Community Civics and Rural Life

by Arthur William Dunn

CHAPTER XV

CONSERVING OUR NATURAL RESOURCES

RESOURCES OF THE SOIL

In the preceding chapter we learned that as a nation we have not been altogether thrifty in the disposal and use of our public lands. The same thing will have to be said regarding the use of the resources of the land, of which the soil is by far the most valuable.

It is said that 1200 boys in Ohio, organized in clubs, increased the average yield of corn from 35 bushels to 81 bushels per acre. The average returns per acre from the soil of the United States were lower before the war than in any European country, except Russia. The following table gives the production per acre of four cereals in the United States and five European countries in 1913. The same relative position of the United States would be shown if we took the average production of these countries for a series of years.

PRODUCTION IN BUSHELS PER ACRE UNDER CULTIVATION IN 1913

ABILITY OF THE AMERICAN FARMER

The low position of the United States in agriculture is by no means due to inferior ability on the part of the American farmer. The Secretary of Agriculture says that

Even now no farmer in the world can compare with the American farmer in agricultural efficiency. His adaptability to new and changing conditions, to the use of improved machinery and processes, coupled with the great natural resources with which the nation is endowed, make him far superior to any of his competitors. It is true that he does not produce more per acre than the farmers of some other nations. Production per acre, however, is not the American standard. The standard is the amount of production for each person engaged in agriculture, and by this test the American farmer appears to be from two to six times as efficient as most of his competitors.

WASTEFULNESS OF EARLY FARMING

As long as we had a great abundance of unoccupied land it would perhaps have been uneconomic to increase the production of that which was occupied by the costly methods of agriculture used in Belgium, Germany, and other thickly settled countries. But the old methods of farming not only failed to get from the soil all that it was then capable of producing, they also robbed it of fertility without restoring to it what was taken from it. Thus the loss caused by wasteful methods was passed on to future generations. To continue such methods in the light of our present knowledge and with our growing population is thriftless in the extreme. Methods of preserving and restoring the fertility of the soil and of obtaining the largest returns from it are now receiving the most careful attention from both state and national governments.

IDLE LANDS

A great deal of land lies idle that might be productive of food— not only arid, swamp, and cut-over lands, mentioned in later paragraphs, and land held for speculation, but also vacant lots and unused back yards in cities and villages, and waste or unused portions of cultivated farms. It is largely from city and village lots that the School Garden Army obtained its remarkable results. It is astonishing how many farmers buy instead of raising their vegetables for the table, as well as feed for their stock.

Texas, for instance, has purchased $200,000,000 worth of food products yearly from northern markets which might have been produced more cheaply at home. It takes 15 to 20 acres of land in Texas to grow cotton enough to buy 160 bushels of canned sweet potatoes, while one acre of Texas soil would produce the same quantity, and uncanned. [Footnote: THRIFT, a monograph published by the National Education Association, 1918.]

Such topics as the following should be studied, consulting parents, farmers of the locality, and such printed sources of information as are available.

The important cereal crops of your state. The average yield per acre of each. Increase or decrease in yield in recent years.

The work of corn clubs and other boys' and girls' clubs to increase the yield of crops in your state.

The difference between "production per acre" and "production per person engaged in agriculture."

The difference between "intensive" and "extensive" agriculture.

"Single crop" and "diversified crop" types of agriculture in your locality. Advantages of each.

Extent to which farmers of your locality raise their own table vegetables and stock feed.

Evidence furnished by your town, or neighboring towns, during the war, of the wealth-producing power of vacant lots or unused backyards.

RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS

Much of our public land has been nonproductive solely because of the lack of moisture. In 1902 a law known as the Reclamation Act was passed by Congress, providing that the proceeds from the sale of public lands in states containing arid regions,[Footnote: The states to which this law applies are Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. See map.] except such as were already devoted to educational and other public purposes, should be used for the construction and maintenance of irrigation works. This reclamation work is in charge of the Reclamation Service of the Department of the Interior, whose engineers have built great dams and reservoirs from which the water has been led by canals and ditches into the desert. By 1916 more than 1,000,000 acres had been irrigated under this act, the crop value in that year reaching $35,000,000. The reclaimed land is disposed of to actual settlers in accordance with the homestead laws, each homesteader repaying the government in annual installments the cost of reclaiming the land he occupies. The fund so created is used by the government for further reclamation projects. The Department of Agriculture sends its experts to advise with the farmers in regard to the problems peculiar to the reclaimed regions. "Every effort should be and is, therefore, being made to promote the success of the farmer, and on the basis of his success to increase the prosperity of the country." [Footnote 2: Report of the Reclamation Service, 1912- 1913, p. 4.]

