hay on the creek banks. The deep loam of the steepest fields 

 took the rain as it came, turned it upward into crops and 

 downward into perennial springs, and gullies were absent. 



Then came increase in settlement thrifty, ambitious 

 Norse farmers more cows, the need of more silos to feed 

 them, and of more machines to milk them. This develop- 

 ment required more pastures for grazing, on which account 

 forest land was cleared on the steeper upper slopes; and more 

 tilled land for ensilage corn (and eventually for tobacco), for 

 which sod lands on the lower levels were turned under. All 

 of this exposed the fertile topsoils to the rains pouring off the 

 ridges as from a roof, down ravines crossing grazed slopes as 

 through gutters, and in sheets off the more level tilled fields. 

 They could not resist the abrasive force of these silt-laden 

 waters, and in time great gutters were torn in the hillsides, 

 and the humified soil was in many places washed into the 

 streams. 



The Coon Creek erosion project is an attempt to combat 

 these evils at their source and to restore insofar as possible 

 the earlier conditions. Some 315 farmers, approximately 

 half of all the farmers in the watershed, have entered into a 

 program of cooperative rehabilitation. The Soil Conser- 

 vation Service has made contracts with the farmers, which 

 collectively comprise a regional plan relating to land use and 

 cropping, and methods of farm practice; and has developed a 

 system of check dams in gullies and planting along streams; 

 furnished free labor, wire, seed, lime, and planting stock; has 

 established a nursery, seed warehouse, lime quarry, and other 

 facilities; a C. C. C. camp for necessary labor; and especially 

 a staff of skilled technicians for studies of the whole problem 

 and the problem of each farm, the making of plans and de- 

 signs, and supervision of their execution. The farmers con- 

 tribute cooperation adoption of recommendations for de- 

 velopment of their respective lands, and assistance in 

 execution. 



The project is developing essentially as follows: Cows and 

 crops are to be kept from the steep slopes and these are to be 

 henceforth devoted to timber and wildlife. The withdrawal of 



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