Checking the Waste | Page 9

wandering along the shore of any swift-running stream and noticing
how the banks are worn away, and what deep gullies and ravines are
cut into them by the water running down from the fields above.
Another way in which we can observe the effect of this waste is by
noticing the muddy yellow color of streams during floods and after
heavy rains, and comparing it with the clear blue of the same stream at
ordinary times.
When we realize that this muddy color always means that the water is
filled with soil, all that it will hold in solution, that it is carrying away
the top soil, which is best for agriculture, and, finally, that every little
streamlet and creek, as well as the mightiest river, is carrying this rich
soil-deposit downward toward the sea in its flow, we begin to see how
great a factor erosion is in the wasting of the land.
The Missouri River, which drains a large area of wheat and corn land,
is notable as a muddy, yellow river at almost all seasons. Do you
understand what that means? It means that this great productive region
is growing poorer each year, and that as the population increases, and
the need of great harvests increases, the land is becoming less able to
produce them. The Mississippi River is said to tear down from its
banks more soil each year than is to be dredged from the Panama Canal.
At the mouth of the river is a delta many miles in extent, formed

wholly of land that has been carried down the river. The soil in lower
Mississippi and Louisiana is almost black, and is in many places
seventy feet in depth, and it has all been left there by the river, which
took it from the higher lands.
It is estimated that our rivers carry out to sea one billion tons of our
richest soil each year. The ancient Egyptians worshiped the Nile
because each year the spring floods left behind the rich soil deposits
that fertilized their fields and gave them an abundant harvest. Entire
fields and even whole farms along the upper stretches of the
Mississippi and Missouri have been carried away, not the top soil only,
but the land itself, by the swift current of the springtime floods as they
cut a new channel for the river.
Canaan, the "land of promise" of the Bible, was once an abundant
region, "flowing with milk and honey" in the language of Moses, with
its grapes, its vast forests of cedar, fir, and oak, its treasures of wheat,
olive-oil, and other rich agricultural products. Now all are gone. The
entire country seen by the traveler in the Holy Land to-day is one of the
most desolate regions on the globe, where the few inhabitants are
scarcely able to obtain a scanty living.
We wonder what has brought about this change, and we have not far to
seek in answer to our questioning. The preservation of the forests
means the preservation of the soil, and the destruction of the forests
means the destruction of the soil. This is the universal law. First the
forests were cut down and the hillsides left bare. Then the streams wore
great ravines down the unprotected hillsides. Steadily the work of
destruction by erosion has gone on, until time beyond our possibility to
comprehend must pass before the land can be made productive again.
The hills and valleys of China have been devastated in the same way,
and many of the older regions of the earth that were once the sites of
great cities and extensive commerce are now marked only by the ruins
of the civilization that has passed away. They have almost ceased to
support life.
In the days of Rome's greatness, Sicily was known as "the granary of
Rome" because from this little island came the grains to supply her vast

armies. 12,000,000 bushels of grain was the tribute that Rome claimed
of Sicily each year, and yet Sicily had enough left to make her rich. She
built splendid cities and became great. But the same story of
destruction is to be read in the history of Sicily. Now the entire island
does not raise a million and a half bushels of wheat altogether. The soil
is barren. The cities have nearly all fallen into ruin. The people are
scattered. Thousands have come to America, seeking a poor living at
the lowest wages because at home there was no chance to earn even the
little they require. They allowed the soil to become exhausted by lack
of fertilization and by erosion and it long ago ceased to support the
people. All the rest followed naturally.
In many parts of our own country this same danger is coming on us. It
is