THE FINISHED PRODUCT 

 Water from 200 acres will drain through 

 this concrete flume and stop further gullying. 





CCC BOYS FROM ELMWOOD SOS CAMP 

 Preparing steel reinforcing rods for con* 

 Crete flume. 



falls away fast in all directions was 

 thick, upstanding hybrid corn growing 

 in drilled rows. Big yellow ears with 

 two on every stalk. A pretty piece of 

 corn that looks good for 65 bushels an 

 acre. 



How does Miller do it? Well, lime- 

 stone and alfalfa to begin with. The 

 yellow loess up and down the Miss- 

 issippi enjoys a limestone shampoo 

 topped off with a seeding of alfalfa or 

 sweet clover that gets down into its 

 vitals. Every good farmer knows that 

 when you put humus in the soil it 

 doesn't wash so readily. But that's 

 only part of the story. You can't stop 

 erosion and make water stay on a hill 

 by plowing under alfalfa. But you can 

 by terracing. 



Henry Miller didn't wait for the 

 conservation camp to haul a lot of 

 heavy terracing machinery up there. 

 He hooked up his light tractor to a 

 two-bottom plow and started throwing 

 dirt in ridges about 50 feet apart. He 

 followed the stakes set around the hill 

 by the camp engineers. A home-made 

 V-shaped drag was used to finish the 

 job. 



Now Miller's terraces aren't as broad 

 and professional-looking as some you'll 

 see. But they do the business. He 

 built more than a mile of them last 

 spring between oats sowing and corn 



ANOTHER CEMENT FLUME GOING IN 

 On Jim Sloane farm west of Yates City. 

 Knoi County. 



planting. The terraces follow the con- 

 tour and you find corn rows right on 

 top of them, down the sides, and in 

 the trenches. Crooked corn rows, of 

 course. Hill drop corn in drilled rows, 

 yes. But cleaner corn you never saw, 

 although it was plowed only one way. 



When you want to learn about ter- 

 racing go out and see what happens 

 after a heavy rain. Better, put on boots 

 and a slicker and go when it's raining 

 pitchforks. The trenches at the bottom 

 of the Miller terraces were filled with 

 yellow water . . . water that otherwise 

 would have been galloping down hill 

 to the creek with a rich load of top soil. 

 That water was soaking in, leaving a 

 rich coat of silt in the back furrow, a 

 likely spot for husky corn plants next 

 year. 



Liming, alfalfa and terracing on 

 washy land go far toward holding the 

 soil. But there's another step to clinch 

 it. That's a grass or alfalfa buffer 

 strip. Miller has his fields laid out now 

 into six acre strips. There are 10 of 

 them, six in alfalfa, the others in corn 

 and oats. Below the corn field he aims 

 to have a strip of alfalfa just in case 

 any water or soil gets away from the 



terraces above. When soil-laden water 

 hits the alfalfa "buffer" it hesitates and 

 dumps its silt right then and there. 

 That's how Henry is keeping the top 

 side of his farm up where it belongs. 



"I checked one field of corn this 

 year," he said. "It's the last I'll plant 

 that way." 



The checked corn was no better than 

 that in the drilled rows. But there was 

 a big difference in the damage from 

 wash. Every corn row running with the 

 slope was gullied. 



Ed Bast, tenant on the Lawrence 

 Wurster farm in the same county, is 

 another convert to contour and strip 

 farming. The fields are laid out con- 

 tour style approximately 100 feet wide. 

 A furrow is plowed out in the center 

 of each strip and the boundaries are 

 parallel to the center furrow. Short 

 rows are eliminated by keeping the ir- 

 regular pieces of land between the 

 fields in alfalfa. These patches of al- 

 falfa meadow hold the soil, catch any 

 silt that may get away in the wash 

 from the cultivated strips, and make 

 quite a lot of hay. 



Cultivated strips 60 feet wide are 

 recommended for steeper slopes, wider 



THIS IS THE LIFE 

 Their pay $30 a month — )25 goes to their parents or 

 guardians on relief. 



BROAD BASE TERRACE. FULTON. COUNTY 

 On Joe Garlish farm to protect gentle slope against sh««t 

 erosion. 



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