March, 1912. 



249 



Miscellaneous. 



stubborn land, calling for greater effort 

 in tillage and producing less per acre. 

 We may reasonably infer from the high 

 prices of the decade immediately past 

 that everything was done by those who 

 owned land to enlarge the acreage where 

 that was easy or practical, and that what 

 is yet to be brought in as tillable land 

 presents greater difficulties and greater 

 expense. The way in which the States 

 can help to meet future increased de- 

 mand is by investigation and research 

 into the science of agriculture, and by 

 giving to the farming community a 

 knowledge which shall enable them 

 better to develop the soil, and by edu- 

 cating those who are coming into the 

 profession of farming. It is now almost 

 a learned profession. 



The first great step that has to be 

 taken in reformed agriculture is the 

 conservation of the soil. Under our 

 present system the loss to the farms 

 in this country by the erosion of the 

 soil is hardly to be calculated. Engi- 

 neers have shown how much is carried 

 down the srreat rivers of the country 

 and is deposited as silt each year at 

 their mouths. The number of cubic 

 yards staggers the imagination. The 

 question is how this can be prevented, 

 as it must be, because the soil which is 

 carried off by this erosion is generally 

 the richest and the best soil of the farms 

 which are thus denuded. 



Of the rain or snow which falls on the 

 land, a part evaporates into the air, a 

 1 second part flows down the slopes to 

 the streams, and is called the run off. 

 The third part soaks into the soil and 

 sub-soil, and thence into underlying 

 rocks, perhaps to reappear in springs or 

 seepage into streams. This is called 

 ground water. The fourth part is ab- 

 sorbed by organisms, chiefly by trees, 

 grasses, and crop plants, either directly 

 through the tissues or indirectly through 

 the roots penetrating the moistened 

 soil. Erosion is due to the run-off, ani 

 its quantity is dependent on the slope 

 of the farm and also the nature of the 

 soil and its products. Any reasonable 

 slope, and any full cover of forest or 

 grass with an abundant mulch, or a 

 close crop on a deeply broken soil, or a 

 friable furrow slice kept loose by suit- 

 able cultivation, will absorb rain and 

 curtail the run-off, or even reduce it to 

 slow seepage through the surface soil,,, 

 which is the ideal condition. Now, 

 the ground water is the most essential 

 constituent of the soil, because solution, 

 circulation and organic assimilation are 

 dependent on water. All the organisms 

 and tis-nes are made up of this solvent 

 of water, and it constitutes a large per- 



32 



centage of the bodies and food of men 

 and animals. The question of the 

 amount or ratio of ground water in the 

 soil is a vital one. If it is excessive it 

 makes a sodden mass, sticky when wet, 

 but baked when dry, so that there is no 

 possible absorption further into it, and it 

 sends on the water that falls on it to 

 erode easy slopes. 



The erosion begins on the farm and 

 should be remedied there. Deep cultiv- 

 ation tends to absorb the product of 

 each rainfall and to reduce the run-off. 

 Deep cultivation brings up fresh earth 

 salts to the shorter rootlets, but carries 

 down the humus and mulch to thicken 

 the soil and feed the deepest roots. In 

 flat lying fields and tenacious soils tile 

 drainage is the best method of relieving 

 the farm from the danger of too great 

 run-off. Deep drainage permits both 

 soil and sub-soil to crumble and disinteg- 

 rate and through mechanical and 

 chemical changes to become friable and 

 capable of taking on and holding the 

 right amount of moisture for plant 

 growth, while the water which runs out 

 through the drain is clear without carry- 

 ing the soil with it, and therefore with- 

 out erosion. Of course, different farms 

 require different treatments. Certain 

 farms require what is called contour 

 cultivation, by which each furrow is to 

 be run in such a way as to level and to 

 hold the water. On hilly lands strips of 

 grass land are grown, called balks or 

 breaks, separating zones of plough land, 

 and they should curve with the slopes, 

 and the soil being carried by the water 

 will be caught by them and constitute 

 them a kind of terrace without effort. 

 The use of forests, of course, in foot 

 hills and deeply broken country is essen- 

 tial and should be combined with 

 grazing. They will prevent the form- 

 ation of torrents by making the mulch 

 and soil deep and spongy. Of course, 

 over all mountain divides the retention 

 of forests greatly helps to prevent the 

 carrying off of the good soil to the 

 valleys below. The proper selection of 

 crops has much to do with the stopping 

 of erosion. 



I gather these facts from the reports 

 of the Secretary of Agriculture as to 

 the best method of preventing erosion. 

 They are simple and easily understood, 

 but they need to be impressed upon the 

 farmers by education and by reiteration. 

 Then the productivity of the soils might 

 very well be increased by more careful 

 use of commercial fertilizers. In 1907 

 $100,000,000 was expended in fertilizers, 

 but the Agricultural Department is of 

 opinion that one-third of this was 

 wasted for lack of knowledge as to how 

 to use it. 



