296 Illinois State Dairymen's Association. 



ing these ditches, and it really looks better there than decorating 

 fence corners. If the brush is too coarse, straw or old hay can 

 be thrown in with it. This will catch the sediment and fill the 

 gully. Some kind of grass should be started in the gully as soon 

 as possible, to help catch and hold the material carried by the 

 water. Red-top is one of the best, since it thrives under some- 

 what adverse conditions, forms a tough sod, and produces a large 

 amount of top. If brush is not convenient it would be well to 

 use any material at hand that will accomplish the result. Stumps 

 or large stones do not answer the purpose as well as finer material, 

 because the water will run around them and they may actually 

 cause more washing. Old rails with straw, corn stalks, or cobs 

 may be used, but it is well to get something growing as soon as 

 possible, and grass is better than anything else. 



The gully produced by a waterfall is one of the hardest 

 to fill, since the fall of the water gives it great power, making it 

 very difficult to stop its undermining action. As these generally 

 occur where the field is in grass there is a comparatively small 

 amount of sediment carried, and consequently the filling will go 

 on but slowly. The recession of the fall must be stopped. Straw 

 and brush should be used to fill in under the fall, weighting them 

 down with stones or sod, to prevent their being washed away. 

 Dams of brush should be put in at intervals below the fall, and 

 even a solid dam at the edge of the field may be of much use in 

 completely filling the gully. 



Illinois is a comparatively new state, yet the ruining of land 

 has gone on so rapidly that in some parts of the state rriany 

 fields have been abandoned. In the counties of Hardin, Pope, 

 Union, Johnson, Alexander and Pulaski, and in the counties ad- 

 joining the Wabash, Mississippi and Illinois rivers soil abandon- 

 ment is already noticeable to a greater or less extent. Washing 

 has been more detrimental in southern Illinois because the rain- 

 fall is greater and the organic matter content of the soil is less, 

 so that most of the ruined soils are confined to that region. If 

 this destruction of soils is as rapid in the future as it has been in 

 the past large areas' will be abandoned and depopulated in Illinois, 

 just as they have been in the older states, for such impoverished 

 soil will not supply the needs for even the simplest methods of liv- 

 ing. 



