Show HOW TO PREVENT SOIL FROM BLOWING 4 1 11 T roots of a tree exposed by soil blowing prepared by the united states department of agriculture careful investigation has shown that tile soil boll is always changing water and wind are always at work moving its particles from place to place carrying them ultimately into the sea for the most part this la Is a beneficial process were each particle of soil to remain forever in one place the fertility of the land would be rapidly exhausted As it Is new and unexhausted fragments of the underlying der lying rocks are continually adding to the fertility of the soil zone by talc ing the place of the workout particles which nature removes under certain circumstances however it frequently happens that this process takes place too rapidly that the hie particles of topsoil are removed before the underlying rock fragments have been sufficiently prepared to ta take ice their places this Is the case especially in the arid and semiarid ld regions ind in sections where the soil Is particularly ticul arly sandy in character under nich auch conditions soil blowing may be the cause of serious damage in the tha first place the soil itself may be so blown away that subsoil insufficiently weathered and filled with humus to be ready for crops comes to the surface and secondly the crops themselves may be lost through the blowing out of the seed or the uprooting burial or op cutting oft of the young plants few general expedients the best remedy according to the united states department of agriculture for the farmer who finds himself son on fronted with difficulties of this sort Is to adopt a system of crops which will cover his land with vegetation at seasons when strong dry winds are most prevalent the exact system which the individual farmer should follow depends of course upon the almate sll mato the available markets and tier ither local factors there are how dver aver a few general expedients which it would be well weil for hint him to bear in blind POT for example it if fall plowing la Is act abot necessary the stubble of the last crop should be left on the soil as late is possible in the spring or oats or barley may be sown in thet the late summer or early fall the plants will be killed by the frost and will form a protective tuat mat on the soil surface another expedient la is to protect a slow growing crop from wind damage by a nurse crop which planted at the same tinie time will grow more rapidly and shield the former until it Is sufficiently tar advanced to take care of itself A thin seeding of rye and barley used in connection with alfalfa is a common able to abandon the summer bummer tallow fallow altogether substituting for it a leguminous crop which may be plowed under in the fall this practice has the great advantage of adding humus to the soil thereby not only increasing its fertility but also its resistance to wind action the presence of humus IF Is indeed one of the best protections against blowing the presence of organic bodies in the soil sell increasing its water holding power and therefore aiding in keeping the surface moist the sandy trucking soils of the east may nearly always be made naturally resistant to wind action by the adal addition of humus through the systematic planting of leguminous crops another protection method another method of protecting fields Is to plant rows of trees or bushes or to build fences as windbreaks this Is effective but apt to be expensive not only because of tile the actual cost outlay involved but because of tile tha amount of land which Is left unproductive duc tive for this reason tile the use of such artificial windbreaks can hardly be recommended tor for extensive agriculture and Is usually restricted to the cultivation of fruits garden vegetables etc where windbreaks are erected care should bo be taken to see that thai they are arc composed of trees or hushes bushes which do not harbor insect pests and whose roots will not spread out into the adjoining fields t AG A border of lombardy poplars that serve as a windbreak latance Ini tance of this method on dry lands however where the scarcity of water must be considered this plan la Is open to lo tb the e objection that the nurse crop deprives the soil of a certain amount of df much needed moisture many farm ers era therefore prefer to introduce alfalfa and similar slow tar barting ting crops by drilling in the seed in high cut stubble of thinly sown millet or thickly seeded corn summer fallow facilities the use of the summer fallow greatly facilitates excessive soil blowing blow ing in sections where dangerous winds are prevalent in the summer time because the land Is left fully exposed this danger may be avoided to a consid arable extent by seeding rows or of coarse growing crops at intervals Inter vala across tho the fallow fields at right angles to tho the direction of tho the prevailing winds where the wind danger if Is especially poci ally great it might even bo be desir else the weather will permit but more than all see that the stables are properly ventilated and ared aired there art arc a number ot of devices for this purpose arid and one of the best of them la Is the window frame covered with muslin as described in n this department two weeks ago remember that close confinement and foul air predispose the cow to tuberculosis and that fresh ail ab and plenty of it will enable her to dc her share not only as a milk producer but as a mother |