The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1907-08-21

| government is spending millions In
| inaugurating one of the most exten-
| sive irrigation systems ever proposed.
| That part of the Arizona desert upon
which the experiment has been tried
has given most encouraging results.
Contemplating the immense fields now
under cultivation in some of the desert
valleys, the visitor finds 1t difficult to
believe that once this was a region of
waste sands, superheated air, and
practically rainless.
Difficulties with the sandy wastes
are encountered by the railway com.
| panies whose lines run through or
| skirt the Western deserts. To the en-
| gineers of these roads the sand seas
present problem very different from
that which they show to the Agricul-
tural Department. The railroads can
not, of course, hope to cope success
fully with the inroads the sands make
each year by means of irrigating ca
nails.
The winds keep the sand seas in
constant motion. In the course of
year this motion is very perceptible.
| The yearly movement averages about
eighteen feet. Frequently the roads
roads have to be dug out of the sandy
accumulation, otherwise in the course
of year the railroad would be seri-
ously obstructed.
Some experiments made by Collier
Cobb, professor of geology in the Uni
versity of North Carolina, show what
can be done to prevent damage by
sand and wind Prof. Cobb selected
for his experiments some of the sand
reefs on the North Carolina coast, and
the result of his Investigations was
hopeful. The investigations, however.
were only experiments, NATURALLY on
diminutive scale, but sufficiently IL
Eliminating to lead to a belief that with
governmental aid much of the wastes
on the North Carolina coast could be
made to flower with the prodigality
of the semi-tropics.
During the winter the strong north
winds pile the sands up into great
dunes, which are moving steadily
southwark "These," says Prof. Cobb.
ARE best developed along the Curri-
tuck Banks, from Virginia, as far
South as the Kill Devil, Hills. These
wind ripples started in sands exposed
by the removal of strip of forest
next the shore have grown in size to
great sand waves, which are advanc-
ing on forests, fields, and homes. AS
the sand wave has advanced it has
taken up several feet Of the loose soil
over which it has passed, undermin-
ing houses, laying bare the roots of
trees, and exposing the bones of the
dead in the cemeteries"
He relates that at Nags Head, a
large hotel, constituting solid OBJ
struction, held out for while, but in
short time the sand wave built up a
short distance in the rear until the
level of the hotel roof was reached.
Then the wave advanced an dthe
building was engulfed. In this region
the land gained on the sound $50 feet
in ten years. A fishing village on the
northern end of Hatteras Island was
buried in the same way, and what, at
the time of the Civil War; was "The
Great Woods is covered by sand and
not a stick shows where the island
forest was.
"The checking of these moving
Dunes" according to Prof. Cobb, pre-
sents a problem of increasing impor'
tance, not only to the inhabitants of
these sand keys, but to the navigators
of the inland waterways as we'll, and
it is of interest to know that its solu'
tion is at hand, and that the encroacn-
ment of the sand upon the land and
upon the sounds may be effectually
stopped"
Owing to the fortunate chance that
the north winds which pile up the
sand here blow only in the winter, and
that the spring rains are usually OF
light intensity, especially on Hatteras
Island, the solution Of the problem is
rendered comparatively easy. In 1886
Prof. Cobb began his experiment. He
found it a simple matter to plant
grasses and shrubbery in the late
winter and early spring and have
them gain a firm footing before the
strong winds came.
He planted the seed of the loblolly
pine on the back of a dune and COW
cred the area with brush cut from a
nearby road in process of making.
The brush served not only to break
the wind but to conserve the moisture
in the sands. Today, he says, from
that modest beginning twenty-one
years ago, there is forest of several
acres. The European plan of build
ing barrier dune by means of wind
breaks, he says, has been tried alons
the coast, but always without success.
1t having been proved that the sand
seas may be conquered it may ue re-
garded as certain that in time human
ingenuity will reclaim every large
arid waste in the world. In another
generation, perhap. there will not be
a desert within the boundaries of the
United States. When once the way to
eoIve tho nroblem has been shown en-