16 BULLETIN" 180, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 
The iye was being turned under at the time the place was visited, and 
the soil seemed to be in good physical condition. The owner kept an 
account of the cost of reclamation, and the total expenditure 
amounted to $376, or an average of about $10 an acre. An offer of 
$100 an acre had been refused. The deep plowing and the incorpora- 
tion of large quantities of organic matter left the soil in such condition 
that practically all the water falling on the surface was absorbed. 
Another example of similar character was encountered near Knox- 
ville. A steep hillside of several acres, which had been badly eroded, 
was under cultivation by a truck grower. It had been reclaimed by 
starting terraces and cutting hillside ditches, and when this place was 
seen it supported an excellent crop of strawberries. The owner had 
not kept an account of expenses, but had bought the land at a very low 
price. His greatest trouble was in preventing further erosion. Re- 
clamation at best is an expensive, though not a hopeless, process. It 
is in fin itely better to use preventive measures in the first place. 
NATURAL RECLAMATION. 
Nature attempts to check excessive soil waste by supplying a nat- 
ural growth of vegetation to lands abandoned to soil erosion. Trees 
grow voluntarily in the ditches, and grasses and briers spread over the 
sides of gullies, retarding the extension of the gullies by erosion. The 
roots penetrating the soil give it more coherence and increase its 
resistence to water action. The leaves and other parts of the plants 
add to the organic matter in the soil, making it more absorptive of 
the precipitation. This vegetation constitutes an impediment to the 
water flowing over the surface. The velocity is checked and a part of 
the burden of soil material is deposited. In this way there is a slow 
building up of ditch bottoms and. a tendency to flatten out the land 
surface. The natural reclamation begins at the mouth of the gully 
and extends back to the steep areas. It is not uncommon to find 
immense gullies with this process taking place, often with large trees 
growing in them. This is illustrated in Plate I, figure 1. 
Nature, however, does not wait for large gullies to form before 
making an effort to check the erosion. A field abandoned before such 
devastation has resulted is soon covered with a growth of native 
brush and trees, which begin at once to prevent the rapid wash of the 
soil and to reclaim those gullies already begun. In Plate II, figures 
1 and 2, abandoned areas, in which a natural growth of pines, shrubs, 
and grasses has started, are shown. 
This natural growth often furnishes a suggestion as to the best 
method of reclamation by reforestation. From the character of the 
natural growth the kind of trees and shrubs best suited to the soil 
may be determined, and soils offering no hope of reclamation for 
agriculture may be used for forestry. One section of the State of Ten- 
