if one looked down on the state from an airplane, this would be strikingly 
apparent. 
It is admitted that the best plants for re~vegetation and the 
best ways to plant and maintain them are not known, and should be made 
the subject of careful résearch. It is Claimed that enough is already 
known, however, and enough can be inferred by ordinary common sense, to 
call for a substantial Ms BING of the prevalent attitude of agricultural 
colleges toward the general subject of cover on farms, The prairie states 
a 
are increasingly bare of drainage-channel cover partly because the agri- 
cultural authorities have advocated; ‘or at least acquiesced in, that ten- 
dency to remove all cover which carried its’ momentum from the necessary 
clearings of the pioneers. 
That this momentum has carried the state too far is attested by 
There is no economic issue of greater fundamental importance to 
& state like Illinois than the ‘consérvation of its soil, and there is no 
practical means to this end of greater promise than the maintenance of 
game coverts on drainage channels, 

