Watersheds

It is the proper destiny of every considerable stream in the west to come an irrigation ditch. It would seem the streams are willing. They go as far as they can toward the tillable land.

Mary Hunter Austin
from The Land of Little Rain (1903)

Contemplating the lace-like fabric of streams outspread over the mountains, we are reminded that everything is flowing.

John Muir
from My First Summer in the Sierra (1911)

Witching (or switching) for water is a method for
finding sand or gravel beneath the surface of the
earth. A live stick or wire held in the hands of
some people will have a downward pull.

Paul Bergschneider
from his notes (ca. 1950)

this diversion of water
to which there is no adequate remedy
as water on portions of the public domain
dependent on its waters for irrigation
to encourage the habits of industry
they had command of the lands and the waters--
command of all their beneficial use, whether
kept for hunting or turned to agriculture and the
arts of civilization. Did they give up all this?

Winters Doctrine
207 U.S. 564 (1908)

So delicately interwoven are the relationships
that when we disturb one thread of the
community fabric we alter it all.

Rachel Carson
from “Essay on the Biological Sciences” (1958)

No one can question or doubt the inevitable effect of this cool condensing surface upon the
moisture in the atmosphere […] A reduction of temperature must at once occur, accompanied
by the usual phenomena of showers. The chief agency in this transformation is agriculture. To
be more concise: Rain follows the plow.

Charles Dana Wilber
The Great Valleys and Prairies of Nebraska and the Northwest (1881)

When all the rivers are used, when all the creeks in the ravines, when all the brooks, when all the springs are used, when all the reservoirs along the streams are used, when all the canyon waters are taken up, when all the artesian waters are taken up, when all the wells are sunk or dug that can be dug, there is still not sufficient water to irrigate this arid region.

John Wesley Powell
to the Los Angeles International Irrigation Conference (1893)

the gentle rain which waters keeps me in the house today
though it prevents my hoeing it is of far more worth
if it should cause the seeds to rot in the ground
it would still be good for the grass
being good for the grass it would be good for me

Mar 8, 1861

earth after rain was bare

Apr 3, 1856

almost forgotten sound of rain on the roof

May 25, 1860

the horizon the slate color of falling rain

Henry David Thoreau
from Walden, Solitude (1854) and The Journals