CONQUEST OF THE LAND THROUGH
SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS
By W. C. LOWDERMILK, formerly Assistant Chief, Soil Conservation Service
Sometime ago I heard of an old man down on a hill farm in the South, who sat on his
front porch as a newcomer to the neighborhood passed by. The newcomer to make talk said,
"Mister, how does the land lie around here?" The old an replied, "Well--I
don't know about the land a-lying; it's these real estate people that do the lying." In
a very real sense the land does not lie; it bears a record of what men write on it. In a
larger sense a nation writes its record on the land, and a civilization writes its record
on the land--a record that is easy to read by those who understand the simple language of
the land. Let us read together some of the records that have been written on the land in
the westward course of civilization from the Holy Lands of the Near East to the Pacific
coast of our own country through a period of some 7,000 years.
Records of mankind's struggles through the ages to find a lasting adjustment to the
land are found written across the landscapes as "westward the course of empire took
its way." Failures are more numerous than successes, as told by ruins and wrecks of
works along this amazing trail. From these failures and successes we may learn much of
profit and benefit to this young Nation of the United States as it occupies a new and
bountiful continent and begins to set up house for a thousand or ten thousand years--yea,
for a boundless future.
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