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NRCS History Articles
Walter Lowdermilk's Journey: Forester to Land Conservationist
by Douglas Helms
Reprinted from Environmental Review 8(1984): 132-145. This paper
was given at "History of Sustained-Yield Forestry: A Symposium," at the Western
Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon, on October 18-19, 1983, coordinated
by the Forest History Society for the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations
(IUFRO) Forest Group (S6.07). The proceedings, edited by Harold K. Steen under
the same title, were published by the Forest History Society, 109 Coral Street, Santa Cruz,
CA 95060 in 1984.
Walter Clay Lowdermilk often described
his profession as reading "the records which farmers, nations, and civilizations
have written in the land." Few others have belonged to this profession.
Certainly few had the inclination, ability, and opportunity to indulge
in it as did Lowdermilk. The profession required expertise in many fields
of study, but as practiced by Lowdermilk it was not a purely academic exercise.
Rather he sought an ambitious objective--a permanent agriculture for the
world. Through an understanding of human activities in the past and the
earth's response, he hoped to "find the basis for a lasting adjustment
of human populations to the Earth."1
Lowdermilk became a member of the
early twentieth century conservation movement in the United States, a movement
with a strong scientific bent.2 The scientists held that
treatment of natural resources should be in accordance with scientific
principles, not propelled by emotionalism or untested theories. Lowdermilk's
inquisitiveness, intellect, and foreign travel took him on an unusual professional
journey. Veering from forestry, he circled the field of land conservation--a
field encompassing several sciences and disciplines. In foreign travels
Lowdermilk found situations where people's relationship with the land had
reached a precarious balance, or an imbalance resulting in famines. Coping
with these situations required an integration of knowledge from science,
technology, and engineering. Other scientists in the movement had not embraced
a multidisciplinary approach. The abundance of natural resources in the
United States, and the low population density, had allowed scientists of
his era to view solutions to resource problems as a set of discrete alternatives--a
view which further entrenched their fealty to their chosen disciplines.
Walter Lowdermilk was born on July
1, 1888, in North Carolina, but spent his childhood at numerous points
westward during the family's extended migration to Arizona. As a
college student at the University of Arizona, he realized his dream of
earning a Rhodes scholarship. The curriculum at Oxford permitted him time
to study forestry in Germany. Herbert Hoover's Commission for Relief in
Belgium called Lowdermilk and other young Americans in Europe to interrupt
their studies. After the scholarship years, he served as a ranger in the
Southwest for the Forest Service. Returning from World War I, he became
the Forest Service's regional research officer in Montana.3
A man who enjoyed research work,
he had found a position that offered satisfaction. Given his ability, there
was opportunity for advancement. But he was not to remain on that career
ladder. Soon he would be in China, where, he later recalled, the "full
and fateful significance of soil erosion was burned into my consciousness."4
Through the years in England and
afterward, the young forester had corresponded with Miss Inez Marks, a
friend from Arizona. On leave from her missionary work with the Methodist
Church in China, she agreed to meet him at the Rose Bowl, New Year's Day,
1922. Marriage plans quickly followed. Her entreaties that China desperately
needed talented scientists led to his applying for a position with the
University of Nanking's school of agriculture and forestry. The couple
married in August and departed for China in September 1922. Lowdermilk's
charge, for a small salary, was to assist in solving the flooding problems
and resulting famines. Exactly how a forester was to help with food production
remained a mystery as he attended university classes to learn Mandarin
during the first year.5
An expedition to the Yellow River
solved the mystery. There he stood atop a section of the 400-mile-long
dike that held the river 40 to 50 feet above the flood plain. This marvel
was a result of Chinese labor necessitated by silting of the river's channel--aggradation
in the terms of earth scientists.
