Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-06-01

p4dlAAS the iLluueHSt ueluS now uuQeF
cultivation In some of the desert val
legs the visitor finds it difficult to be-
lieve that once this was a region Of
waste sands, superheated air and prac-
tically rainless.
Some experiments made by Collier
Cobb. professor of geology in the Uni
yersity Of North Carolina, show what
can be done to prevent damage by sand
and wind. Professor Cobb selected
for his experiments some of the sand
reefs on the North Carolina coast, and
the result of his investigation was
hopeful. The Investigations, however,
were only experiments. naturally on a
diminutive scale, but sufficiently illu-
minating 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.
Along the Atlantic Coast.
During the winter the strong north
winds pile the sands up into great
dunes, which are moving steadily
southwark. These" says Professor
Cobb, 'are best developed along the
Currituck Banks, from Virginia as far
south as the XIII 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 advancing on
forests, fields and homes. AS the sand
wave has advanced it has taken up sew
eral feet of the loose soil over which
it has passed, undermining houses, lay
ing bare the roots of trees and expos
ing the bones of the dead in the GENE
teries."
He relates that at Nays Head, a
large hotel, constituting a solid OBJ
struction, held out for a while, but in
a little while the sand wave built up
short distance in the rear until the
level of the hotel roof was reached.
Then the wave advanced and the build
ing 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 stick shows where the island for
est was.
"The checking of these moving
Dunes" according to Professor Cobb,
presents a problem of increasing i'm
portance, 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-
ton is at hand, and that the encroach-
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 in
tensity, especially on Hatteras Island,
the solution of the problem is rendered
comparatively easy. In 1886, Professor
Cobb began his experiment. He found
it simple matter to plant grasses and
shrubbery in the late winter and early
spring and have them gain a firm foot
ting before the strong winds came.
Trees as Wind Breaks.
He planted the seed of the loblolly
Pine on the back of a dune and covered
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.
TO day, he says, from that modest be-
ginning of 81 years ago, there is a for
est of several acres. The European
plan of building a barrier dune by
means of wind breaks, he says, has
been tried along the coast, but always
without success.
1t having been proved that the sand
seas 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 genera
ton, perhaps. there will not be n des-
ert within the boundaries of the United
States. When once the way to solve
the problem has been shown, enterprise
will probably attempt to conquer the
Sahara and percharce even the great
Cobb.