The Yuma project in Arizona opened a new Valley of the Nile where four crops of alfalfa are now raised on what once were arid lands. The streets of Yuma and Somerton are crowded with the automobiles of farmers, enriched by thousands of acres of splendid long-staple cotton, alfalfa, corn, and feterita. Another irrigated valley in Arizona, that of the Salt River, has few superiors in the world and has come in three years into great prosperity. Arizona planted to cotton last year 92,000 acres. Its crop was 96 per cent perfect, the best record in the United States. [Footnote: Arthur D. Little, "Developing the Estate," ATLANTIC MONTHLY, March, 1919.]

The principal irrigation projects of the Reclamation Service are shown on the accompanying map.

RECLAMATION BY STATES AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

Five or six times as much arid land has been reclaimed by private enterprise as by the Reclamation Service. The first extensive irrigation project in the West was a cooperative enterprise by the Mormon colonists in Utah. It is said that about two fifths of the land irrigated in the United States is supplied with water by works built and controlled by individual farmers or by a few neighbors, while another one third is supplied by stock companies. As early as 1877 Congress passed "a desert land law," by which homesteads were granted in the arid lands on condition that the settlers should irrigate the land. In 1894 the Carey Act was passed by Congress under which the national government may give to a state as much as a million acres of arid public land within its borders, on condition that the state provides for its irrigation. The work is done by private stock companies, with whom the state makes a contract for the purpose. The most extensive irrigation project undertaken by private enterprise is that of the Imperial Valley in California, which derives its water from the Colorado River. Under the laws of California the Imperial Valley region has been organized as an "irrigation district," with power to levy taxes for the development and support of the irrigation work. Each state in which irrigation is practiced has its own laws regulating the use of water by farmers and other consumers.

The theory is that the state regulates the appropriation of the water, exercising this power and holding the land in trust for the public … It is the duty of every state to which the Reclamation Act is applicable to assist with every resource under its control.[Footnote: Water Supply Paper, 234, U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, p. 66.]

Reference has been made in Chapter XIV to the proposed plan for the reclamation and settlement of new areas of arid land by returning soldiers.

SWAMP LANDS

There are probably 80,000,000 acres of swamp lands in the United States which could be made productive by drainage. Farmers themselves could reclaim much of this land at comparatively small cost, greatly increasing their own profit and the wealth of the country.

One farm in Wisconsin has 40 acres of poorly drained land that in its present condition is practically worthless. $25.00 per acre spent in drainage will make this 40-acre tract the equal of any in the district, and good land is selling there at $150.00 per acre. [Footnote 2: "Unprofitable Acres," in YEAR BOOK, Department of Agriculture, 1915, P. 147.]

The national government has at various times granted to the states swamp lands aggregating 60,000,000 acres, with the expectation that the states would reclaim them. The states have, however, done very little to fulfill the expectation. These swamp lands are among those whose reclamation by returning soldiers is proposed by the government.

Investigate and report on the following topics:

The work of the Reclamation Service of the national government.

If you live in one of the states to which the Reclamation Act applies, report on what has been accomplished by it in your state.

The development of one of the irrigation projects shown on the map.

Irrigation by private or state enterprise in your state (if any), and what it has accomplished.

The reclamation of Utah by the Mormons.

The development of the Imperial Valley of California.

The laws regulating the use of water for irrigation in your state (if an irrigated state).

The swamp areas in your locality or state. Progress made in their reclamation.

The reclamation of swamp or marshy land on particular farms of your locality.

The extent of idle cut-over land in your locality, why it is idle, the uses to which it could be put if reclaimed.

CONSERVATION OF WATER POWER

By the construction of dams, reservoirs, and canals the waters of a few of our streams are turned to the work of reclaiming land. Our unused water resources are very great. Niagara Falls have been harnessed for industrial uses, and with only a small part of their power in use they light the streets and houses, run the street cars, and turn the wheels of industry in Buffalo and Toronto and the neighboring region. But so far we are making use of less than 10 per cent of the power easily available from our streams. "The water now flowing idly from our hills to the sea could turn every factory wheel and every electric generator, operate our railroads, and still leave much energy to spare for new developments." [Footnote: Arthur D. Little, "Developing the Estate," ATLANTIC MONTHLY, March, 1919, p. 388.] It is probably not too much to expect that when our undeveloped water power is utilized it will provide electric light and power for every farm in the land. Our nation has allowed many of the best water power sites of the country to fall into the hands of private speculators who hold them undeveloped, as in the case of farmlands, forests, and other resources.

