The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1894-06-01

Prof. Nathaniel S. Shaler, of the
! U. S. Geological Survey, in bis ad-
mirable treatise on the "Nature and
Origin Of Soils" discusses the ei-
feet OF careless tillage in allowing
the fertile top-soil to be washed a.
way by rains. We quote
GA close reckoning of the loss
from washing away of the soil in
America would probably show that
ii already amounts to the practical
destruction of that coating over an
area some thousands ofsquare miles
in extent. These depauperated dis
tricts lie mainly in the hilly por-
tions OF the southern states, espec-
tally in Virginia, the Carolinas,
Kentucky, Tennessee and Missis-
sippi. There is scarcely a county
in these states where 1t is not DOS
sible to find a number of areas ag.
gregating from 800 TO 500 acres
where the true soil has been allowed
to wash away, leaving exposed
either bare rock or infertile sub-soil.
Where subsoil as we'll as the truly
fertile layer has been swept away
the field may be regarded as lost to
the uses of man, as much so, in
deed, as if il had been sunk beneath
the sea, for it will in most instances
require thousands of years before
the surface can be restored to its
original estate.
although our land is still al
most Of virgin fertility, a needless
neglect of our duty toward ii has
led to the destruction of the soil
over an aggregate area of probably
not less than 1000 square miles. |
This means the loss of food. giving
resources which would be sufficient,
with proper care, TO support a pop
ulation of about 200, 900 people.
"Besides this annihilaiiOn of the |
earth's resources in the area where
the soils have been allowed TO wash |
completely away, a vastly more i'm
portant though less visible damage
has been done by the partial de-
of the nutrilive layer, in
The course of which it has been
and worn TO a point where
It will no longer pay the cost Of TIL
age. When brought into this i'm
poverished condition il is, in the
common phrase, turned out
"The total area of these aban-
ioned fields in Virginia, Tennessee,
md Kentucky alone amount, ac-
,ording to the estimate l have made
With some care, to between 5000
md 5000 square miles, or about one-
thirteenth Of the total tillable sur
ace of these states. Taking the
ands Of the United States MS q
Whole, | am satisfied that at least
i've per cent of the soils which have
n their time proved fertile under
illage are now unfit to produce any
hing more valuable than scanty
'asturage. The average impover-
shment of the area that has been
ubjecied to the pillow is not to be i,
but it seems not unlike
y that it amounts 10 ten per cent or i
lore for the whole country. =
ga portion Of this waste has been :
ne to the rapid extension of popu. I
alton over districts so remote from 1
larkets that it was only by meth v
DIS of tillage which taxed the earth II
the utmost that any profit could Ii
g. had from farming. We have b
lus paid away most OF our birth n
ght in the fertility of our soil as b
le price for a swift expansion of a
ar population. A larger part OF
ar soil-wastIng has been brought a. a.
bout by ignorant neglect of certain =
mple but inexpensive precautions :,
hich to a great extent would have a,
we'd the progressive decline in the
roductive value Of the EARTH"