Lowdermilk set out to find the source
of the silt.6 In spring 1924, O.J. Todd, engineer of the
International Famine Relief Commission, accompanied Lowdermilk on a two-thousand-mile
trip on the watersheds of the Yellow and Wei rivers. Todd's mission was
to study the Wei-Peh irrigation project. Few foreigners had visited the
area of northwest China where the pair completed a third of the journey
afoot or on mulecart or muleback. In Shensi province, they found a plateau
consisting of deep, undulated deposits of loessial soils. Depth, fertility,
and erodibility made these fine, wind-deposited soils prime locations for
man-induced erosion. In the deforesting activities of the people Lowdermilk
found the reason for the gigantic six-hundred-foot-deep gullies, "So great
is the demand for fuel and wood that the mountainsides are annually shaved
clean of all herbaceous shrub and tree growth."7 Paradoxes abounded
on the trip. Temple forests, reproduced naturally and protected by Buddhist
priests, provided evidence of the denuded hills' capability for sustaining
vegetation. Bench terraces festooned some slopes. Yet some of the best
agricultural land on the level, alluvial plains was used for timber production
under irrigation. Surrounding hills were little used for timber.
The pair visited Sianfu, the capital
city of China during its Golden Age, where Todd wanted to inspect the irrigation
works. The area retained little of its former prosperity, which Lowdermilk
conjectured had flowed from a great irrigation project which was now "silted
up and out of use." The forester returned to his post at the University
of Nanking with an impression of "colossal erosion" contrasted with "evidences
of former grandeur." Already he had decided to expand his study of the
sciences involved with natural resources to include the actions of people
as well. The trip had provided "abundant material for an entrancing study
of man's relationship to nature."8
Historical research revealed that
the Yellow River had changed course eight times since A.D. 11.
Several
times the river had been restrained by dikes only to break free. Once
it
emerged four hundred miles from its former outlet. Dikes, therefore, were
essential to using the plain for agriculture. But building higher
dikes,
Lowdermilk concluded, was not a lasting solution unless the
aggradation
of the river was reduced by checking the supply of silt.9 Lowdermilk's
supposition that erosion caused frequent and severe flooding had been recognized
in the United States, but only on the small water courses, not on the lower
reaches of major rivers. The China experience--siltation of a major river
channel as a cause of flooding and channel relocation--was on a scale unknown
in the United States.
Lowdermilk's recommendation for flood
control gave some indication of the breadth of his training in
sciences,
especially geology, and his ability to assimilate the findings into a solution.
The Yellow River and her tributaries had excavated a deep channel
into
the plateau created by the wind-deposited soils. Recognizing that removal
of vegetation allowed runoff to carve gullies in the loessial plain
and
that gully wash accounted for most of the silt, he proposed attacking erosion
by planting trees on the talus slopes at the foot of the gullies. The forested
gullies would be guarded and managed by villages as community forests
to
provide wood. Undissected portions of the loessial plateau could be
used
for agriculture. Where and when possible, check dams should be used
to
raise the base level of streams and prevent incision by the gullies farther
into the plateau.10 Treatment of the watershed was directly
tied to famine prevention. He concluded that soil and water
conservation
were urgently necessary to increase the productivity of this region
of
China.11
Lowdermilk was not content to base
his recommendations exclusively on empirical evidence. Certainly the scientific
forestry school, whence he came, demanded another explanation. Using
the
runoff and erosion plot study method devised by F.L. Duley and M.F. Miller
at the University of Missouri, he and his Chinese associates set up plots
on twenty temple forests and on denuded areas for comparison. After three
years of study, he presented the findings. Runoff from denuded areas greatly
exceeded that of temple forests or areas reclaimed through reforestation.
The main reason for the excess runoff, he believed, was that
particles
of soil on the denuded areas clogged the pores of the soil surface. Forest
litter arrested this action.12
Further study convinced Lowdermilk
that forty to sixty percent of the uplands in northern China had
little
cover to retain runoff. So great had been the rapid runoff that it
had
reduced evaporation and brought on a period of decreased
precipitation
in the area. With this argument, Lowdermilk projected a hypothesis
that
he would later apply to other lands. Scholars had long been presented with
anomalies of twentieth century poverty contrasted with evidences of former
civilizations which possessed a high degree of culture and
prosperity.
