The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1915-04-09
TO PREVENT LOSS FROM SOIL
EROSION.

Loss from soil erosion in the south
has been found to be most import
ant factor in that sections agricul-
ture, by investigators of the depart
ment. The loss, in fact, is said to be
greater in that than in any other sec
ton of the country, and wherever
hilly land is used for crops, investi-
gators urge that measures for pre-
venting further damage be adopted.
The results of the investigation have
just been published by the depart
ment as Bulletin No. 100, "Soil Fro
sion in the South" This bulletin also
contains a study of the problem OF
erosion in general, which will be of
interest to all farmers in billy or
rolling country.
Terracing is recommended as the
best and most efficacious method OF
controlling erosion. 1t should be
supplemented, however, by deep
blowing and the addition of organic
matter to the soil whenever these
measures are possible. Water run
ming rapidly over the Surface will
carry with it particles of the soil and
the faster it runs the more soil it
will carry off. In the course of a
year the amount of earth that thus
removed reaches colossal proper
tons Biologists have estimated that
the rivers of the United States an
nually carry to the sea soil material
to the amount of 7S3 100000 tons. In
localities where this erosion is car
ried on to an advanced stage the
quality of the soil is greatly impair
II ~f hl Al &c
are removed the surface soils are
often washed down to the lowlands,
outlying so defaces the land that it
becomes difficult to cultivate, and
the loss in organic matter frequently
causes the field to be abandoned as
too poor for profitable agriculture.
In the south, it is said. erosion is the
chief cause of the abandonment of
land and in some sections has caused
so per cent of the arabic land to lie
idle.
All methods of preventing soil ero-
sion are directed toward lessening
the amount of water that runs off the
surface and increasing the amount
that sinks into the soil. If all the
water that falls on a given area were
absorbed by the soil there could be
no erosion. For this reason vegeta-
ton is useful because it checks the
flow of the water and thus affords
more time for the process of absorp-
ton. Hence the movement for the
more general use of cover crops in
the south, In addition to the soil
more or less open by the penetration
of their roots and in this way further
facilitate absorption. Deep blowing
produces somewhat the same effect,
but does not, of course, add any or
ganic matter to the soil which pro-
notes the granulation of the soil
particles, and thus produces larger
spaces between the PARTICLES for the
water to sink through
Terracing, the use of cover crops,
and deep blowing will unquestionably
greatly diminish the loss from erosion.
1t is also unQuestionable, according
to the investigators, that it will pay
to do this. On moderate slopes in
the Piedmont region of North Caro-
lima the decrease in crop values alone
due to erosion has been estimated at
So an acre yearly, making a total an
nual loss of over $2,0O0,000 The fact
that there are many hilly farms where
erosion has been stopped indicates
both that this loss is in measure I'M
necessary, and that in certain areas it
must amount at present to far more
than the s. an acre already mention
ed as an average.