Evening star., 1936-03-31

in soil conserving and soil rebuilding
crops, such as grasses and legumes.
Grass roots are doing far more for
the country than grass root con-
ventions"! The Soil Conservation
Service, with several other Govern
ment agencies. Is making rapid prog
ress in the fight to conserve not only
our land but our water resources as
well.
Every field an invisible reservoir
is one of its major goals. BY contour
plowing instead Of plowing up and
down slopes. by terracing, by strip
cropping. by planting trees on steep
slopes, by building check dams in
gullies, by constructing small ponds
and by developing proper crop rota-
tions, the Soil Conservation Service
has already accomplished much in
several regions.
The Forest Service is building for
the future by planting trees on mil
lions acres of hilly and poor lands
which have been unproductive for
years. The. root structures of these
trees will hold the soil and the water
both of which are today being wasted
on these desolate slopes. In addi-
ton, the Forest Service Is helping the
farmers to restore his woodlot and so
increase his valuable underground
water storage. A considerable portion
of the labor for this work is being
supplied by the boys In the 1000 G..
C. C. Camps.
Every Field a Reservoir.
In these ways part of our program
is being carried out. BY holding the
rain where it falls, and retarding it
until it enters the ground, every
field becomes an invisible reservoir and
water is saved for productive use
instead of wasting itself as part Of
destructive floods. The effectiveness
of these important measures is shown
by the statement Of the director of
the Soil Conservation Service "that
the volume of runon water can be
reduced to rs per cent-the margin.
in most cases, between mere high
water and destructive floods"
The T. v. A. is demonstrating how
effective an aid to the storage of
underground waters would be provided
by the proper farming of the 10000
900 acres of farm land in the Tennes-,
see Valley. Necessary as these un-
doubtedly are, the storage of water
in natures own reservoirs can be
greatly expanded by intelligently re-
adjusting the use of our agricultural
lands. Such an operation. while not
as spectacular as a large dam Of con-
crete, will provide even greater stor-
age for the rain falling on the earth
In the Tennessee Valley there are
about 100000 acres of land which
are under cultivation or which have
been farmed. While on much of
this land about Is inches of rainfall
each year runs of quickly into the
streams, it has been found that by
changing farming practices this run
OF can be reduced to about S
inches, that is, 10 inches of this wa
ter can be saved. Such practices in
clude reforestation and the substi-
tuition Of cover crops like grass for
clean-tilled crops like corn and to-
bacco. This permits the water to
soak into the ground. BY holding
this 10 inches Of rainfall on each
acre. every one Of the 10000, 900 acres
in the valley would be made a reser-
voir for an additional l,130 tons of
water. Thus, the 100000 acres
would provide an underground stor.
age reservoir for more than l1,000,-
100000 tons of water. The tre-
mendous magnitude of this reservoir
is hard to visualize-yet 1t would be
more than three times the storage
capacity of the immense lake forming
behind the great Norris Dam!
In addition to- these measures
which We have been discussing there
can profitably be constructed many
small reservoirs, ponds and lakes
which will aid in controlling floods
and in furnishing opportunity for
power and increasing facilities for
fishing, swimming and water fowl.
Such recreational facilities should be
available In every community. On
the larger rivers these measures will
aid, but there will still be great need
for retarding basins, large dams, dikes
and levees, such as we have been
building in this country for over 200
years.
Headwater Control Needed.
Yet, without adequate upstream
headwater control. the useful life of
these dams will be seriously dimin-
ished. This is shown by a recent
study Of number of major reservoirs