Some scholars, notably Ellsworth Huntington and Baron Von Richthofen, found
the answer in climatic change. In the case of north China, Lowdermilk not
only saw soil erosion and flooding as the reason for decline, but
also
claimed their effects as the reason for a climatic change.13
The communist uprising of March 24,
1927, in Nanking ended the Lowdermilks' stay in China. Leaving behind all
possessions, they barely escaped. At the University of California, he combined
study for a Ph.D. from the School of Forestry (minors in soil science and
geology) with research at the California Forest Experiment Station.
Here
he reentered the fray over the effects of vegetative cover on runoff, erosion,
and flooding. On one of his treks in China, Lowdermilk had heard the proverb,
"Mountains empty--rivers gorged." He judged the application of timber management
in that locale to be superior to any system he had observed in Germany.14
The Chinese and other civilizations had recognized the value of
forest
cover and acted upon their observations. Scientists in the
conservation
movement demanded more than proverbs for proof, and the influence of forest
cover on soil erosion and streamflow had been warmly debated by hydrologists,
engineers, and foresters.
In the United States, the advocates
of scientific forestry on public lands, who emphasized a sustained supply
of forest products as the major benefit of public ownership, received support
from irrigation farmers who needed an assured supply of water--water that
was free of ditch-clogging silt. In their support of watershed protection
they relied on observation, and were undeterred by the absence of scientific
proof. Lines of inquiry into watershed treatment resulted not only
from
the inquisitiveness of the scientist's mind but also from these
public
policy questions. Legislation for forest reserves, upstream
reservoirs
for flood control, and comprehensive water development programs
touched
off research by the government agencies affected. The research
results
could seriously alter their project plans and budgets.15
Lowdermilk believed that builders
of large engineering works downstream should provide for soil erosion control
in the catchment areas, as a portion of the project's benefits was attributable
to watershed management. The value of watershed management, however,
had
not been satisfactorily measured and described. A review of the literature
convinced Lowdermilk that most watershed studies which tried to
measure
the influence of one factor on runflow were flawed. In an open
setting
there were too many variables which were observed, not measured. He
must
create a laboratory type experiment which would isolate the factors, measure
them, and explain the processes.16
In his study of the influence
of
forest litter on runoff and erosion, he used rainmaking machines,
soil
profiles transferred to tanks, and measuring instruments of his
design.
In 1929, he presented the confirmation for what he and others had observed.
On bared soil the raindrops splashed up muddy. As muddy water
percolated
into the soil profiles, "fine suspended particles were filtered out
at
the soil surface."17 The thin layer thus formed
reduced
percolation and increased runoff. The water-absorbing capacity of
forest
litter had little influence on runoff. However, by keeping the water clean,
the litter maintained the soil profile open to percolation. The experiments
confirmed a hypothesis that Lowdermilk had first presented at the
Third
Pan-Pacific Science Congress in 1926 at Tokyo.
Lowdermilk did not elaborate on the
implications of his research. Perhaps this omission was in keeping
with
the accepted method of presenting the results, but the value to soil conservation
was obvious. If forest litter served not as an absorber of water, but
as
a buffer between the rain-drop and the ground, then any vegetative
land
cover could be valuable for soil erosion control. Pastures, hay
crops,
any close growing crop, or crop residues could serve as barriers to
the
erosion process.
As Lowdermilk pioneered in the field
of reading records written in the land and applied scientific explanations,
he needed new terminology. At the Stockholm meeting he seized the occasion
to introduce two terms for the conservationist's lexicon.
"Accelerated
erosion" arose from the "artificial disturbance of factors which controlled
the development of soil profiles." In the absence of such
disturbances,
one could view any erosion as the "geologic norm of erosion."18
Back in California, Lowdermilk set
about measuring the other factors in runoff and erosion that would provide
a "basis for enlightened management of watershed areas."19
Experiments focused on elements of the hydrologic cycle: precipitation,
temperature, evaporation, runoff, infiltration, percolation, and transpiration.
The Agricultural Appropriations Act of 1929 provided funds to U.S. Department
of Agriculture agencies for erosion and runoff experiments. The research
program made it possible to establish experiments on a large, isolated
watershed. The San Dimas watershed of southern California provided an excellent
opportunity to test the effects of watershed management on water yield.
