The farmer's business, more than any other, perhaps, depends for its success upon a true estimate of and careful regard for this inter-relation, he adapts his crop to the nature of the soil, the manner of its cultivation to the changes of the seasons, and altogether he shapes conditions and places them in their proper relations to each other and adapts himself to them. Soil, moisture, and heat are the three factors which, if properly related and utilized, combine to produce his crops. In some directions he can control these factors more or less readily; in others they are withdrawn from his immediate influence, and he is seemingly helpless. He can maintain the fertility of the soil by manuring, by proper rotation of crops, and by deep culture; he can remove surplus moisture by ditching and draining; he can, by irrigation systems, bring water to his crops, and by timely cultivation prevent excessive evaporation, thereby rendering more water available to the crop; but he can not control the rainfall nor the temperature changes of the seasons. Recent attempts to control the rainfall by direct means exhibit one of the greatest follies and misconceptions of natural forces we have witnessed during this age. Nevertheless, by indirect means the farmer has it in his power to exercise much greater control over these forces than he has attempted hitherto. He can prevent or reduce the unfavorable effects of temperature changes; he can increase the available water supplies, and prevent the evil effects of excessive rainfall; he can so manage the waters which fall as to get the most benefit from them and avoid the harm which they are able to inflict. Before attempting to control the rainfall itself by artifice, we should study how to secure the best use of that which falls, as it comes within reach of human agencies and becomes available by natural causes. How poorly we understand the use of these water supplies is evidenced yearly by destructive freshets and floods, with the accompanying washing of soil, followed by droughts, low waters, and deterioration of agricultural lands. It is claimed that annually in the United States about 200 square miles of fertile soil are washed into brooks and rivers, a loss of soil capital which can not be repaired for centuries. At the same time millions of dollars are appropriated yearly in the river and harbor bills to dig out the lost farms from the rivers, and many thousands of dollars' worth of crops and other property are destroyed by floods and overflows; not to count the large loss from droughts which this country suffers yearly in one part or the other, and which, undoubtedly, could be largely avoided, if we knew how to manage the available water supplies. The regulation, proper distribution, and utilization of the rain waters in humid as well as in arid regions--water management--is to be the great problem of successful-agriculture in the future.