150 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



sugar and cotton regions of the South. The lands were "new," full of vege- 

 table mould, productive and profitable to cultivate. Erosion has removed 

 the rich soil and deposited it in the Gulf of Mexico. The flat boats are gone, 

 not because the railroads have entered their field of commerce, for no railway 

 could Compete with water transportation, especially by the cheap method of 

 flat boating. It is simply that the farms are not so productive as formerly, 

 the soil has been eroded, its fertility gone. 



The red clay lands of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and the hill region 

 of the South generally, are instances of erosion. The adhesiveness of the clay 

 is lessened by decomposition of the soil, and each rain carries away the bind- 

 ing materials of the clay, and when loosened it is soon washed into deep 

 gullies and becomes unfit for cultivation. 



Such lands should be planted with timber. The natural growths of pine, 

 which comes in so generously, should be protected, for these forests will in 

 time overcome the tendency to erode. 



The bad lands of Montana and Dakota are other illustrations where the 

 alkali is dissolved from the soil and carried away by the melting snows ; the 

 earth remaining is of a light, porous, sandy character and erodes very rapidly. 

 Here the depressions are from one hundred to several hundred feet deep, 

 broken into ridges and steep gullies ; some of these elevations being of a 

 harder character remain in masses of innumerable shapes. Beds of lignite 

 occurring throughout these bad lands, and at times taking fire, have given 

 rise to conjecture that these beds having burned out, the land has sunken but the 

 simple fact is erosion has done all this work. 



California has numerous demonstrations of this power of erosion. Where 

 dense forests existed less than a quarter of a century ago, they having been 

 cleared away, the soil has entirely disappeared and bare granite rocks remain, 

 Forever worthless to man is much of these eroded mountain tracts. 



The mountain lands in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, 

 and, in fact, all steep inclines, once cleared of the timber, and plowed, will 

 produce but a few crops, when the fertile loam disappears by erosion, and 

 usually such lands are necessarily abandoned after ten or a dozen crops have 

 been grown. 



While there is such an abundance of rich prairie soil and fertile valleys, suit- 

 able for cultivation, it is extremely unwise to clear away the forest growths 

 on mountain sides. At best a precarious existence can be eked out by toil- 

 some cultivation of such fields, while as forest they serve the purpose of 

 supplying necessary timber, aid in making the streams permanent, and check 

 severe erosion. 



The remedy lies in re-afforestating the steep hillsides, and many fields 

 which are not so steep. In replanting the margins of streams with forest 

 trees and in planting trees wherever the land is inclined to "wash" so that 

 the roots may catch and retain the vegetation and the soil which is washed 

 down from above cease plowing the steeper lands. Get these tracts in grass 

 and pasture if not willing to plant again in trees. You cannot stop erosion, 

 but you may reduce it greatly by proper care. 