Expanding towns and citrus orchardists at the foot of the watershed had
to dig increasingly deeper wells to reach underground aquifers. Whether
the vegetative mantle should be burned to reduce transpiration or protected
from fire for maximum ground water supplies was a matter of controversy.
To demonstrate and measure the relationship of percolation to aquifer levels
Lowdermilk had Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees build water spreading
structures which led to a gravelly basin where the silt settled out and
water percolated to the aquifers.20
Though Lowdermilk had devised the
research plan for San Dimas and supervised the early work, he was not destined
to see it to completion. Events and foreign travel again intervened to
set Lowdermilk back on the path to land conservationist. When the Soil
Erosion Service was established in 1933, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture
Rexford Tugwell, who had toured the California experiments, insisted that
Lowdermilk serve as Assistant Chief to Hugh Hammond Bennett.21
Their personalities differed greatly, but on the matter of conserving farmland
there were points of agreement. Bennett, like Lowdermilk, emphasized that
conservation was not exclusively a matter of maintaining fertility on hillside
soils. Lowdermilk had seen the effects on the Yellow River flood plain.
Bennett, as an inspector of soil surveys in the South, had seen the same
effects on a smaller scale in flood plains of the South where sand, and
eventually gravel, piled up on flood plains. Looking at the situation in
strictly agricultural terms, the use of erosion-inducing farming practices
on some of the least valuable lands was preempting the most valuable from
food production.22 Thus, they held the belief that conservation
should be applied not just to the individual farm, but to an entire watershed.
Both men also viewed the coordinated
use of vegetal and engineering measures on the individual farm as necessary
for soil conservation. Lowdermilk, the forester, realized that
erosion
control in a country such as China with famine problems could not be achieved
strictly by vegetal control. Bennett had obtained his conservation experience
in the South, where the broad-based channel terrace had been invented
to
contend with erosion problems. He saw the limitations of engineering measures
as well as their values. In Central America, he had seen coffee interplanted
with bananas, plantains, and other fruit-bearing trees on steep land, where
they nonetheless provided excellent erosion
control.23
As an institutional goal, the young Service would attempt to
assimilate
and coordinate many disciplines into its conservation program. Individually,
the Service's field men working on farms should be what Lowdermilk called
"land doctors," general practitioners of the conservation sciences.24
In addition to working with farmers
on watershed-based demonstration projects in critical erosion areas,
the
Service had a considerable research program which Lowdermilk
directed.
The experiment stations established under the 1929 Agricultural Appropriations
Act were already engaged in research on terracing, crop rotations, stripcropping,
tillage methods, and their value to soil conservation. Lowdermilk
added
runoff and erosion studies that included the collection of
hydrologic,
climatic, physiographic, erosion history, and sedimentation data.
While
these fifty-year long watershed studies were to be comprehensive, particular
aspects were related to debates among scientists and government agencies.
The bedload studies involved the degree of sediment sorting by stream action
and the amounts deposited in stream channels. In a practical way, the studies
countered the accepted method of measuring erosion from a watershed
by
simply measuring the silt emerging at the watershed's lower end.25
In 1938 chance again intervened in
Lowdermilk's life. As usual, he seized the opportunity.
