The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1915-04-01
LOSS FROM SOIL EROSION
Government investigation Reveals
Great Damage Annually in South

Washington, ID. c., March 31.-Loss
from soil erosion in the south has
been found to be a most important fac
tor in that sections agriculture byi n
vestigators of the United States de-
partment of agriculture. The loss, in
fact is said to be greater in that than
in any other section of the country,
and wherever hilly land is used for
crops, Investigators urge that meas
ures for preventing further damage be
adopted. The results of the investiga-
tion have Just been published by the
department as Bulletin No. $50. Soil
Erosion 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 hilly and
rolling country.
Terracing is recommended as the
best and most efficacious method of
Nohtib 'lpSlols II SHbulu ne sup
plemented, however, by deep blowing
and the addition of organic matter
to the soil whenever these measures
are possible. Water running rapidly
over the surface will carry with il
PARTICLES of the soil and the faster it
runs, the more soil will it carry. In
the course of a year the amount of
earth that is thus removed, reaches
colossal proportions. Biologists have
estimated that the rivers of the Unit
ed States annually carry to the sea
soil material to the amount of 1885,
100000 tons. In localities where this
erosion is carried on to an advanced
stage, the quality of the soil is greatly
impaired, IA large part of the soluble
salts are removed the surface soils
are often washed down to the low
lands, outlying so defaces the land
that it becomes difficult to cultivate
and the loss in organic matter fire.
quently causes the field to be abandon
ed as too poor for profitable agri.
culture. In the south. it is said ero.
sion is the chief cause of the aban-
donment of land and in some sections
has caused so per cent of the arabic
land to lie idle
A OF lnI dc Of
sions are directed toward lessening
the amount of water that runs off the
that sinks into the soil If all the wa.
ter that falls on a given area, were
absorbed by the soil, there would be
no erosion. For this reason vegeta-
tion is useful because it checks the
flow of the water and thus affords
more time for the process of absorp-
tion. Hence the movement for the
the south. In addition to retarding
the flow of the water, such crops keep
tlp SUI ihoiO VI icoS Optu ny tut
penetration of their roots and in this
way further facilitate absorption.
Deep plowing produces somewhat the
same effect, but does not. of course,
add any organic matter to the soil
which promotes the granulation of the
soil particles and thus produces larger
spaces.
Terracing the use of cover crops,
and deep plowing 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 Carolina,
the decrease in crop values alone, due
to erosion, has been estimated at SO
an acre yearly, making a total amount
lost of over $2,OOO,OOO. The fact that
there are many hilly farms where
erosion has been stopped, indicates
both that this loss Is, in a measure,
unnecessary and that in certain
areas it must amount at present to
far more than the SO an acre already
mentioned as an average.