34 



side. Each foot, for example, carries but little more water than fell 

 upon it. Neither rain nor melting snow have had time or chance to 

 gather into a torrent with great eroding power. The land at the 

 bottom may be in one of two conditions.. Before it was cleared a 

 small quantity of fertile soil, humus resulting in great part from 

 decomposing leaves, had gradually been carried down the slope 

 abo've and been arrested at that point. Hence, as a rule, the foot of 

 the hill in a wooded condition is more fertile than the higher por- 

 tions. This is clearly shown by the product being larger and more 

 vigorous. This condition of affairs continues after the clearing has 

 been made for a varying period of time, the length o-f which will de- 

 pend upon the conditions. Sooner or later, however, the land at the 

 foot of the hill becomes at least as unproductive as that above. The 

 reason of this is obvious. The water which flows from the top of the 

 hill flows with an ever-increasing velocity as it descends. It has 

 but little force when it starts, but gathers strength and erosive; 

 power as it reaches the bottom. The result is inevitable. Not only 

 is the soil which was accumulating while the wood remained on the 

 ground removed, but beside this, the original natural surface goes 

 with it. Surface impoverishment goes on more rapidly than soil 

 formation does below, hence results a greater sterility on the lower 

 grounds than those of the plateau, or of the hill top. Or to state 

 the same idea as is more generally done, the top of the hill has be- 

 come richer than the foot and the lower part of the side. 



The present condition of a very large portion o-f the steeper re- 

 gions of the State is already in a deplorable condition. The north- 

 ern tier of counties is within the belt once covered by glaciers. Or 

 perhaps it would be better to state that the signs of glacial action 

 are most marked there. Such regions, as Prof. Shaler has well re- 

 marked, do not suffer severely from washing out of the elements 

 of fertility, because "owing to the depth and loose aggregation" of 

 the materials deposited by the ice masses, a large part of the water 

 soaks into the ground. It is, therefore, quite as likely to increase 

 the quantity of material fit for plant food as it is to remove it. 

 When, however, we study the counties which make up the southern 

 half of the Commonwealth, a different condition of affairs is at once 

 visible. The traces of glacial action are less plain and signs of soil 

 impoverishment are correspondingly more common. Even in such 

 counties as Chester and York, which, on the whole, possess a vast 

 agricultural wealth, there is probably a larger acreage of land so 

 impoverished, that it canno>t be counted upon for a crop, than there 

 is in Susquehanna county. The unpleasant truth had better be 

 stated that Pennsylvania possesses a vast acreage now under a nom- 

 inal system of agriculture, which is falling lower each year in the 

 scale of productiveness, which gives no promise of future agricul- 