Representative
Clarence Cannon suggested that a survey of the Old World could be
useful
in the United States' efforts toward a permanent agriculture. The
trip,
August 1938 to November 1939, involved more than twenty-five thousand miles
of automobile travel in Europe, the Mediterranean area, and the
Middle
East. Here he perfected his art of reading the land for evidence of
past
use and misuse. Before undertaking surveys in each country,
Lowdermilk
consulted agriculturalists, scientists, and officials. Geologists and archaeologists
were especially interested, and valuable to Lowdermilk in explaining
the
cultural and physical factors involved in land use. In addition to searching
for soil conservation and flood prevention measures that might be imported
to the United States, Lowdermilk was engaged in what he called "agricultural
archaeology." Ruins of some pre-industrial civilizations indicated a prosperous
agriculture, although these areas now had serious resource problems. What
events brought about such conditions? What were the lessons for contemporary
civilizations?26
Lowdermilk's land-read records of
past civilizations appeared in numerous articles. Indeed, there were "Lessons
From the Old World to the Americas in Land Use," as Lowdermilk titled an
article in the annual report of the Smithsonian Institution. He gladly
noted the cases of wise land use through centuries, but was usually obliged
to find a story of deterioration.27 The Soil Conservation
Service published a summary, Conquest of the Land Through 7,000 Years,
in 1953 and followed it with several reprintings until more than one million
copies were distributed. Readers who know Lowdermilk only through this
publication have perhaps a truncated view--that of the globe-trotting chronicler
of calamities awaiting civilizations that abuse their resources. He realized
that a civilization's decline could not be interpreted solely on the basis
of soil erosion. However, in writing the pamphlet, he embarked on a didactic
mission aimed at all Americans, not just farmers. Soil fertility was a
matter of concern for the farmer. Maintaining the medium for fertility--the
physical body of soil resources--concerned the nation. Without it, "liberty
of choice and action" was gone.28
World War II terminated the trip
in Europe but it opened a new opportunity, a return to China. At the behest
of the Chinese government, Lowdermilk undertook the dangerous journey to
advise the Chinese about increasing their food supply. During the intervening
years in the United States, he had continued to study the agricultural
archaeology of China. While in China he bought gazetteers, local histories,
which Dean R. Wickes, a Chinese language specialist, then researched for
evidences of erosion problems. This research showed that in northern China,
an area with a small percentage of level land, the population had increased
threefold since the mid-eighteenth century. This rapid population increase
sent people to the hills for firewood and arable land, without any orderly
installation of engineering measures for soil conservation. Unlike areas
of central and southern China, they had no elaborate bench terraces to
protect farmland. The gazetteers provided accounts of clearing the slopes,
removing farmland from the tax rolls as wasteland, and abandoning homes
along streams due to frequent flooding.
The forester turned historian found
an impressive case for the effects of erosion on agricultural productivity
in the Wei-Peh irrigation system along the Wei River. Begun at least
as
early as 246 B.C., the system had irrigated 400,000 acres. According
to
Lowdermilk's research, the area became prosperous and dominated the surrounding
territories. A Chinese chronicler believed the reason for prominence
lay
in the assured food supply: "Thereupon Kuanchung became fertile territory
without bad years; whereupon Ch'in became rich and powerful and
finally
conquered the feudal princes." The Chinese remade the irrigation
system
eleven times during twenty centuries in their never-ceasing battle
with
silt. Piles of excavated silt thirty-five feet high lay on the canal banks
in the fourteenth century. Usually they preferred digging new canals
to
clearing out sediment. During the eighteenth century, while the
Chinese
labored ceaselessly at keeping the canals open, the irrigated acreage was
only one-tenth its original size. American engineers, under the direction
of Lowdermilk's old traveling companion O.J. Todd, used modern
equipment
and reinforced concrete to rebuild the project. Even with modern equipment
the problems remained, because water entering canals following heavy rains
in 1931-32 measured 46 percent silt by weight. The irrigation farmer
in
China, like his counterpart in the Western United States, had to look
to
watershed protection as a source of silt-free
water.29
Controlling erosion on the
upper
reaches of watersheds became a passion for Lowdermilk's generation of conservationists.
They favored land cover for increased absorption and engineering
works
for the controlled disposal of water without erosion. The upstream reservoir
on the small watersheds was an integral part of the river development--an
assertion that was often contested. Proponents of the control and use
of
headwaters had stated their case in the publications Little Waters
and
Headwaters: Control and Use.30 In the later 1940s
they
had another opportunity when Morris Cooke, a force behind Little
Waters,
became chairman of the President's Water Resources Policy Commission. Lowdermilk
assumed chairmanship of the Committee on Standards for Basic Data.
