WASTES IN RELATION TO AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY 



23 



tion in the thirties by duststorms. In 1947, Finnell 

 (37) made a survey of wheat production in the 

 heart of the old Dust Bowl to appraise the effects 

 of the storms of the thirties on soil productivity. 

 Land severely eroded by the earlier duststorms 

 showed about 40 percent lower production as meas- 

 ured by wheat yields. During each of the drought 

 years of 1954-57 on the southern Great Plains, the 

 annual damages from windblown soil were about 

 as great as those during the thirties (87). 



Airborne soil is indeed a resource out of place. 

 Windblown soil particles such as fine sand can 

 completely destroy a stand of seedling or young 

 plants by an action that is essentially sandblast- 

 ing. This damage frequently occurs on young 

 crops in the Atlantic Coastal Plain from the Con- 

 necticut Valley to Florida. Allen (8) reports that 

 in Hoke County. N.C., dust blowing caused re- 

 planting of 2.500 acres of cotton, 1,000 acres of 

 corn, and 100 acres of tobacco in 1955. Serious 

 damage to seedlings by sandblasting has also been 

 reported in "Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and 

 Arkansas. 



Dust blowing hurts livestock. An extension serv- 

 ice forester made a survey of the benefits of farm 

 windbreaks in abating soil blowing on 200 Ne- 

 braska farms. Livestock feeders indicated annual 

 savings of $800, livestock breeders reported an an- 

 nual savings of $500, and dairymen estimated 

 their savings at $000 a year. 



Dust from soil blowing or volcanic action that 

 settles on plants and coats the leaves has the same 

 stunting effect as the dust and soot from indus- 

 trial flues, cement plants, and lime kilns. Coating 

 of leaves impairs use of available sunlight in 

 photosynthesis and obstructs the leaf stomata that 

 permits gas exchange between the leaves and the 

 surrounding atmosphere. Hence, growth processes 

 are retarded. Dust accumulating on greenhouse- 

 cuts down available light intensity and thereby 

 weakens the crop plants grown therein. This is 

 particularly serious in the wintertime. 



When these airborne dusts accumulate on leaf} 

 vegetables such as lettuce and celery, the quality 

 of the crop may be seriously damaged. Small fruits 

 and ornamentals may be harmed by dust accumu- 

 lations. 



Dusts may carry pesticides. If a herbicide were 

 so carried, damage could occur on crop- miles 

 away from the area of application. Insecticides 



could be carried into farm pond- and tributary 

 streams used by farmers or used for n in 



forested areas. 



Information that would enable a quantitative 

 appraisal of the adverse effects of airborne dusts 

 on agriculture and forestry is seriously lacki . 

 One can rest assured that the farmer who has ex- 

 perienced the duststorms of the Great Plains, or 

 who has seen his A'oung crops along the Atlar 

 coast sandblasted, or who has tried to grow fruit 

 on the leeward side of a cement plant prolific in 

 its eolian effluent does not need voluble arguments 

 to be persuaded that the adverse effects of air- 

 borne dusts on agriculture are serious indeed. 



Sediment 



Many of us are so accustomed to seeing muddy 

 water in our streams, ponds, and reservoirs that 

 we come to look upon the situation as somewhat 

 like taxes — it is just part of our May of life. 



Sediment is the perfect example of the defini- 

 tion of a waste as being a resource out of place. 

 Sediment has a bilateral effect. It depletes the land 

 resources from which it is delivered and impairs 

 the quality of the water resources in which it i- 

 entrained and deposited. 



Sediment carried by streams has been both a 

 benefit and a curse to agriculture for over ■■: 

 years. Sediment deposited from the annual over- 

 flow of the Nile River during the reigns of the 

 Pharaohs and their follower- added a modicum of 

 fertility for the agriculture of that valley in 

 ancient Egypt. The relatively efficient crop pro- 

 duction so made possible enabled the release of 

 large forces of labor to build the massive struc- 

 tures of masonry that are now prime tow 

 attractions. 



Sediment brought down the Tigris and Eu- 

 phrates Rivers, following wars and destruction of 

 water control works, led to the eventual disappear- 

 ance of the fabulous civilization of ancient Su- 

 meria. The sediment was deposited in. and e\ 

 tually destroyed, the brilliantly engineered canal 

 system built by the Sumerians in the fifth to third 

 millenia B.C.. to provide an irrigation agriculture 

 that supported an astounding construction of mag- 

 nificent buildings in prosperous cities. Some his- 

 torians have indicated that the high level of civil- 

 ization ii; ancient Mesopotamia was des by 



