St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1912-06-15

that years of work would be re.
quired to restore them.
It is evident to the man who
thinks, that this process of sol
destruction cannot be allowed te
continue-certainly not to the ex-
tentit has taken place in the past.
To let our lands continue to wash
away, as the old field shown in
the pictures washing. and as
thousands of fields all over the
South have done, is to prepare
for ourselves or for our children
a time of hardship beyond any
thing we have ever known. The
time will come, when this land
will have to be redeemed and the
man who has to redeem such land,
and to depend upon it for living
while he does the work, is going
to do much hard work for a little
pay.
We must stop the washing OF
our lands-not only the great de-
vouring gullies which bite away
acres of cultivatedland and leave
barren wastes in its place, but al
so the little often-unnoticed cham
nels down which the water runs,
carrying with it the best part OF
the soil. It is no easy task, as
anyone who has tried it knows.
Perhops soil-washing will never
be entirely stopped, but we must
at least reduce it to snch a point
that our hill lands will get better
instead of poorer.
There are many things which
will help, but no one thing which
may be called a remedy. It is a
task for all the years the land is
cultivated, not a thing to be done
once for all.
Many lands could be saved from
washing simply by a iudicious ro-
tation of crops with decent and a
winter cover. To crop any land
at all rolling year after year, I'M
til the soil is robbedof all vega
table matter and has become dead
and HfeIess, is to invite gullies.
Terraces will solve the problem in
many cases-not weed-groWn
banks and ugly bitches, but low
broad swells Of earth, or real
terraces one above another.
The hillside ditch may be nee
essary in some cases. Tile drain
will yet solve the problem for
thousands of acres, the writer
feels certain. Other thousands
which men are now trying to tend
will have to be put into grass or
replanted to forest trees. Indeed
when land cannot be heldin place
by deepplowing, cover crops, the
Mangum terrace and proper cul
tiyation, or by good under drain
age, it ought not to be cultivated
at all.
On land that is now being cul-
tivated, attention toa few points
will do much to prevent or to les
sen the damage from surface
water. Here are four of them:
i. Rows should be layed off with
tina contour Of the land, and not
up and down the hill.
q. Cultivation should be level
that is, there should not be ridges
made to catch and hold the water
until it gathers sufficient volume
to break through and start a
wash.
3. When a gulley is started, no
matter how small, it should be
stopped at once. Just as soon as
as the ground dries after a
hard rain put the cultivators to
work and fill up all the little dit
Iehes. If any are too large for
this, or if any start in places
where the cultiyator will not do
the work, fill them at once with
manure, straw, leaves, any sort
of litter.
4. IF there is a natural depress-
ion down which the water must
run, seed it down with redtop, or
plant it to Bermuda, and leave it
unbroken. IF nothing else, scat
ter cane seed thickly along it.
The waSfn IF soil mIIst he STORM