The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1937-03-09
By HITLER KREIGHBAuM
Halted Press Staff Correspondent

Press ASSOciatloGSD
By HITLER KRElGABAum
Limited Press Staff Correspondent
WASHINGTON. Mar. Q. (UP).
II 2 foreign army tramping across
The United States seized onc-thwd
Of All farm land. millions OF Amer
lean soldiers would he lighting
and diving to regain this heritage
II an invader demanded tribute
of $500. 900. 900 annually for the
nett 80 years. every American
wculd be rinching pennies Tor
defense fund.
Vet. the soil conservation serv-
ice last night revealed that the
forces of erosion are rooOing
Americans of what no foreign ma
ton could claim.
From Maine to California, an
average of onp-Uhird Of all our
farm land is either already ruined
or seriously damaged by erosion.
Soil erosion will cost S5OO.OOO,-
600 each average year for the
next half century, experts eStl-
mate. The total amounts to more
than two-thirdS Of the entire led
erel debt. o.
There are in the United States
an estimated 6lO.000.000 acres
listed as crop land. The soil con.
servation service. on the basis oil
a recent reconnaissance survey;
said that 70 per cent of this land
was subject TO eroSion-potentiai
wastes and desert. Already 2O0,-
900 900 acres are ruined for ralS,
ING crops or so seriously impaired
that only immediate and emergen-
cv measures can salvage the land'
Approximately 5O,0OO,OOO acres
are as useless to farmers as a
similar acreage in the Sahara or
Cob; deserts. Practically all OF
rho rest can be saved-if the ma
ton acts now. -
In the field ut peak of enroll
ment were $4,000 workers. Ten
thousand of these are admmistra,
ton officials, technicians and heId
Supervisors of the soil conserva-
tinn service itself; 10000 civilian
conservation corps workers have
tried 10 reclaim land already erod-
ed or to prevent progress OF dust
storms, gullies and soliciting
through sheet erosion; $4,000
works progress administration en-
Moves have co-Operated.
That is Americas civilian army
enlisted for the battle to conserve
our soil along with the help OF
millions of farmers who want to
safeguard their own source OF IN
come They are following the adj
vice once given by Theodore
Roosevelt who said, when soil Is
gone. men must go, and the pro-
cess doesn't take long
/ Competent experts say that the
ravages of land misuse must be
stopped and the tide of erosion
turned within the next so years II
! the great midwestern plains are
not to become a semi-desert. Each
/ years delay gives the natural
! forces of destruction an addition
al advantage. For example, 1t 4
estimated that blowing area N
dust bowl adds 80 miles to 1t:
dust storm center every year tina,
! che farmers and government 81
passively by and hope something
they don't know just what
will happen to save their land.
When our ancestors first plowet
the eastern shore land 800 years
ago, they brought with them Ger
tain farming practices adapted u
European localities. These worked
reasonably well until the pioneer
settled in the prairies n genera
ton or two ago. Rainfall in these
areas is not plentiful even IN we
wears. The line of the Tooth Me
ridian or the approximate eastern
horder of the DakoJas, Nebraska
Kansas and Oklahoma marks TIT
dividing line between rainfall o
20 inches annually. Westward
rains are scant; eastward, the!
are usually plentiful. .
The reason for this is that i
the deviation is much below 2
inches annually there is no
enough water for successful crops
Even slighs deficiencies in tn
western plains spells drought AM
disaster for the farmers crops.
Before the first pioneers settle'
in the prairies where buffaloe
still roamed. wild grasses wer
plentiful. These grasses. hk
trees. effectively anchored the sol
against erosion. The fibrous, close
growing roots dashed the soil i
place and decaying plant residue
| formed an absorptive SPONGE I
hold the rainfall when it came.
j Innumerable grass blades an
stalks prevented the .poundln
raindrops from hitting the sol
The water flow was retarded an
the slower moving water did littl
damage.
Then came the blows that brok
: the plains. Grasses were turne
under and wheat or corn planted