GEOLOGY IN EVERYDAY LIFE MANSFIELD 269 



wires were frequent occurrences because of land slips. Recourse to 

 the State geologic map, another product of the State survey, with 

 some further explanations, demonstrated to the engineer the usefulness 

 of such a map in showing the position of the stable rocks that could be 

 safely utilized and of the unstable formations that should be avoided. 



GEOLOGY IN DOMESTIC RELATIONS 



In the glaciated parts of the country, especially in New England, the 

 land of many farms is stony. In the process of cultivation large num- 

 bers of stones, ranging in size from a few inches to as much as a foot 

 in diameter, have been patiently gathered by the farmer and assembled 

 in piles here and there in the fields or built into stone walls. Such 

 walls are a characteristic sight along many New England roads. Suc- 

 cessive winter frosts gradually lift other stones in the upper soil within 

 reach of the plow and thus provide the farmer with additional crops 

 of boulders. 



Contrasting geologic conditions affecting the lives of whole com- 

 munities have been called t© public attention in the last year or two 

 by the so-called "dust bowl" in the western States and by flooded areas 

 of the Ohio, Mississippi, and other rivers. In the dust bowl area cul- 

 tivation, deficient rainfall and high winds combined to loosen soil and 

 transport it in large quantities to other sites near or far. The farms 

 from which the soil was taken were depleted or ruined, whereas those 

 that received it were improved, if not choked by too much sand or 

 other deleterious material. On the other hand, the flooded areas 

 suffered from the effects of too much rain and from the consequent 

 increase in the transporting power of the rivers. One man's loss was 

 perhaps another's gain in the redistribution of soil that took place 

 during the flood. 



An understanding of the effects of heavy rains and run-off on 

 plowed ground is essential to a farmer if he is to conserve his fields and 

 maintain the productivity of his farm. This is especially true if his 

 fields slope more than a few degrees. The system of contour plowing 

 now being introduced in many parts of the country, especially in the 

 South, is doing much to prevent soil erosion and the waste of arable 

 land. 



My efforts to make a garden in Washington during the World War 

 were directly affected by the geology of my back yard. The upper 

 few inches of soil were derived from gravels of the Columbia group of 

 Pleistocene age and were very stony, the stones ranging from bird's 

 egg to football size. They lay on an old deeply weathered and rotted 

 schist of pre-Cambrian age, the contact being beautifully exposed in 

 a cut bank in the alley behind my house. Every square foot of that 

 garden had to be opened by pick and shovel methods. Many wheel- 