CONSERVATION OF FLOOD WATERS

Floods are not only immensely destructive of property, causing a loss of $100,000,000 along the Mississippi River alone in a single year, but they carry to the sea water that might be used for irrigation and for industry. Reservoirs, such as are built for irrigating projects, regulate the flow of water in streams and prevent floods. In New England and New York reservoirs have been built for this very purpose, and probably 10 per cent of the flood waters that originate in these states is saved in this way and turned to industrial uses. Similar conservation of flood waters occurs in Minnesota, but it is estimated that for the country as a whole not more than one per cent of the flood waters is saved. [Footnote: "Conservation of Water Resources," Water Supply Paper 234, U.S. Geological Survey, 1919.] There are areas in which the reservoir system is impracticable, as in the lower Mississippi Valley. Here all that can be done is to protect the adjacent land by means of levees while controlling the floods farther up the valley.

FUEL RESOURCES

Larger use of water power would conserve another valuable resource—coal. Of this fuel we have vast resources—"in West Virginia alone more than Great Britain and Germany combined." But the supply is not inexhaustible and we are mining it and using it in an extravagant manner. The loss here is not merely of heat and power and light, but of many valuable products of coal, including dyes, ammonia, vaseline, and many others.

DESTRUCTION BY FLOODS

Floods are increasing in the United States. This is due chiefly to the destruction of our forests by wasteful lumbering and by fire. In forested areas the ground absorbs the rainfall more easily, while in areas barren of trees and other vegetation it runs off the surface. The destruction of the forests, therefore, involves not only the loss of the timber, but also the loss caused by the floods, including the washing away of the soil.

THE FOREST RESERVES

In 1891 Congress authorized the President to establish "forest reserves," the first to be created being the "Yellowstone Park Timberland Reserve." From time to time new reserves were established, and in 1907 the name was changed to the National Forests. In 1917, more than 176 million acres were included within the National Forest boundaries, 21 million acres of which, however, belonged to private owners. They are administered by the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture, at the head of which is the Chief Forester. They are grouped in seven districts with a district forester in charge of each. Over each of the 150 forests in the seven districts there is a forest supervisor; and each forest is further subdivided into ranger districts under district rangers who not only look after timber sales and the use of the forests generally, but also "help build roads, trails, bridges, telephone lines, and other permanent improvements."

A ranger must naturally be sound in body, for he is called upon to work for long periods in all kinds of weather. He must also know how to pack supplies and find food for himself and his horse in a country where it is often scarce. Besides a written test, prospective rangers are examined in compass surveying, timber work, and the handling of horses. [Footnote: "Government Forest Work," Forest Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, p. 15.]

There are also employed in the Forests great numbers of logging engineers, lumbermen, scalers, planting assistants, guards, and others. In the great war, the Forest Service raised two regiments of men who went to France to assist in the various kinds of forestry work necessitated by the war.

WORK OF THE FOREST SERVICE

The purpose of the Forest Service is to secure the use of the forests "in such a way that they will yield all their resources to the fullest extent without exhausting them, for the benefit primarily of the home builder. The controlling policy is serving the public while conserving the forests." [Footnote: "The Status of Forestry in the United States," Forest Service Circular 167, 1909, p. 5.] Timber is cut and sold, but always with a view to developing future growth. The forests are protected against fire. Burned-over areas are reforested by planting. Water power sites are protected. The freest possible use of forest pasture land is permitted, but under such regulations as to prevent injury to the forests and the denudation of the land by overgrazing. In 1915, nine million cattle, horses, sheep, and goats were pastured in the forests. In 1916 it was said that "more than 20 million dollars will probably be spent in the next ten years in building good roads in the National Forests." [Footnote 2: "Opening up the National Forests by Road Building," YEAR BOOK of the Department of Agriculture, 1916. Also reprinted in separate Leaflet No. 696.]

WASTE OF TIMBER RESOURCES

But our timber resources are not all in the National Forests, and the waste continues to an appalling extent.

With a total annual cut of 40,000,000,000 feet, board-measure, of merchantable lumber, another 70,000,000,000 feet are wasted in the field and at the mill. In the yellow-pine belt the values in rosin, turpentine, ethyl alcohol, pine oil, tar, charcoal, and paper stock lost in the waste are three or four times the value of the lumber produced. Enough yellow-pine pulp-wood is consumed in burners, or left to rot, to make double the total tonnage of paper produced in the United States.

