Show HOW TO PREVENT SOIL FROM r WM roots of a tree exposed by soil boll slowing blowing Pr prepared pared by the united states department of agriculture careful investigation has haa shown that the soil boll la Is always changing water lind wind are always at work moving its particles clea from place to place carrying them ultimately into the sea for the most part this 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 now new and unexhausted fragments of the underlying der lying rocks are continually adding to the fertility of the soil zone by taking 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 particles of topsoil are removed before the underlying rock fragments have bave been sufficiently prepared to take their places this Is the case especially in the arid and semiarid ld regions lind ind in sections where the soil Is particularly ticul arly sandy in character under such buch conditions soil blowing may be the cause of serious damage in the first place the soil itself may be so blown away that subsoil insufficiently i weathered and filled with humus to be ready tor for crops comes to the surface and secondly the crops them doelves may be lost through the blowing out of the seed or the uprooting burial or cutting oft off of the young plants few general the best remedy according to the united states department of agriculture for the farmer who finds himself confronted with difficulties of this sort Is to adopt a system of crops which will cover life hla 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 tIl climate mate the available markets and ither aher local factors there are however ever a few general expedients which t would be well for him to bear in mind for example it if fall plowing Is not clot necessary the stubble of the last crop should bo be left on the soil as late is possible in the spring or oats or barley may be sown in the late summer or early fall the plants will be tilled killed by the frost and will form a protective mat on the soil surface another expedient Is to protect a slow growing crop from wind damage by a nurse crop which planted at the same same time will grow more rapidly and shield the former until it Is sufficiently far advanced to take care of itself A thin seeding of rye and barley used in connection with alfalfa Is a common ansta instance nce of this method on dry lands however where the scarcity of water must be considered this plan is open to the objection that the nurse crop deprives the soil of a certain amount of 0 much needed moisture many farm ere ars therefore prefer to introduce alfalfa and similar slow starting crops by drilling in the seed in fa 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 in whore where dangerous winds are ara prevalent in the summer time because the land Is left fully exposed this danger may be avoided to a considerable extent by seeding rows of coarse growing crops at intervals across the fallow fields at right angles to the direction of the prevailing winds where the wind danger la Is especially ally great it might even be desh deahr n ablo bl 0 to abandon the summer fallow altogether substituting for it a leguminous crop which may be plowed under in the fall thlu thin practice has the great advantage of adding humus to tho the soil thereby not only increasing its fertility but also its resistance to wind action the pr proa otence ence of humus la Is indeed one of the best beat protections against blowing the pre presence senco ot of organic bodies in the soil iu increasing creasing I 1 its water holding power and therefore aiding in keeping the surface moist tho the sandy trucking soils of the east may nearly always be made naturally resistant to wind action by the 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 the actual cost outlay involved but because of the amount of land which Is loft left unproductive duc tive for this reason the use ot of such artificial windbreaks can hardly be recommended for extensive agriculture and Is usually restricted to the cultivation of fruits garden vegetables etc where windbreaks are erected care should be taken to seq see i that they are composed of trees or bushes which do not harbor insect pests and whose roots will not spread out into the adjoining fields S P T 4 A border of lombardy lombard poplars that serve as a windbreak |