The National Aspects of Soil Erosion and Floods and their Control by Vegetative Cover

Congressman Leavitt gives a very clear, direct and comprehensive picture of the agricultural, industrial and social losses that result from erosion and floods, and which may go on inconspicuously but in the end attain calamitous proportions. He discusses the causes and their correction from a national viewpoint. He recognizes that floods cannot be prevented entirely and that the erosion and flood problem varies with local conditions. At the same time he accepts the function and importance of engineering works but emphasizes the necessity of supplementing such works and making them more effective by "nature's own methods of protection through a forest or other natural vegetative cover." He proposes legislation for a more comprehensive national program of research that will sift out facts from surmise.