But the wastes in lumbering, colossal though they are in absolute amount, are trivial compared to the losses which our estate has suffered, and still endures, from forest fires. The French properly regard as a national calamity the destruction of perhaps a thousand square miles of their fine forests by German shells. And yet the photographs that they show of this wreck and utter demolition may be reproduced indefinitely on 10,000,000 acres of our forest lands swept each year by equally devastating fire for which our own people are responsible. You have doubtless already forgotten that forest fire which last autumn, in Minnesota, burned over an area half as large again as Massachusetts, destroying more than twenty-five towns, killing 400 people, and leaving 13,000 homeless. [Footnote: "Developing the Estate," ATLANTIC MONTHLY, March, 1919, pp. 384-385.]

The nation has been defrauded of a great deal of wealth in timber by speculators who have taken advantage of the homestead laws.

Single tracts of 160 acres often have a value for the timber alone of $20,000 … Lands acquired … under the guise of the homestead law are to-day in the hands of lumber companies who promptly purchased them from the settlers as soon as the title passed, and are either reserving them for later cutting or are holding the land itself after cutting for from $40 to $60 an acre, or even more—a speculative process which effectively prevents the possibility of men of small means acquiring and establishing homes there. [Footnote 2: "The National Forests and the Farmer," in YEAR BOOK, Department of Agriculture, 1914, p. 70.]

To prevent this sort of thing, the government now sells the timber and the land separately, withholding from agricultural entry heavily timbered land until the timber is cut off.

In the Kaniksy National Forest, in Idaho and Washington, timber sales have been made to include much of the remaining agricultural timberland. Within eight years fully 10,000 acres of land will be made available for settlement. Permanent homes will be established and there will be available for the use of the communities approximately $225,000 for roads and schools, their share of the proceeds from the sale of the timber. [Footnote 3: IBID., p. 71.]

STATE FORESTS

Besides the National Forests, there are more than 4,000,000 acres of STATE FORESTS.

Twenty-four states have forestry departments, sometimes under a state board or a commission, sometimes under the control of a single state forester, as in Massachusetts and Virginia. In New York, New Jersey, and Wisconsin the state forestry is a part of the work of a general "conservation commission." In Connecticut it is centered in the state agricultural experiment station, and in Texas in the agricultural college. In South Dakota the state forester is under the "commissioner of schools and public lands." So there is great variety in the organization of forestry work, and great variation in the amount and kind of attention given to it.

PRIVATELY OWNED TIMBERLANDS

The difference between the number of states having state forests and the number having forestry departments is due to the fact that the public forests embrace only a small part of the timbered land of a state. It will be noted from the table on page 225 that only one southern state (North Carolina; two if Maryland is counted) has state forests. Six of them (eight with Maryland and Virginia) have state forestry departments. More attention is now being given to forest preservation and use in the South than these facts indicate, because of cooperation between state and national governments, chiefly through the county agents. Such cooperation also exists in the northern states. The map on page 242 shows cooperation for fire protection in New Hampshire.

VOLUNTARY PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATIONS

The conservation of our forest resources requires cooperation on the part of citizens. In many states there are "timberland owners' fire protective associations," in 1917 about fifty of them. There is an American Forestry Association that publishes a magazine devoted to forestry, AMERICAN FORESTRY; a Society of American Foresters; The Camp Fire Club of America, with a committee on conservation of forests and wild life. Besides, there is a considerable number of local associations with similar purposes.

EROSION

It is not always realized how important to our welfare the forests are, especially from the point of view of agricultural production. A very large part of the timbered area of the United States is in small woodlands on privately owned farms. Not only are the timber resources themselves of great value, but the relation of woodland to agriculture is very close, especially in its effect upon soil erosion.

Altogether it has been estimated that erosion is responsible for an annual loss in this country of approximately $100,000,000. To the farmer it means money out of pocket from start to finish. It impairs the fertility and decreases the productivity of his land, and may even ruin it altogether; it renders irrigation more difficult and more costly; by reducing the possibilities of cheap water power development it tends to keep up the price and check the more extended use of electricity; and by interfering with navigation it helps to prevent the development of a comprehensive system of cheap inland water transportation. But the farmer is not the only sufferer. The entire community is directly affected by the loss and is justified in taking heroic measures to remedy the evil.

