water in the old well became lower; until at
last, in order to obtain a sufficient water
supply, the farmer was obliged to have a
deep well drilled, to be operated by wind
mill or pump. incidentally it often hap
pened that the gurgling trout brook ceased
to flow, and the current of the clear running
mill stream was greatly reduced in volume.
There was increasing difficulty in getting
water for stock, and increasing uncertainty
of community supply.
This sort of thing has been going on pro-
gressively, and still continues. As shown by
the measurements of wells made in thirty
one States, comprising 1,734 ,433 square
miles, or considerably more than half the
area of the mainland of the United States,
the level of the ground water has been falling
at the rate of about thirteen and a half
inches decade. Suppose an average period
of eighty years to have elapsed since earliest
settlement, this means lowering of nine
feet. If it be assumed that the water repre-
sents twenty-five per cent. of the subsoil and
rocks beneath, this is equivalent to loss of
two and quarter feet of actual water
This was described by Professor W
McGee as "a national loss of substance COM
parable to the destruction of the forests, and
far exceeding in importance the waste of
coal and metal. 1t represents an advancing
national impoverishment.'
The matter becomes more obviously Sc
rious when it is considered that the present
upper level of the ground water is not far
from the limit of its availability for crop
growth. That is to say, if it goes much
lower, the land will become unproductive.
And, be it understood, this state of affairs
exists over nearly all that part of the coun-
try which is the bread basket and meat ham,
per of the nation.
Nearly everywhere the same story is told.
Springs are failing, wells are lowered, water is
growing scarcer from year to year. Such re-
ports come from two thirds of the States and
half the area of the United States; the half,
that is to say, which supplies the greater part
of our foodstuffs and most of our clothing.
ONE may find this subject fully discussed
~ by Professor McGee in a recently issued
bulletin mo. 92) of the United States Bureau
of Soils. He says that the average rainfall in
the United States is thirty inches year.
To maintain full productivity, sixty inches
are required. Half the country is under
watered, much of it so far as to be prac-
tically uninhabitable. Even in the better
watered sections the rainfall during the
growing season seldom suffices for the pro-
duction of full crop; so that generally the
productivity OF the country IS dependent
upon water stored in the soil and underlying
rocks within draft by the growing plants.
The habitability of continent depends
on its water supp1y,-no water, no plants;
no plants, no people. The seasonal rainfall
(says Professor McGee) may be ikened to
currency forming the basis of farming opera
tions; while the store of water accumulated
within the earth is a reserve capital on which
the permanent success of agriculture de-
pends
If the United States was half as big, with
the present amount of water properly dis
tributed, its capacity for production and the
maintenance of population would be as
great as now, with the advantages of reduced
distance and cost of transportation, and of
better social and industrial facilities. In
other words, it would furnish subsistence for
as many people, with much more conve-
nience for all
When natural conditions governed, there
was little surface run-off of water. Prac-
tically all the storm and thaw waters entered
the soil, to escape slowly by seepage into
streams and springs. The subsoil was kept
surcharged with water often quite to the
level reached by the roots of growing plants.
But when the land had been cleared and
cultivated much of the storm water was per-
mitted to run off the surface in freshets,