Soil conservation

“ Each year the growing plants take certain substances from the soil. It is necessary for us to put back like substances if we would keep up the fertility of the soil. If we are neglectful of this law, or allow water to wash the soil away until only the bare rocks remain, poverty will be our lot for many years.
Nature will, however, if we give her a chance, renew the soil. The rocks will crumble and, by and by, seeds will sprout and tiny plants obtain a foothold. But it may take a whole lifetime, or hundreds of years, even, for a new and fertile soil to come again. ”

“ I know that the soil-depletion idea is now challenged; but I am sure that the Conservation ideal must be applied to soil maintenance even as it is applied to other maintenance. If it transpires that plants hold a different relation to the soil-content than we have supposed, we still know that poor farming makes the land unproductive and that the saving of wastes is a desirable human quality ”

“ They are interested in soil conservation, because it means prosperity to the farmer and an increase in the volume of farm products to be carried, and also an increase in their tonnage of agricultural machinery and implements and of all kinds of merchandise which a prosperous farmer will buy. ”

“ In a high sense this is conservation of the soil, because it shows the way to make one acre do the work of two or three or four. It is conservation of the soil in a still better sense, because the land, when so intelligently and considerately treated, instead of “wearing out,” not only maintains its productive power indefinitely but actually increases in fertility and value. These are facts which all history attests. They are facts which the most recent scientific research supports. The work before the promoters of the Conservation movement today is one not of discovery but of education. ”

“ Where waste sources are too diffuse to be channeled into collection systems—as along many agricultural streams heavily polluted through land runoff and drainage, and also in some urban situation—present tools are extremely limited. Soil conservation practices aimed at cutting down erosion—to be discussed within a few pages—tend to keep not only silt but nutrients and other substances on the land to some extent. ”

“ Wholly dependent upon the herbaceous plants for their food supply, their tremendous numbers, along with over-grazing by livestock and unfavorable climate, have been an important contributing factor in depleting this cover, and thus have greatly reduced the protection afforded the soil and subjected it the more to increased sheet erosion. ”

“ Men have been a long time in learning that they cannot keep on growing the same crops on the same soil year after year without supplying to the soil extra foods, or fertilizers, as we call them. The care of the soil is another thing to which we have to give attention, but which did not worry our ancestors.
Nature clothes the earth with a carpet of grasses, bushes, [Pg 12] or trees. When the rain falls on the ground, their roots hold the soil so firmly that it usually washes away only very slowly. ”

“ If you give the water a chance to make gullies in your fields, you lose not only the water but the best of the soil also. If you cultivate your fields with care, most of the water will soak into the ground. If you are a wise farmer you know also that cultivation of the soil helps to hold the water, for it cannot escape through loose soil as it can through compact soil. Thus if you know how to handle both the water and the soil, you can, with only a little rain, accomplish a great deal. ”

“ The conservation of natural resources, the creation of new ones is a topic which combines the qualities of science, service and utility.
Of all our resources the soil is the most vital. Most of the others have some possibility of substitution, but for the soil there is no substitute. ”

“ But the greatest enemy of conservation is erosion, the best checks for erosion are roots.
Thus far, the only man who has been telling us anything about planting roots upon the hillsides is the forester. But he usually sets nothing but wood trees, which at the end of fifty or a hundred or a hundred and fifty years, we can cut down, and which, during the intervening time, have done nothing but cast shade, drop leaves and retain the soil. My doctrine is that the potentially greatest crop-producing plants are not those on which we now depend for our food, but are the trees ”

“ The pendulum is now swinging back to the farm, and our great Nation is becoming aroused to the fact that its most vital concern is the elimination of soil waste, the promotion of scientific methods of agriculture, and the conservation of that soil fertility which is the foundation of our entire social, political and commercial superstructure. ”

“ The reason for this lies in the fact that of all natural resources the soil is by far the most important, and, further, that conservative principles and practices apply with greater directness and profit there than in any other field. The conservation of this season's plant food and soil moisture means next season's crop. Through plant and animal breeding the more prolific and profitable strains are conserved, and through battle with plant and soil diseases and with pests of all kinds we conserve the purity of our soil and the crops that we grow. ”

“ There is perhaps not a single representative in this distinguished assemblage who cannot recall the day when the virgin soil in his locality did not produce from 50 to 100 percent larger crops than it does today, when dense forests covered large tracts now a barren waste, and when the bosom of the earth contained untold millions of mineral wealth now represented on the surface by huge spoil-banks and sunken surfaces. ”

“ It carries away the excess of salts and mineral matter from the soil, the trees strike their roots deep into the earth and draw from it, and last and most important of all, that which sinks immediately below the surface supplies all our plant growth. So that it is this last portion, that which sinks below the ground, and which is sometimes termed the cut-off, amounting to about one-tenth of all our water resource, or about the quantity that flows through the Mississippi River system, that forms the really important part. ”

“ This system is usually called "dry farming," though "scientific farming" would perhaps be a better name, for the same principles that are absolutely necessary here will greatly increase the yield anywhere. The most important principle is to conserve every particle of moisture in the soil. It is necessary to go deep into the soil to find the underlying moisture. The seed-bed is made very deep. ”