If the problem is to be solved we must cease to accelerate surface run-off by burning the forests and brush fields, overgrazing the range, clearing steep slopes for agriculture, and practicing antiquated methods of cultivation. On the contrary, the farmer, the forester, and the stockman must cooperate in seeing that the land is so used that surface run-off, particularly at the higher elevations, is reduced to a minimum.

Children in particular should have their interest actively aroused and their support enlisted. In one state, "gully clubs" have been organized by the state forester. These are composed largely of school children who take an active part in the work of gully reclamation and particularly in finding and checking incipient gullies before it is too late. Why could not such organizations as boy scouts, girl scouts, and campfire girls be used in the same way? [Footnote: "Farms, Forests, and Erosion," YEAR BOOK of the Department of Agriculture, 1916, pp. 107-134.]

MINERAL RESOURCES

Soil, water, and forests are only a few of the rich natural resources of our country, although they are among the most important. Great as the mineral production of our country now is, we have only begun to open the mineral storehouse. On the other hand, we have been extremely wasteful of some of our minerals, as in the case of natural gas, oil, and coal. The war has done more, perhaps, than anything else to open our eyes to our mineral wealth and to convict us of our wastefulness in the past. In the light of what it has shown us we should redouble our efforts to conserve our resources. Our government has been gradually developing a program of conservation which we should help to make effective. At the end of this chapter will be found references to interesting accounts of our national wealth, and of what the government is doing to conserve it in other directions than those described in this chapter. Many of these references are to publications issued by the government itself, which can be obtained for the asking.

Investigate and report on.

Losses in your state from periodic floods. Measures adopted or proposed to control them.

The by products of coal and of petroleum.

The Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture.

A description of your state forests (if any).

Forestry in your own state, public and private.

Losses from forest fires in your state.

The life of a forest ranger.

The use of the farm woodlot in your locality.

The extent and effects of soil erosion in your locality or state.
Measures taken to prevent it.

The feasibility of "gully clubs" in your locality.

The mineral resources of your state. Uses in war and peace.

Game laws of your state.

READINGS

In LESSONS IN COMMUNITY AND NATIONAL LIFE:

Series A: Lesson 13, The United States Food Administration.
Lesson 14, Substitute Foods.

Series B: Lesson 5, Saving the soil.
Lesson 6, Making dyes from coal tar.
Lesson 9, How men made heat to work.
Lesson 13, The Department of the Interior.

Series C: Lesson 4, Petroleum and its uses.
Lesson 5, Conservation as exemplified by irrigation projects.
Lesson 6, Checking waste in the production and use of coal.
Lesson 10, Iron and steel.
Lesson 14, The United States Fuel Administration.
Lesson 16, The Commercial Economy Board of the Council
of National Defense.

Reports of your State Agricultural College and Experiment Station, and of your State Geologist and other officers having to do with the natural resources of your state.

Annual Reports of the Secretary of the Interior. That for 1915 (pp. 1-30) contains an interesting review of our natural resources and their use; also (pp. 151-209) a comprehensive and interesting discussion of our mineral resources and their development. That for 1918 contains an account of the plan for land reclamation by and for soldiers.

Publications of the Geological Survey, the Bureau of Mines, and the Reclamation Service (all in the Department of the Interior), and of the Bureau of Fisheries (Department of Commerce).

Publications of the Forestry Service (Department of Agriculture).

Among the numerous publications of the Department of Agriculture may be mentioned:

Farmers' Bulletin 340(Declaration of Governors for the conservation of natural resources).

The National Forests and the farmer, YEAR BOOK 1914, 65-88.

Importance of developing our natural resources of potash, YEAR
BOOK 1916, pp. 301-310.

Agriculture and Government reclamation projects, YEAR BOOK 1916, 177-198.

Farms, forests, and erosion, YEAR BOOK 1916, 107-134.

The farm woodlot problem, YEAR BOOK 1914, 439-456.

Economy of farm drainage, YEAR BOOK 1914, 245-256.

Economic waste from soil erosion, YEAR BOOK 1913, 207-220.

Unprofitable acres, YEAR BOOK 1915, 147-154.

Consult "Guide to United States Government Publications," U.S.
Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1918, No. 2; also, "The Federal
Executive Departments as Sources of Information," U.S. Bureau of
Education Bulletin, 1919, No. 74.

Report of the National Conservation Commission (1909), Senate
Document 676, 60th Congress, 2nd Session.