The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1907-08-15

1i6hO -
With this end in view. the Federal
Government is spending millions in
inaugurating one of the most extern
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 it 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 a problem very different from
that which they show to the AgTfcul-
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 3
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 a year the railroad would be seri-
ously INSTRUCTED.
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
a diminutive scale, but sufficiently IL
Illuminating to lead to a belief that with
on the North Carolina coast could be
made to flower with the prodigality
of the s~emi-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 a strip of forest
next the shore have grown in size to
great sand waves, which are adTanc-
ing or forests. fields, and homes. As
the sand wave has advanced 1t has
taken up several feet Of the loose soil
which it has passed. undermin-
ing houses, laying hare the roots of
trees, and exposing the bones Of the ,
dead in the cemeteries"
He relates that at Mays Head, a
large hotel, constituting a solid OBJ
struction, held out for a 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
a stick shows where the island
forest was.
"The checking of these moving
according4te Prof. Cobb, pre-
sents a problem of increasing impor-
,ance, o only to the Inhabitants Of
these sand keys, but to the navigators
If the inland waterways as well, and
t is of interest to know that its solu-
ion is at hand, and that the encroacn-
nent of the sand upon the land and
lpon the sounds may be e~ffectually
stopped" l
Owing to the fortunate chance that
he 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
.sland, the solution of the problem is
rendered comparatively easy. In 1885
Prof. Cobb began his experiment. He
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 GOV.
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
hat modest beginning twenty-one
years ago., there is a forest of several
acres. The European plan. Of build
ing a barrier dune by means of wind
he says, has been tried along
the coast, but always without success.
1t having been proved that the sand
may be conquered, it may be 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
solve the problem has been shown, en-
tarnrisa will probably ATTEMPT to con-