OUR WASTE LANDS 



It may not be inappropriate at this time, since almost daily 

 rains, frequently of torrential violence, have fallen in this State 

 for a month past, to present a few facts about the washed lands 

 that disfigure like ghastly scars all too much of the surface of 

 our State. These trenched and scarred surfaces are so prominent- 

 ly developed in some sections of the State as to attract the un- 

 favorable attention of every stranger passing through, and many 

 years ago were graphically described by Dr. W. J. McGee of the 

 U. S. Geological Survey, as the "Bad Lands" of Mississippi a 

 term we are in the habit of applying to regions of the Dakotas 

 or Wyoming. Nevertheless, the term is descriptive of our con- 

 ditions. 



It is a fact well known that the surface soils of all lands, 

 whether the slopes be gentle of steep, are slowly but surely, under 

 the action of ordinary agencies of the weather, moving down 

 toward and eventually into the sea. This is unavoidable and abso- 

 lutely beyond our control, though by various devices we may re- 

 tard or check it for a while. 



The process is normally very slow, permitting of the regener- 

 ation of the soil in any given locality as rapidly as it is removed. 

 Under certain conditions, however, the removal of soil may be 

 more rapid than its renewal, producing a condition of sterility 

 which we ordinarily describe by saying -the soil is washed away. 

 This is literally true, the soil of agricultural value is gone, and 

 there remains a bare surface devoid of humus and other fertilizing 

 elements necessary to farm crops. 



This loss of the soil with consequent sterility is only the 

 first step in a seriously dangerous process. The land, no longer 

 productive, is thrown out and left to the tender mercy of the 



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