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SWEET CLOVER BUFFER STRIP 

 on Emil Buhrer iarm aaat oi Edwardsville. 

 Madison county. 



Approximately 23,000 



, ■'nr' 2icres of farm lands in the 



^^^^ / Edwardsville soil erosion 

 control area will be help>ed by projects 

 actually under way on some 80 farms in 

 Madison and adjoining counties. 



F. A. Fisher, Illinois director of the 

 soil conservation service with the U. S. 

 Dept. of Agriculture is proud of the 

 work being carried on here to save the 



Farmers Stop Soil Washing 



With Strip Crops And Terraces 



top soil, stop gullying, conserve moisture, 

 and build soil fertility. 



In Madison county, you can see the 

 results of strip cropping with alfalfa and 

 sweet clover, the effect of terracing, and 

 hear the comments of farmers on contour 

 farming. 



Said Chester Buchta who is operating 

 the family farm of 157 acres, 'It is 

 easier to ride the binder with the terraces 

 than it is to cross gullys. And I know 

 the terraces are going to keep the soil up 

 on the slopes where it belongs." 



On farms where strip cropping is 

 practiced, you see strips of clover, wheat 

 and corn one-half mile long and 100 

 feet wide, plowed and cultivated cross- 

 wise to the slope, to prevent gullying. 



On the Courtney Sickbert farm, a 



heavy crop of hay was being mowed in 

 the grass waterways. Had these been 

 plowed, as they often are, gullying and 

 sheet erosion would have carried tons of 

 rich top soil down into the bottoms. 



Com was being cultivated on the con- 

 tour by Thos. Derrow on the Emil 

 Buhrer farm. Here narrow buffer strips 

 of sweet clover are used in the com field 

 to slow up water runoff. A heavy stand 

 of alfalfa adjoining the corn field is an- 

 other protective measure used to save 

 the soil. 



Bob Whitsett, manager of the Soil 

 Conservation Service in the Edwardsville 

 area reports that moving and building 

 fences to conform to contour farming 

 consumes one-third of the labor pro- 

 vided by CCC camps. 



WHEN RUNNING WATER HITS THIS STRIP 

 it starts walking, soaks in ... . leaves its load oi silt ior 

 future use. 



STRIP FARMING IN EDWARDSVILLE AREA 

 The heavy strip oi red clover, Qanked on both sides by 

 waving wheat fields, resists erosion, builds soil fertility. 

 Farm operated by Edw. E. Miekamp Ir., Madison county. 



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son. CONSERVATION PROJECT MANAGER BOB WHITSETT, 

 below, checks the Automatic Water Runoff Recorder in Ed- 

 wardsville Area. Rainfall data also is being accumulated. 

 The water comes down the grassy terrace outlet through the 

 measuring device. 



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WATER FROM THIS TERRACED FIELD RUNS DOWN 

 this sodded terroce outlet through the V-shaped concrete 

 runoff abutment where the instrument automatically records 

 it The terraced field of 18 acres to the right had 187 gullies 

 at one time. Matilda Buchta farm, Madison county. 



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