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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 suitable culti- 
vation, 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 con- 
stituent of the soil, because solution, circulation, and organic as- 
similation are dependent on water. All the organisms and tis- 
sues are made up of this solvent of water, and it constitutes a 
large percentage 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 ab- 
sorption 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 cultivation 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 disinte- 
grate 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 carrying the soil with it, and 
therefore without erosion. Of course, different farms require 
different treatments. Certain farms require what is called con- 
tour 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 
plow 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 foothills and deeply broken country is essential and 
should be combined with grazing. They will prevent the forma- 
tion 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 Agri- 
culture 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- pro- 
ductivity of the soils might very well be increased by more care- 
ful use of commercial fertilizers. In 1907 $100,000,000 was ex- 
