THE WATER OF SOILS. 



2I 9 



which with the sand were carried into the valleys adjacent, filling the 

 beds of the streams so as to cause their flow to disappear under the 

 flood of sand. As the evil progressed, large areas of uplands were 

 denuded completely of their loam or culture stratum, leaving nothing 

 but bare, arid sand, wholly useless for cultivation; while the valleys were 

 little better, the native vegetation having been destroyed and only 

 hardy weeds finding nourishment on the sandy surface. 



In this manner whole sections, and in some portions of the State 

 whole townships of the best class of uplands have been transformed 

 into sandy wastes, hardly reclaimable by any ordinary means, and 

 wholly changing the industrial conditions of entire counties ; whose 

 county seats even in some instances had to be changed, the old town 

 and site having, by the same destructive agencies, literally " gone down 

 hill." This destruction of lands was greatly aggravated by the civil 

 war, during which, and for some time after, large areas of lands once 

 under cultivation were left to the mercy of the elements. 



Injury in the arid regions. In the arid regions, where the 

 rainfall frequently comes in heavy downpours or " cloud- 

 bursts," immense damage to pasture lands has been brought 

 about by overstocking, in Arizona and New Mexico; involving 

 the destruction of the natural cover of vegetation and the 

 loosening of the surface especially by sheep; after which a 

 heavy rainfall will carry off the surface soil, the muddy water 

 being gathered largely in the trails made by cattle going to 

 water. Thus gradually gullies are formed, which enlarging 

 more and more become ravines and cut up the pasture slopes 

 into " bad lands," useless equally for pasture and for agricul- 

 ture. 1 California, eastern Oregon and Washington, and Mon- 

 tana, offer striking and lamentable examples of the same de- 

 structive agencies. 



Deforestation. The deforestation of hill and mountain 

 lands has, the world over, led to similar results; causing not 

 only the destruction of pasture and agricultural lands, but also 

 the conversion of streams, flowing from springs and seepage 

 all the year, into periodic torrents, flooding the lowlands 

 during rains by the rapid running-off of the water from the 

 bare and hard-baked mountain slopes, and then running dry 



1 Open Range and Irrigation Farming. R. II Forbes, in Forester, N'os. 7, 9, 

 1902. 