The
Cooke and Lowdermilk views held sway in the committee report that emphasized
a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach. The interdependence of
land
and water called for watershed management which had been neglected
due
to "our natural endowment and relatively low population density." Furthermore,
the small watershed, the unit of watershed management preferred by
the
authors, was a cultural unit. The watershed unit had to be small
enough
so that residents understood its influence on their lives. Then they would
devote the time and money needed to bring it to fruition as a
community
watershed. Lowdermilk's experience in semi-arid climates came through
in
the committee's attitude toward flood control. Where feasible, reservoirs
should not be used solely to control floods, but also to store storm waters
for later use.31
The attitude toward reservoirs and
engineering works illustrated, as did other beliefs, the length of Lowdermilk's
professional journey from forestry. He had come to believe that the earth
had to be prepared to accept the benefits of rain. In his system of "physiographic
engineering," reservoirs could be designed to perform functions other than
storing water and controlling floods. For example, reservoirs could create
intermediate base levels of stream cutting which reduced head cutting
of
tributaries. Downstream, the clear water flowing from a reservoir
could
excavate alluvial fill in a channel and reduce the frequency of flooding.32
As a man of many sciences, Lowdermilk
also became a man of many reputations. Most Americans knew him from
his
call to heed the lessons of the Old World in conserving soil
resources.
Archaeologists and historians searched the physical and documentary remains
of civilizations for refutation or confirmation of his land reading expertise.
In the international scientific community his reputation rested on
the
hydrologic studies. The Chinese and Israelis recalled his
humanitarian
activities to increase food production.
Lowdermilk's experience in Israel
illustrated that facility in physical sciences which allowed him to interpret
past land use patterns also made him a master at proposing measures
for
increased food production. During the trip to the Middle East in 1938-1939,
Lowdermilk became inspired by the efforts of urban-born European Jews
to
reclaim land. Upon returning to the United States, he wrote
Palestine:
Land of Promise, which proclaimed that the land could once again
support
a large population. After retirement from the Soil Conservation
Service
he worked with the Israelis to implement some of the measures
outlined
in the book. Many Israelis favored technical assistance for
agricultural
development over direct food assistance. That sentiment was concisely conveyed
when Minister of Development Mordecai Bentov coined the saying, "We don't
need powdered milk; we need Lowdermilk."33 While
there,
Lowdermilk helped establish at Haifa a school to train
conservationists,
a school which later bore his name. The Lowdermilk School of Agricultural
Engineering emphasized the basic sciences as preparatory to
agricultural
studies. Students took two years of mathematics, chemistry, physics, geology,
and biology before moving on to the agricultural sciences. A
job-related
project in the fifth year was necessary to earn the degree.34
The fifth year requirement of field
experience reflected the Lowdermilk experience. He believed that
field
work was a necessary component of research. In the Soil Conservation Service,
field personnel were to be encouraged to suggest alternative ways of accomplishing
conservation objectives. Field work, especially in an area such as China,
where farming had been practiced for centuries, could uncover useful information.
There was always the possibility that "some unheralded genius may
have
already found the solution to our problem, a solution in whole or in part
if we know what we are looking for."35 After all, it was in
the field, on the Yellow River, that Lowdermilk's career as a land conservationist
began.
Endnotes
1 Lowdermilk, Walter C., "Down to
Earth," in Transactions: American Geophysical Union (Washington, D.C.:
National Research Council, 1944), p. 195.
2 For a discussion of conservation
as a scientific movement see Hays, Samuel P., Conservation and the Gospel
of Efficiency (1959; reprint New York: Atheneum, 1979), p. 2.
3 Brink, Wellington, "Walter C, Lowdermilk," Holland's 61 (December 1942): 8.
4 Lowdermilk, Walter C., Conquest
of the Land Through 7,000 Years, Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 99
(1953; reprint Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1975), p. 13.
5 Walter Clay Lowdermilk Interview,
p. 61, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
6 Lowdermilk, Walter C., "A Forester's
Search for Forests in China," American Forests and Forest Life 31 (July
1925): 427.
7 Lowdermilk, Conquest of the Land, p. 14.
8 Lowdermilk, "A Forester's Search," p. 4-46.
9 Lowdermilk, Walter C., "Erosion and Floods in the Yellow
River Watershed," Journal of Forestry 22 (October 1924): 15.
10 Ibid., pp. 11-18.
11 Lowdermilk, Walter C., "Factors
Influencing the Surface Run-off of Rain Water," in Proceedings: Third Pan
Pacific Science Congress (Tokyo, 1926), p. 2147.
