The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1935-01-22
.COUNTY'S LOSS.
FROM EROSION.
REPORTEDHICH.
Over II Per Cent of Total
Area of Acreage Loses
in Value
10 PER CENT IS NOW
UNDER CULTIVATION

Henderson county has lost The
value of 3O,O29 acres, or 1881
per cent of it's total area because
of aggravated erosion, according
to results of a survey by the Soil
Erosion Service of the United
States Department of the Interior,
received by The Times-News to-
day.
Of the 234,240 acres which COM
prise the county there are 1920
acres already abandoned due pri-
marily to severe erosion, the re-
port shows. Also, there are H.
02O acres having 25 to IS per
cent of the topsoil gone.
The government has found that
the countain contains 177,091
acres of forest, and that there are
24,805 acres under cultivation,
1924 acres of tillable land and
14,500 acres of open pastureland
in addition to the 5000 odd acres
of abandoned land. The section
of the county most seriously dam
aged by erosion is the French
Broad valley.
The report is the result of an
erosion survey made of the entire
state under the direction of w. D.
Lee and w. w. Stevens, soil .spe-
cialists of the. North Carolina area
of the Soil Erosion Service, to de.
termine the general land condi-
ton in North Carolina. Regional
headquarters of the Soil Erosion
Service is in High Point.
The exact date concerning soil
erosion in Henderson county is
shown in the following figures:
| PRESENT LAND USE
% Total
Acres Area
/ Cultivated land - 24,S05 1888
Idle tillable land 1924 $50
Waste land $500 1920 $780,
Open pasture land 14,500 GIG
Forested land ---177,091 1850
Total area -234,240
STEEPNESS o FLAND
% Total
Acres Area
Levi to undulating 1924 8.22
Moderately rolling 1900 "a
Strongly rolling - $4,000 22. IL
Low billy ------- $1,000 TT
Hillv 18,400 1856
Very steep -126,276 $3.50
I EXTENT OF EROSION
% Total
Acres Area
Little or no ero'sn 193,191 82.47
Severe Cup to 1879 ~
of topsoil gomez 11,O2O 4.1O
Very severe with
outlying ------ oV,oE9 1901
Total area severe
ly eroded, gull
lied, and aban-
doned 41,049 1871
The mountain section of North
Carolina, consisting of rs coun-
ties, has upward of $4,000 acres
of formerly productive farm land
that is severely eroded and gull
lied, an accompanying statement
says. This represents IL per cent
of the total acreage of the sec
ton. Of this amount there are
ovr $4,000 acres which have
been abandoned as wasteland due
to the effects of unrestralned
rainwash. This condition of the
land has been found in a govern
ment erosion survey of the state
conducted by the Soil Erosion Ser
vice of the Department of the
Interior.
The Piedmont county in worst
condition as a result of ralnWash
Is shown to have nearly 10 per
cent of its total acreage aban-
doned. as being too poor to Guilt
vate due primarily to erosion. In
that county alone erosion has
rohbed more than $4,000 acres of
a large part of the priceless top
soil the survey brought out. The
amount of eroded wasteland IN
the average mountain county was
fond to be nearly one half of its
normally cultivated area. =.
Besides the great amount OF
land abandoned because OF ero-
sion, there exist in the rs e s:
ties 100000 additional acres from on
which erosion has robbed 20 TO 10
per cent of the topsoil and with
serious Outlying becoming appar-