592 



MAN AS A CONQUEROR 



least erosion are those which are still covered with forests, while those 

 that show the greatest destruction by erosion are the areas where the 

 cover has been destroyed without adequate replacement. The farms 

 in the mountains of Tennessee, Kentucky, and on the eastern slope 

 of the Southern Appalachians suffer most from water erosion, while 

 great regions in the Middle West have been made subject to wind 

 erosion through the removal of large areas of protective cover, thus 

 giving the name of "dustbowl" to this region. This does not mean 

 that farmers should not plow land and plant crops, but it does mean 

 a lack of intelligent farm planning on the part of many farmers. 

 Leaving a few trees here, or planting others there to form a windbreak, 

 the use of grasses or grains in wind-exposed tracts, cutting up large 

 fields into smaller ones in which diversified crops may be grown, 

 planting grass along banks, and placing check dams in gullies already 

 eroded are some of the ways in which farm erosion may be prevented. 



Forest Waste and Methods of Conservation 



When the white man first settled our eastern coast three hundred 

 years ago, there was eight times as much virgin forest as there is today. 

 The present total forest of the United States is less than 494,000,000 

 acres. More than 80,000,000 acres of this area have been burned or 



cut, so that they are now 

 waste land. It is esti- 

 mated that fire, worms, 

 and insects destroy each 

 year in the United States 

 about 7,000,000,000 

 board-feet of standing 

 timber. Add to this a 

 timber production from 

 10,000,000,000 to over 

 44,000,000,000 board-feet 

 a year, depending on the 

 building demand, and we 

 can see the wastage that 

 is taking place in our 

 American forests. It is 

 estimated that we are 

 deforesting at the rate of 

 The tragedy of forest fires. "" about 10,000,000 acres a 



}l incur III 



