WATER FOR A NATION

foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] you know about water don't you it's something you drink cool and refreshing something you cook with clear and bubbling something you wash in clean and sparkly water can be fun [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] when its power is controlled water serves us well [Music] thank you [Music] yes water serves us in many ways but none is more important than in helping to grow the food we eat most of our water comes from the sky and most of it falls on Forest farm and rangeland nature takes care of the water that falls in good protected forests cushions its fall drains it off slowly and safely but where there are no trees and where the land is used for farming that's a different story ours is a big country we have all kinds of land [Music] and our Farmers have all kinds of problems but none is more important than the care of the water falling on their land the farmer who takes good care of his land takes good care of that water two go together his welfare depends on this but there's more to the story important to every one of us let's look in on some American farmers say Jim Cummings of Colorado Cecil Clark of Washington State JB doubted of South Carolina Riley Dennis from Maryland who sometimes gets more than his share of water in the panhandle of Texas some Farmers don't get much water at all [Music] take Max Blau raises wheat and beef cattle for City people to eat on a 1280 acre piece of Texas a piece of text is so flat and dry most of the time and so windy it's a problem to keep the soil from blowing away [Music] Max can still remember the 30s he almost lost his farm then foreign less days turned into rainless months and then [Music] [Applause] [Music] but Max stayed with the land and now things are different for him and his family there still isn't too much rain the winds still blow but Max has covered much of his land with grass to hold the soil and water and to feed the cattle he's added to his farm still has land in wheat but now he Farms this on Contour so the rain sinks into the Thirsty ground he mulches he does everything he can to conserve soil and water it's taken years of hard work and planning for Max but it's paying off now and for the future [Music] close to the Northwest in the Yakima Valley of Washington is the apple orchard and home of Cecil Clark [Music] it's a growing country with friendly people but there's not much rainfall Clark has to buy all the water he turns into apples so he's become an expert at managing and conserving water he and his neighbors can look at the distant mountains and see the water they'll use their reservoirs the snow high on the Peaks snow that melts gradually and turns into bubbling streams on the way down the long slopes a lot of it is stored for power and for irrigation [Music] men guide its flow they Channel its path they even board through the mile-long heart of a mountain to Speed it on its way [Music] mile upon Mountain mile they bring water on an errand of life-giving they bring it at last to the very soil itself [Music] and snow blossoms into fruit [Music] all right it wasn't always this way a half century ago when Granddad Clark came to Yakima the parched land could be had for a dollar an acre the parts Dusty soil was transformed into a lush Oasis by water wisely used on the land [Music] to the east another struggle with water is going on the low banks of the Pocomoke River on the eastern shore of Maryland here as on many other flat lowlands of the country flooding rains pile up water Farmers have to cope with it during a part of every year [Music] but the crops of Riley Dennis don't drown he gets rid of his extra water safely he has a conservation plan working on his farm and through carefully designed drainage ditches rally drains away just the right amount of water it moves into larger ditches and then through major channels miles from his farm the excess water moves to the Sea so Riley's melons strawberries tomatoes and other good things wind up where they belong on our dinner tables [Music] water can be made into clothes too that's the job of the men who grow cotton JB Dothan grows cotton his farm is on the bank with three and twenty Creek some miles from the little South Carolina town of 96. [Music] JB and his fellow members of one of the oldest agricultural Societies in the United States have learned a lot about water [Music] these men know from experience what uncontrolled water will do to their land our spring rains will turn a road or a field into a gully in just a few years so they farmed the conservation way use each acre according to its capability and protect it according to its needs [Music] against the late summer droughts JB built a pond to store water for irrigation and his livestock foreign with water under control a man has a little time for important things [Music] here in the Midwest the very center of the American Bread Basket is the farm of Lou Burns Lou is what a lot of people think of as the typical American Farmer in a way he is and his family is a typical sturdy American Farm family Lou raises Hogs and cattle and feeds them the corn oats and grass he grows on his place what would be no problem in the heart of some of the country's best Farmland that's what Lou thought for a long time then he began noticing things after hard rains he noticed where his cornrows ran downhill so did his topsoil Lane could do to the peaceful little stream on his farm [Music] a stream that feeds a river one of many streams that helped to turn a river into a rushing Destroyer [Music] Lou noticed too that the flooding stream left soil in its wake his soil washed from gullies ripped out of his own Farm [Music] blue Burns looked about him then at the conservation work of some of his neighbors and took Heath now Lou has a conservation plan working on his place every acre of it to save Soil and Water oh you notice one of the practices right away Contour strip cropping and so when it's hanging time on Lou's Farm the whole family has to help there's so much hay to get in [Music] no Farmer in the nation faces a harder conservation job than the Rancher or out where the West Begins the water leaves off to Jim Cummings of Southeast Colorado every drop of water is precious most of the Year there just isn't enough water in the Purgatory River and the water of free holy Creek that runs right through Jim's Ranch is so alkaline the cattle can't drink it so for some of the water for his stock Jim has to go straight down 600 feet or more that makes well water in this country pretty expensive [Music] for his own drinking water Jim has to buy a tank for and haul it from the Colorado town of Trinidad 16 miles to his Ranch House [Music] Jim's built ponds to catch as much as he can of the rain and snow that does fall foreign [Music] [Music] too for supplemental feed for his cattle it was Granddad Cummings who set the pace for Jim Grandad Cummings who was lured here from Scotland by the wild west stories of his Boyhood saw the need for water conservation and he taught it to his son and someday Jim will teach it to Little Gym because when beef cattle are turned into good steaks it's because some farmer or Rancher turns soil and water into grass to make good cattle [Music] every step helps in the summertime Jim drives his cattle up into the high Mesa in search of grass watered by late melting snows this spreads his grazing gives his winter range a rest a chance for recovery and all this is part of the conservation program to which more and more farmers and Ranchers are turning every year so it goes across the face of the land Jim Cummings Cecil Clark and the rest a few of the millions of farmers who are the first Guardians of the nation's water supply working together in soil conservation districts with the help of trained technicians from the soil conservation service they are helping the rest of us Downstream to prevent water from running wild infants helping to keep silt out of rivers and reservoirs helping to ensure enough water for drinking firefighting or Steel and enough water in the right place at the right time to grow the food we eat [Music] oh foreign of land and water foreign