regions the grade usually should not exceed one-half of 1 

 percent, or 6 inches in a linear distance of 100 feet. The 

 principal function of these cross-slope ridges is to intercept 

 water flowing downhill and to carry it off to the sides of 

 fields at a gentle, nonerosive rate of flow. In regions of low 

 rainfall, level terraces are frequently effective for catching a 

 large share of the rainwater and sinking it into the soil. 

 Aided by contour plowing and strip-planting (discussed 

 below), terraces are even more effective in retarding the 

 run-off and promoting infiltration. 



Fourth; strip-planting, usually referred to as strip- 

 cropping, should be more generally practiced. Across the 

 slopes, after the manner of terracing, strips of thick, water- 

 conserving, soil-holding crops are sown in approximately 

 parallel bands of varying width, usually following the con- 

 tours. Sandwiched in between these bands are strips of the 

 cultivated crops, such as are not favorable to effective infil- 

 tration of water or to retardation of flowing water. These 

 contour bands may be planted, in the case of permanent 

 strips, to fruit trees or berry bushes; and in the case of rota- 

 tion crops, to sorghum, grass, or other dense crops. Strip- 

 cropping is especially suitable to localities where hay is a 

 marketable commodity or where considerable livestock is 

 kept. Ordinary strip-cropping is usually practiced in the 

 form of a system of crop rotation, since the parallel bands 

 usually are arranged so that the alternating strips are 

 planted in the following order: one strip to a dense, soil- 

 saving crop, and the next to a cultivated or erosive crop. 



Contour plowing, efficient cultivation during the growing 

 season, and such terracing and strip-planting as are reason- 

 ably practicable, go a long way toward compensating 

 Nature for treating soils as was never intended should be 

 done compensation for the removal of the vegetative cover 

 and disruption of the normal soil firmness (or stability) by 

 farm tools. Were these practices universal, there should be 

 no great fear of erosion where excessively steep, highly 

 erosive slopes are not used for the cultivated crops. Also 

 these practices, together with the influences of restored forest 

 and sod cover, should remove fear, generally, of dangerous 



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