EXPERIMENT STATION 



OF THE 



KANSAS STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, 



MANHATTAN. 



BULLETIN No. 121 JANUARY 1904. 

 Agricultural, Botanical and Horticultural Departments. 



AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 



A. M. TEN EYCK, B. AGE., Agriculturist. 



I 



Renewing Washed and Sanded Lands. 



"THE floods of the spring of 1903, by far the most disastrous in 

 the history of the West, covered a territory of more than 2,000,000 

 acres ; they wiped out property approximating $40,000,000, and took 

 nearly a hundred lives."* When the great flood occurred ( May 28 to 

 June 5), practically all crops were 'planted and growing, wheat was 

 headed, and the first crop of alfalfa was ready for the sickle. The 

 waters covered the land for from three to eight days, and on some 

 poorly drained fields remained for weeks, preventing the replanting of 

 the land that season. On well-drained lands, where the water was not 

 deep and remained only two or three days, crops were not usually de- 

 stroyed. Even alfalfa survived under these conditions. But on all 

 of the lower river bottom, not only were the crops destroyed and great 

 damage occasioned by the loss of farm products, damage to buildings, 

 the washing away of fences, etc., but many fields were permanently 

 damaged by the washing away of soil and the gouging out of great 

 holes by the rushing water. The sand from these washouts and from 

 the washing of the river banks and the cutting of new channels was 

 often deposited over fertile fields further down the stream, so that 



* Senator J. R. Burton, in North American Review, October 1903. 



(133) 