12 Ibid., pp. 2122-2147.
13 Lowdermilk, Walter C., "The Changing
Evaporation-Precipitation Cycle of North China," Engineering Society of
China 25 (1925-1926): 97-147.
14 Lowdermilk, "Forestry in Denuded
China," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
152 (November 1930): 130.
15 For a discussion of some of the
debates see Hays, Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency.
16 Lowdermilk, Walter C., "Studies
of the Role of Forest Vegetation in Surficial Run-Off and Soil Erosion,"
Agricultural Engineering 12 (April 1931): 108.
17 Lowdermilk, "Further Studies of
Factors Affecting Surficial Run-Off and Erosion," in Proceedings of the
International Congress of Forestry Experiment Stations, 1929 (Stockholm,
1929), p. 625.
18 Ibid.
19 Lowdermilk, Walter C., "The Role
of Vegetation in Erosion Control and Water Conservation," Journal of Forestry
32 (May 1934): 531.
20 Lowdermilk Interview, pp. 121-129.
21 Ibid., pp. 133-134.
22 Bennett, Hugh Hammond, The Soils
and Agriculture of the Southern States (New York: Macmillan Company, 1921),
p. 283.
23 Bennett, Hugh H., "Agriculture
in Central America," Journal of the American Society of Agronomy 17 (June
1923): 318-326.
24 Lowdermilk Interview, p. 160.
25 Ibid., p. 202.
26 Lowdermilk, Walter C., "Terracing
Land Use Across Ancient Boundaries," mimeographed (Washington, D.C.: Soil
Conservation Service, 1940), pp. 1-133.
27 Lowdermilk, "Lessons From the
Old World to the Americas in Land Use," Annual Report of the Board of Regents
of the Smithsonian Institution, 1943 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing
Office, 1944), pp. 413-427.
28 Lowdermilk, Conquest of the Land, p. 30.
29 Lowdermilk, "Forestry in Denuded
China," pp. 127-141; Lowdermilk, Walter C. and Wickes, Dean R., "Ancient
Irrigation Brought Up to Date," Scientific Monthly, 55 (September 1942):
209-225; "China and America Against Soil Erosion," Scientific Monthly,
56 Part I (May 1943): 393-413; Part II (June 1943): 505-520; History of
Soil Use in the Wu T'ai Shan Area (North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic
Society, 1938), pp. 1-31.
30 Person, H.S., Little Waters: A
Study of Headwater Streams & Other Waters, Their Use and Relations
to the Land (Washington, D.C.: Soil Conservation Service, Resettlement
Administration, Rural Electrification Administration, 1936), pp. 1-82;
Headwaters: Control and Use, Papers Presented at the Upstream Engineering
Conference Held in Washington, D.C. September 22 and 23, 1936 (Washington,
D.C.: Soil Conservation Service, Forest Service, Rural Electrification
Administration, 1937), pp. 1-261.
31 A Water Policy for the American
People: The Report of the President's Water Resources Commission (Washington,
D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1950), pp. 123-125.
32 Lowdermilk, Walter C., "Physiographic
Engineering: Land-Erosion Controls," in Transactions: American Geophysical
Union (Washington, D.C.: National Research Council, 1941), pp. 316-320.
33 Conversation with Abraham Avidor,
Foreign Agricultural Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, December
2, 1983. Richard D. Siegel, Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department
of Agriculture, brought this saying to my attention and Mr. Avidor, who
grew up on a kibbutz and who knew Mr. Bentov supplied the details. Bentov
was seeking to promote the development of agriculture and viewed the direct
food assistance as an inhibiting factor. Avidor reports that the saying
was quite prevalent in Israel in the 1950s.
34 Lowdermilk Interview, pp. 610-611.
35 Lowdermilk, Walter C., "Preliminary
Report to the Executive Yuan, Government of China, on Findings of a Survey
of a Portion of the Northwest for a Program of Soil, Water and Forest Conservation,
1943," typescript, p. 37, Soil Conservation Service History Office, Washington, D.C.
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