LANDS ERODED AND SUBSEQUENTLY SILTED. 



Much land in the Kansas River Valley had the surface soil removed 

 for several feet in depth, and was then covered with silt from a few 

 inches to a foot deep. Where this land lies so low that it is likely 

 to be submerged at every future freshet, the best way to manage it is 

 to let it grow up to willows and cottonwoods. The trees will collect 

 the silt at each rise in the river, and will assist in building the soil up 

 to its former level. Where the land is not so low as to be liable to 

 inundation oftener than once in four or five years, such rich silted flats 

 may be profitably planted with hardy catalpa. 



CAVING RIVER BANKS. 



At many places along the stream the flood has left perpendicular 

 banks of soft soil that are being constantly undermined by the current, 

 causing the land to cave into the river from time to time. It is very 

 important that such places be protected, for every such caving bank is 

 a menace to all the land lying back of it in the valley. 



In such a valley, where the bed of the stream does not come within 

 scores of feet of bed rock, the use of stone structures for protecting the 

 river banks is very expensive, and at the same time ineffective. The 

 most successful method of protecting a soft alluvial river bank is to 

 make it sloping instead of perpendicular, and to keep it covered with 

 vegetation. 



The willow is admirably adapted to holding alluvial soil in place. It 

 is far more serviceable for this purpose than walls of masonry, and the 

 facility with which it reproduces itself by seed, suckers, sprouts, and 

 cuttings, both natural and artificial, makes its use very simple and 

 inexpensive. 



The great difficulty with planting any sort of tree on perpendicular 

 banks is that the caving of the soil is so rapid that the planted tree has 

 no opportunity to get a start before it is undermined and precipitated 

 into the river. An excellent scheme has been proposed by Mr. E. 

 Bayles, of Linwood, Kan. The plan is as follows: Green willow poles 

 18 to 20 feet long are secured in the spring, just after the ice goes out 

 of the stream. These poles are laid on the ground near the bank 2 feet 

 apart, with their butts all pointing toward the river. Woven fence wire 

 is then stretched along over the poles and stapled fast to each one. 

 Sections of wire about 100 feet long can be handled to best advantage. 

 After the wire has been securely fastened to the poles, they are all 

 pushed over the bank together, so that the butts of the poles will fall 

 and sink into the soft mud at the water's edge. As the bank caves off 

 some of the falling soil will lodge on the wire, partially burying and 

 weighting down the poles, which will consequently strike root and 

 grow. The wire will serve to hold the mass of willows together until 



