2O THE SOIL SOLUTION 



slopes this soil creep is believed to be of great importance in 

 connection with soil erosion. 1 



As important as is the translocation of material by water, 

 quite as important probably is that produced by the winds. 

 These are blowing all the time, uphill as well as down, and 

 their range of action is thus far wider than is that of rain and 

 flood. The effectiveness of the wind as a translocating agency 

 is seldom realized or even suspected by the layman, although 

 it is commonly known that the air always contains some dust, 

 and dust storms are familiar phenomena. That soil material 

 can be carried long distances is certain, however, as for instance 

 the sirocco dust, often carried from the Sahara over Europe. 2 

 Dust carried high into the air by volcanic eruptions sometimes 

 travels enormous distances, as in the case of the eruption of 

 Krakatoa, when such material is reported to have traveled 

 thousands of miles, and volcanic debris from the eruptions at 

 Soufriere fell upon ships several hundred miles distant. Arctic 

 explorers have reported the finding of wind-borne soil materials 

 over the polar ice, and mountaineers have observed similar 



1 Soil erosion is undoubtedly one of the greatest economic problems 

 of the time, and yet there is scarcely any subject about which there are 

 current so many popular misconceptions. In the rivers and to those who 

 use the rivers the water-borne soil materials is an unmitigated nuisance, 

 save possibly to a few cultivators of low-lying lands who for one reason 

 or another, may flood their fields for the sake of the salt deposited. To 

 the upland farmer, however, erosion is not only a necessity of natural 

 conditions which cannot be avoided entirely, but under proper control it 

 may be even a blessing. The scalded and gullied hillsides, a trial and 

 unnecessary disgrace to the owner, are probably not the main sources of 

 the material which finds its way to the river. On the contrary, what are 

 regarded usually as well-tilled fields supply the greater part of the sus- 

 pended material in the rivers. The problem of erosion on the farm is 

 not merely to check gullying and scalding, and deepening of stream heads, 

 but to so adjust both cropping system and cultural methods as to secure 

 a reasonable translocation of surface soil material with a minimum con- 

 tamination of the neighborhood streams. See, Man and the earth, by 

 Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, 1905. 



1 For a comprehensive discussion of wind as a translocating agent, 

 see: The movement of soil material by the wind, by E. E. Free, Bureau 

 of Soils, Bull. No. 68, U. S. Dept. Agriculture. 