“ Almost every acre of land that has been farmed for ten years without fertilization is deficient in phosphorus, that is, so much has been used that the soil can no longer produce at its former rate.
It may be asked, if this be true, why the soil of America, which before it was cultivated had borne rich forests and fields of waving grass, has not become exhausted long ago. We must remember that nature always adjusts itself; that, [Pg 24] in the wild state, all plants decay where they grow, and the same elements are returned again to the soil. ”

“ Nothing else so quickly and easily responds to proper treatment, no other resource is so easily conserved. All the soil needs is proper treatment.
Every bit of waste land should be cultivated for either use or beauty, or both. If all the lanes and neglected places could be planted with fruit and nut trees, berry vines, and bushes, herbs or flowers which need little cultivation after they are planted, our food, in variety and quantity, would be greatly increased. ”

“ The water will run from bare rocks and bare soil much more quickly than it will from soil that is covered with leaf mold and held by plant roots. Do you not see, then, that we have almost as much control over water and its distribution as though we could increase or decrease the rainfall?
What about the forests? If we cut them down, will they ever come back? All through the eastern part of our country and in the mountains of the West are lands once forested which have been cleared and turned into farms. ”

“ The question of timber supply, water-power, health resorts, and atmospherical conditions, as affected by the forests, are matters of secondary consideration in view of the indirect but vital influence forests have on our soil production. ”

“ The usual methods of soil survey, which pay little or no attention to water-content, and none at all to available water, are practically valueless for ecological research. This statement does not indicate a failure to appreciate the importance of the usual soil methods for many agricultural problems, such as the use of fertilizers, conservation of moisture, etc., though even here to focus the work upon water-content would give much more fundamental and serviceable results. ”

“ Never the less this practice is not regarded as a wise conservation as it is definitely injurious to tree and much other plant reproduction as well as being destructive of organic material in the soil, damaging the watershed and being unfavorable to certain animal species, as well as accelerating erosion. ”

“ The new inhabitants of this land have a tired and discouraged appearance. They have a hard struggle to get enough to eat. The soil is rocky, and it takes much labor to raise the scanty crops. They never seem able to gather all the rocks from the fields, for the soil washes away and new ones are constantly uncovered.
Where are the forests that once grew here? We find in their stead only a few stunted trees and bushes. There is little grass and almost no flowers, even in spring. Sheep and cattle wander far for their forage and do not have the sleek appearance they once did. ”

“ Nations rise and fall; so does the productive power of vast areas of land. Better drainage, better seed, better implements, and more thorough tillage, all tend toward larger crops, but they also tend toward ultimate land ruin, for the removal of larger crops only hastens soil depletion. ”

“ Alternate strips of protected and cultivated land, reservoirs for catching and distributing concentrated rainfall, and other devices, serve to limit the wash of the slopes and give the surface waters the right direction.
It is possible that some of the more radical and permanent remedies will be found by a closer study of nature's methods. Nature has been working at this complex problem of balance between soil formation, soil waste, surface slope, plant growth and stream development, for millions of years. ”

“ If the water from rains is held in the surface by an impervious stratum beneath, it is idle to spend money in other amendments until the difficulty respecting drainage has been overcome. A water-logged soil is helpless. It cannot provide available plant-food, air, and warmth to plants. ”

“ In the field, nature's lesson has been disregarded and too often the whole aim seems to be to remove everything from the soil and to make no returns. Consequently the organic matter, or humus, has been used up; the tramping of the horses' feet has closed the natural drainage canals; after the crop is removed, the soil is left naked during the winter and the heavy rains wash and erode the surface, and remove some of the best plant-food. After a few years of such treatment, the farmer wonders why the soil will not produce as liberally as it did formerly. ”

“ The protected lands, deprived of the sweet water which would have washed from them the salt that now spoils their fertility, and of the natural dressing that Providence sends down to them every spring and autumn, are now productive of only a little coarse wiry grass and thistles, and the dried soil is white with saline efflorescence. ”

“ On rich land, which is maintained in this condition of porosity and mellowness, agriculture will produce its best results, and will encounter the fewest possible chances of failure. Of course, there are not many such soils to be found, and such absolute balance between warmth and moisture in the soil cannot be maintained at all times, and under all circumstances, but the more nearly it is maintained, the more nearly perfect will be the results of cultivation. ”

“ Land utilization and soils Problems associated with more effective use of lands, including land amelioration, reclamation and recultivation; control of soil pollution, water and air erosion, as well as other forms of soil degradation; maintaining and increasing the productivity of soils with due regard for the possible negative effects of the application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides ”

“ We must again dwell on the principles already emphasized, that soils must be treated according to their nature. If too damp, they must be drained; if of the fortunate quality of a sandy loam resting on a clay subsoil, they can be abundantly deepened and enriched from the start, if of a heavy clay, inclined to be cold and wet in spring, and to bake and crack in summer, skill should aim to lighten it and remove its inertia; finally, as we have shown, a light, porous soil should be treated like a spendthrift. ”

“ A small part is too low and moist for tillage, but a larger part is too rough or too infertile. It can be made to yield profit in grasses that are harvested without expense by animals. The grasses afford feed and at the same time protect the soil from waste. The efficiency of much pasture land is kept low by poor stands of grass, the encroachment of weeds, bushes, and briers, close grazing, and the failure to supply fertility. When making a sod for mowing, the aim is to select varieties of plants that mature near the same time. ”